“Grow” Your Tenant Amenities by Adding a Farm
It is no secret that the expectations for office spaces are changing. As work environments continue to blur the lines between work and play, property managers and building engineers alike must consider new and innovative [...]
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Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Creating Effective and Cohesive Teams
Every year, sports teams around the nation pick a few players to join their franchises. Fans celebrate and criticize the choices of their team. However, the art of creating a group of people that not only works well, but [...]
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Preparing for Budget Season? Gain the Competitive Edge
With budget season approaching and the hiring market getting more competitive, companies need to be as prepared as possible. Being prepared means having proper research and a good pulse on the trends in the industry. The [...]
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When to Outsource
Property managers are increasingly interested in outsourcing certain O+M roles. It’s important, however, to consider the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing. The following provides an overview of the benefits and [...]
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Are You Covered? Roof Maintenance Considerations
A properly maintained roof is critical for protecting a building from hazards. Therefore, it’s important to learn the best practices in roof maintenance. Take the following considerations into account as you create and [...]
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In the Door: New Website Highlights Real Estate Careers
Take a look around According to the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Foresight Works research initiative, millennials will join organizations in larger numbers as three trends unfold: their share of the [...]
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Changes to ENERGY STAR Set for August 26, 2018
ENERGY STAR is updating its performance metrics in Portfolio Manager on August 26, 2018 for all property types. The update is being made to utilize the program’s most recent Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey [...]
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Is Solar for My Building?
Interest in solar is growing. In 2016 in the United States, 39 percent of all new electricity generation capacity in the country came from solar. This was more than any other source and ahead of natural gas.4 And it’s no [...]
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Research for Operating Buildings
The real estate market remains on an upward trajectory. Operations professionals may find themselves in a scenario where they are contemplating a staffing increase. Questions that commonly arise around such [...]
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Benchmarked: High Performance Through Data Tracking
Building owners and managers are always looking for ways to improve both the performance and sustainability of their properties. Data tracking is a great tool to achieve these goals. By regularly monitoring certain [...]
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Transforming Property Managers into High Performers
Advanced knowledge to optimize current and future high-performance building operations positions managers to be sustainability leaders. Developing and managing high-performing real estate assets, while reducing the [...]
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What do your back of the house areas say about your maintenance program?
Most have few issues maintaining public areas, seeing as they’re the main spaces that customers or tenants see. But the state of the back of the house areas is just as important and can provide you with valuable feedback [...]
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Do you have a rooftop and riser management program?
Property owners and managers always want their buildings to be safe, efficient, and profitable. A management program for rooftop and riser spaces is indispensable in ensuring these areas stay organized and secure. And [...]
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Demolition Recovery
Recovering Construction Waste During a Tenant Build-Out Build-outs produce a lot of waste. That’s unavoidable. But that doesn’t mean that you have to be wasteful with your waste. Demolition Recovery, or recovering, [...]
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So you want an EV Ready Garage? What engineers and owners should consider before moving forward on an EV project
As interest in green energy increases, more people have chosen to drive electric vehicles (EV). Georgia in particular reflects this trend — the state ranks second in the United States for sales of EVs.1 Seeing as [...]
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Engineering Solutions
Most days, building engineers are busy completing building rounds, responding to tenant requests, keeping buildings in compliance, performing preventative maintenance tasks and making repairs which limit liability and [...]
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Lightning Protection
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) estimates that each year, U.S. Fire Departments respond to over 31,000 fires started by lightning strikes. In addition, Underwriters Laboratories (UL) notes that lightning [...]
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The Four Principles of a Water Treatment Program
Water is considered the “life blood” of any facility for the simple reason that it transfers heat from one location to another. A complete water treatment program has one goal: to manage the efficiency of that heat [...]
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Engineering “Bandwidth”
THE STATE OF BUILDING ENGINEERING The news of an economic upswing and consumer confidence is great news. The questions to commercial real estate owners and operators are: Do you have a well maintained and performance [...]
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Of SMT and SMA Designations
The most common question I have heard over the years comes from building engineers asking, “What is the benefit of having my Systems Maintenance Administrator (SMA) and Systems Maintenance Technician (SMT) designations?” [...]
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5 Categories That Will Define the Next Generation Engineer
Cerebral The engineering role in CRE is changing vastly. An engineer must sharpen his mental abilities as much as his mechanical abilities. In the age of increased reporting and liability, the engineer must be able to [...]
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6 Steps to Optimizing a Preventative Maintenance Program
When developing emergency preparedness plans for buildings, it’s easy to think about tenant safety in regards to fire, storms, natural disasters, workplace violence and the like. While each of these considerations is [...]
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Prepared to Be Prepared
By Alex Bruce, Highwoods Properties Are you prepared to deal with an emergency situation at your building? Are you familiar with the facility’s emergency plan? How would you react, and how would you deal with the safety [...]
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Preparing for OSHA Rule 1910
Edvard Munch painted a figure with an agonized expression set amongst a tumultuous orange sky landscape commonly known as “The Scream.” This painting has a few meanings, but to me, it depicts an overwhelmed person in a [...]
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