Masonry Magazine April 1973 Page. 6
BLOK-TRUS
ADJUSTABLE ECONO-LOK®
STONE-LOK TH
TYPE S ADJUSTABLE TIE
BLOK-LOK®
BLOK-TITE CONTROL JOINT
AA WIRE PRODUCTS COMPANY
All AA Wire reinforcing and wall tie systems save labor costs. Many of them solve other mason problems such as Adjustable Econo-Lok for tying together double walls where the joints don't line up. Then there's Stone-Lok the fast way to tie random shaped stone to a backup wall. Select the system that saves you more money and speeds your jobs. Send for your handy free Guide to AA systems.
AA Wire Products Company, 6100 South New England Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60638.
upward, time reduction means savings of millions of dollars. According to Robert Hastings, a leading architect and former president of the American Institute of Architects, a significant reduction in time is possible by this method. If a year is cut off the construction time of a $10 million hospital, for example, direct savings can total $1.25 million-plus an additional gross income of approximately $6 million through a gain in a year's occupancy of the facility.
Increasingly owners are turning to such management concepts and techniques which have proven so essential to the growth of U.S. industry but have failed to gain much of a foothold in the fragmented, localized and code-restricted construction industry. No doubt, much of this is due to the experience brought to bear only recently by a new breed of owner.
That owner is the business corporation seeking new avenues to profits. From both within and without the building products field, major corporations are entering the construction industry. And they are bringing with them the strengths that led to their leadership in other areas including financial staying power, research and development capability, management and manufacturing know-how, and a drive to innovate and develop new products and systems.
Some of these business entities have taken the direct route into the construction industry, while others have become major builders or developers either through subsidiaries or joint venture operations. Some of the newer faces on the construction scene are Westinghouse, Gulf Oil, U.S. Steel, Alcoa, Humble Oil, Connecticut General Life, ITT and Sears.
It's quite revealing that nine of the ten most prominent "new towns" under development have well-known corporate sponsors. Where is all this leading, as owners in the broadest sense assume a more dominant role in the construction process? How if in any way will they be affecting the business prospects of equipment manufacturers and distributors at the opposite end of the industry ladder?
Perhaps the most significant clue is the new function of construction management. Also sometimes referred to as project management, owners have virtually invented the concept to better cope with the entire problem of scheduling and cost control.
Filling what many believe to be a gap in the construction process, the Construction Manager is emerging as the owner's voice, agent, and purse string. His role is to clarify the time and cost sequences of decision and design options as they occur.
Moreover the Construction Manager is involved in construction scheduling, prepurchasing of materials and equipment, advising on contractors and contract awards. In addition, he coordinates the direction of all construction activities, including those of producers of systems and subsystems and makes or expedites the owner's decisions at key points as the project develops. This approach provides the owner with what he wants that is, a single, systematic integrated effort that starts with the earliest planning stages of a project.
For the present, the concept and application of construction management is receiving its strongest impetus from the public sector as agencies such as the General Services Administration seek new means to catch up with private owners in accelerating the construction process. Construction management also eliminates the government's reliance on the low bidder and is, essentially, the public sector's answer to the negotiated general contract.
(Continued on page 22)
masonry
April, 1973