You're right.

Well I was right

because you are so.

Well thank you.

OK Thank you.

I will is the sound OK All right let
me tell that story that I always

tell some of you've heard it before
about you know how people come up and

have to think and say do you want to
make I don't have to do that right.

OK good.

I'll forget the story too.

I love this this image which
is by a French graphic artist.

Filipe Sikhs and what I found and
I thought this is fabulous.

We're going to be a series of these but
in actual fact that's the only one

I've ever managed to find and but
his work has been primarily in the field

of illustrating children's books and
you can't really see the details there.

But this blows up really well and you
can see the fine details of the glaziers

working on the rose wind the equipment and
so on.

And it's very appropriate
because it is the.

Middle Ages medieval period
from roughly eleven hundred to.

The onset of the Black Death
in that in fifty two or

three hundred years where there was
extraordinary burst of construction

energy going into building because
the drawers of this kind in France alone.

There were eighty of them built in that
period five hundred major churches

monasteries hospices let alone the
military fortifications there were over

a thousand castles built
in that period as well.

So this was a great time
to be in construction.

But what it did was to define the approach
to construction that was being

taken in the processes that were used for
almost five hundred years after that.

Anyway until the days.

Program first inevitably some
background and then the next thing.

Why study construction history and
then we'll go on and

look at a little bit quickly at
the course that I teach the construction

History Society of America which tech
pioneered setting up some years ago.

Then look at the research projects
I've been involved in and

there's no point in doing research
if there aren't any lessons to

be learnt over touch on those and
I'd like to.

Just review with you very quickly
the research that my students are doing or

have done and a few concluding remarks.

Well as I had said I started
my involve the college in

in two thousand and
my remit at that time was to devise and

organize continuing education programs for
the college and.

Incidentally at that time.

Dean Galloway didn't quite know what
to call me in the position and I had

the the very best title I have ever had
in my life far exceeded the presidency.

Vice president of this that and
the other is executive in residence.

And but I'm very proud to have
a professor in practice I might add.

Anyway one of the one of the programs we
did the S.M.P. society from marketing

professional services came to us and said
you know we'd like to see if you could

organize a course about the construction
industry the non-technical professionals

working in the industry primarily cause
marketing people people who are coming in

to the industry to market designing
construction services who had been

I don't know selling parking spaces maybe
they knew nothing about the industry and

so could we do this and we thought this
is a really interesting challenge.

We put it together over a period of
a few months and it was a huge success

this particular one in Chicago had over
one hundred people turned to it and.

And so it was really funny in doing that.

I realized that really needed to start
it off by having a little history of

the background of the industry so
we had put together this first segment

of about thirty minutes rather breezy
history from the pyramids to Bilbao

and and how history shaped the interest we
have today and that suddenly triggered in

me the dawned on me that history
was the key to understanding

the industry why we do the things
that we do them in terms of process.

And so but

then we had to be practical about this and
as it began to mature in my mind.

Well why would we study history.

Well it's not as many people think
studying history as to predict the future.

I mean if it was his drawings
would be would be very wealthy and

they're not because.

We do it to prepare ourselves for
the future.

Only through history can we can we under.

Stand how things change and
what causes change.

We learn from mistakes of course
we're not very good at doing that in

the construction industry but we should be
doing better and and are certainly trying

to do that in many cases and to ensure
that great deeds are really not forgotten.

Then you know the industry is largely
ignored as a totality in academia and

by the media and by the government and
is taken for granted but

there are some fantastic pieces incredible
things that the industry has done to build

the framework within which civilization
has grown and continues to grow.

And again one of the purposes I
think of the course that I teach

is to instill some pride in this industry
which we are part of that it has a long

long history and a very proud history and
has done some fabulous things so.

Anyway about this time you can see
the continuing education program was

closed down and I went to Galloway at that
time and said What do you want needed.

Until I realize that that's not
the way that academia operates

you tell them what you wanted.

He said What do you want to do.

I said well I really got
intrigued by this by history and

by the fact that we really ought to
be sending our students out from here

and from engineering who are going into
our industry with a better knowledge

of the industry in which they're going to
make their careers for forty fifty years

and he said Yeah that seems like a good
idea and I said it probably you know.

Revolves Around two courses and he says.

Well OK but start with one and
I said where would you

start as well I think the first thing is
obviously to start with history anyway we

decided we needed to touch on
elements of the industry today.

And for the future and
I came up with this really catchy title

the construction industry deconstructed
its past present and future.

Well Doug Allen at that time was
the was the interim dean and

he said no that's much too long.

It can't go into banner.

It has to be something simpler and so the
course got caught changed the history of

the construction industry at that
point Garri who was running the.

Department I guess at that time in
building construction said right.

If it's got history in the title.

Nobody will come.

This is America America looks forward it
doesn't look back and so history supposed

to be boring but nobody had told me I
hope you can bring that kind of funny.

So this then led to the development of

the the course that I teach and
I thought well.

This is going to be a piece of cake.

Or I need to do IO know and
understand an industry in which I work for

forty fifty years and
I've got a pretty good feeling for

what's going on and perhaps and
ideas as to where it may be heading and

the history part of probably easy is
going to be a couple of textbooks out

there that I can pick up and use that
to deal with the history part of it.

Well as I discovered that
there were no textbooks.

And here's a quote.

Can you guys read that or
the best you can.

OK but I'm not going to read it to you but
it this is by Richard Goldthwaite

who wrote this fabulous book about
the building of a new source Florence and.

He was an economic historian
sometimes you get better

writing about the industry from
people outside than inside it and

go through it is a magnificent
job on this and.

But then he goes on to say exactly
this the histories of style the.

Olding types blah blah blah.

Although the industry is a very
important one to mankind and

a comprehensive view of its historical
development is not easy to come by.

Well I can second that because there
is no such no such text at all.

And I quote at the bottom from Andrew St.

If you want to make progress.

It may be useful to know what
has been done before you and

I have a sense of where
you're starting from and

that applies to almost any field of study
going back to find out how you got there.

So I then realized that this was
going to be quite a task and

it took me about eighteen months to
put the historical section of this all

together and in the process of it I came
across the most extraordinary pieces of

scholarship that dealt with
a tiny sliver of the whole story.

Here's one violence and

birth the Cambridge University goes back
thirty forty years Greek temple builders

of Epidaurus whether the extraordinary
things about it about Greece we know more

about building construction in Greece than
we do for the whole of the period in which

Rome existed because somebody
something of an oversimplification but

generally in a construction contractor
Greeks insisted that the contact

was inscribed and inscribed as you know
not on paper or papyrus or anything.

I'm stone.

So the stellar still there.

This incredible woman
must to spend years and

years combing over the steller to the
extent that she was able to put a story

together as to how this
particular temple was built.

How much it cost even in talent and
saw an amazing.

And so very much indebted to
this kind of scholarship.

Here's another one that I came across
think perhaps the amazing gold is

the mortar the economics of cathedral
building this guy must have spent

years combing through my.

Evil text and so on putting together
a story of the financing of about a dozen

of the major cathedrals in in Europe
in that period that I just mentioned.

Another extraordinary piece of research
by John James an Australian architect

into the cathedral at Sharjah where
he looked at every single stone and

molding and and
sculpt pieces of sculpture and so

on and managed to piece together
the sequence of events that occurred in

the building of it and who actually built
it not by name but that he was able to

identify the different Masons that
had each of whom had very subtle

differences in terms of the templates
they used to carve the moldings and

he could track these these Masons
from from decades to educate through

the building and shot created quite
a stir in architectural history quarters.

Here's our friend goals wait again.

He must to spend again another twenty
years combing through the records

in Florence which still exist and
put together a very fine story of

what was going on during the Renaissance
and on and on they go there about

a hundred of these texts that I that I've
used to piece this course together some of

them are extracting very small
pieces others fairly substantial

ones this guy again combing through the
records of the building of their side and

giving us a fabulous picture as to how
it was done how it was contracted and

in fact once again what
it cost more recent ones

when it comes to North America
the scholarship gets a lot thinner.

And not so
much in terms of architectural history but

certainly in terms of building history.

But here is one dealing with
the building in North Carolina that

was was really very good.

So anyway the course came together.

I'm still working on it every year I
come across a new piece of information.

And new discoveries of found.

Now during the course of doing this.

Doug Allen encouraged me
I had actually been to.

A construction history Congress
in Cambridge in England and

discovered that there was
a construction History Society.

Two of us calling from MIT made a pledge
that we would start a branch in America

that was easy to say not so
easy to do it needed some some resources

to be able to get it incorporated
to get a five zero one three C.

standing and cetera et cetera and.

Doug was was really very kind in letting
me use the money that I had raised

during the continuing ed period to
do this and this is resulted in

the formation of the construction
History Society of America and.

Incidentally very interesting I think
Georgia Tech has incubated two other prime

society is over the years one is the
P.M.I. the Project Management Institute.

Not many people know that but

that was incubated in the industrial
engineering school and

shot Society for the history of
technology incubated in H.S.

T T S H T S.

OK And and so this is this is started.

I've got some brochures here.

The society puts out a well respected.

Journal because of its efforts
Georgia Tech as a lifetime

member of the society so gets copies of
these and one of these is on the shelf

which I really urge you to see
because there is a an article by

myself on the building of
the British Westinghouse and.

Manufacturing plant in Interesting.

And anyway some other stuff we'd
be happy to have you come and

join the society if you if you wish.

Now let's look at some past and
current research projects.

First off then is
something that was call and

submitted to the another
international congress on M.I.A.

in the USA the quantity surveyor.

Well when I submitted this think it
was in Germany they said what is in

my essay to change the title tune for

doesn't matter but I reason I was
interested in this field is that I was

trained as a quantity surveyor in England
and always fascinated me as to why quality

surveying had never really taken hold in
America and Canada and other parts of

the world which it had in London and many
other parts of the old British Empire.

And also in Europe a kind of
quantity surveying exists there and

the so the research.

Was first to recap what was.

Was growth going on and
in going through it

all there discovered quite an interesting
story as the as it says it was a close

run thing as the Duke of Wellington
said about the Battle of Waterloo.

Because it very nearly came to that.

Well the story of how
the something developed in

the United Kingdom has
been well researched.

The tipping point comes
at an early stage of

the let me just do this first
sort of the title of the thing.

You know just to insert
this first is a letter

from Christopher Wren
to the Bishop of Oxford

construction client obviously somebody who
does know anything about construction.

This is a letter that ran
wrote in sixteen eighty one.

It's amazing how you could you
could modernize the language and

be a letter that an architect or
a construction manager could send out to.

To a client today.

And he says there are three ways
of working by the day by measure.

And by the Great.

In other words a lump sum basis and
then he goes on to talk about each

of them as to what he thinks about
them and he ends up by saying with he

thinks the the the best way in this
business is to work by measure.

According to the prices in the estimate or
low blood blah.

And he goes on to say you must have
an understanding trustee measure and

then rather condescendingly
he says there are a few

that are skilled in measuring stonework
I have bread up two or three.

But nonetheless this is where
the measuring profession begins eventually

morphs into the qualities of a profession.

I think his comments about
by the great lump sum

is an issue that has haunted us ever since
the time that competitive pricing and

a single price contracts
have arrived in that.

What is he said by the great
I can make sure a bargain

needed to be over reached in
order that the undertaker for

in things they are not every day used
to they do often injure themselves.

And when they begin to find it.

They shuffle and slight the work to save
themselves still a problem that mazing.

And so.

This situation in the U.K. then is is
repeated in the in the United States.

When there is the move to
a general contracting system.

Here which takes place pretty well at the
identical period of industrial development

that occurred in England as you know the
industrial revolution in England begins

in the eighteenth century runs
through to obviously into the next

century fifty years ahead of that
practically anybody else American.

Industry that's been developing in
the early part of the republic.

It really isn't until after the Civil War
that the American industrial revolution

really takes hold and at that time there
is a big demand from construction and

as for single pricing up to that time
pricing had been done generally and

contracting trade by trade.

Nobody knew the price until
the job was over and.

And so it was very unsatisfactory
it was very inefficient and so on.

So we've now got the general
contractors forming over the last

quarter of the of that century and they
turn around and say now if you've got to

if we're going to compete for your work
and we've got to do it a good price.

We have to measure the work and
if there are ten bidders.

It's ridiculous to have all ten of
us measuring the same thing right.

Obviously this is what happened in the
U.K. they said yeah we absolutely agree

with that it should be
the responsibility of the architect or

whatever to actually produce
quantities for you and that

is something that didn't
really begin to take hold in

in the US and so the contractors
continued to complain about

who is going to do the quantities What
a waste was occurring at that time and.

The architect said don't look at us.

It's not included in the fee.

We're not going to pay for it and
as a result the contractors go off and

organize their own things but
it's a much longer story than that.

And anybody who's interested I can copy
you with a paper that I wrote dealing with

it but what eventually happened was
in one hundred twenty one twenty two

the a the A G C and

the engineering Joint Council actually
got together and produced this manifesto.

They called it eliminating
waste in estimating.

An attempt to influence the owners to
say listen if we eliminate the waste

will be savings to you in
in the long run on this and

it recommended a quality survey system was
that basically established at that time

nineteen twenty one hundred twenty two an
actual Association American Association of

qualities of those was formed in last very
long in anticipation that this was going

to lead to the birth of a new profession
but it landed bang with a thought.

We're going to after I've gone through
these five research projects and

come back and say What are the lessons
learned from each of them so

I will come back to that next up.

The James Stewart company
general contractors.

This is a particular interest in mine and
the continuing interest.

It is it is interesting that there
is lots of literature on the great

architects on the great engineers but
I cannot think of one American book

on the great American contracting firms
and there have been many of them.

Most of them having the beginnings at
least from a historical point of view

in that period I've just
been talking about.

James Stewart was.

He was a.

A mason Norn in Scotland.

His father was also a Mason contractor.

And when I mean I've got
a slide like this in.

There he has look at the face and
that there's a contractor for you.

Somebody you could trust right.

Eighteen one thousand nine hundred two
his father then is a Mason contractor

granite Cory's there in Aberdeen
those of you who have been to London.

Take a look at the base of
the the Nelson memorial in

Trafalgar Square a great
huge granite base.

This was supplied and
installed by Stewart's father.

His elder brother and
Harris the business is often happy.

And in that time.

Jay James.

Interesting enough to change the spelling
of his name to the American style

from the Scottish star emigrate to Canada
eight hundred forty three or thereabouts.

And he sets up as a mason contractor
in Kingston Kingston Ontario was

the first who was the capital of Canada
at that time until it moved to auto so

there was lots of work going on
then moves and also of course.

James had the common sense that once the
Civil War was over he moves to St Louis

and sets up there is not just a contractor
but an architect as well even that

builds a very fine reputation he has
three sons they come into the business.

And this starts something of a tradition
in American contracting of long range.

Family firms that establish themselves and
doing extraordinary well.

By nine hundred eighteen
is one of the top ten U.S.

contractors active in
that list of projects.

They stayed up there mostly buildings but
some like grain elevators for

example they pioneered
the use of reinforced

concrete in grain elevators at offices
around the country and in Montreal.

James dies and you know to
the sons carry on and the product

they the company eventually dissolve
sometime in the one nine hundred sixty S.

I'm still working on piecing together
just how it's demise did occur but

it occurred as a very often happens
when the last of the family

died in one thousand nine hundred
four of their about forty six.

I think and.

And then it began to slide down one of
the particularly interesting things and

I mentioned that article in
the in the magazine there was.

And stories was the steward had
been involved with a Westinghouse.

Factor this is the Westinghouse
factory in Pittsburgh and

the lower part he builds
an extension to the foundry there.

And does it very quickly and
Trax Westinghouse is.

Westinghouse by this time the whole
electrical issue is a big one for

Americans Americans are way ahead of
most other people in the field and

they got a lot of orders and
activity in Europe Westinghouse design

decides to build a plant in in
England goes to Manchester buys one

hundred forty acres outside
Manchester in Trafford Park and

decides is simply going to duplicate
this whole thing without the foundry and

other bits and pieces to it and and
takes the Engineers plans over there

they seek advice from contractors
they hire a local architect and

he takes bids from the contractors and
he's quoted five years by the British

contractors to build it and of course
he rejects these he's got orders from.

Up in Scotland for generators it's got
it's got to fulfil these orders and

this is not good enough comes back to
America accidentally bumps into Stuart

complains to Stuart about it.

So says well let me have a look at the
drawings he does and comes back the next

day and he says I think I can build
it in fifteen months you know and

Westinghouse says Name your price as a
construction manager to go over there and

work with the Brits in
terms of building it and

sure enough off he goes
Here is a picture of the.

Of the plant in looks like it is
identical to the one in Pittsburgh

not there anymore in my that but he builds
and he builds it in twelve months and

it creates a sensation there are letters
in the Times trashing the British industry

how come the British industry can't
do this and just one example of

how it was able to achieve it was
he could Jolles the masons who had

a union limit of four hundred fifty
bricks a day per brick layer.

A bricklayer team and they eventually
gets this up to fourteen hundred bricks

a day and he goes on and built several
other projects in England because now

he's a star but
eventually comes back to America and

he just one story again will come back to
lessons learned from these Santa Maria.

Belfiore and Florence.

Some of you may remember about three years
ago we put on a whole one day seminar

Frank will remember that the building

primarily focused on building of
the Santa Maria little Fiore and.

The help put it together and in little
piece on the background of construction in

Florence at the time drawn from our friend
Mr Goldthwaite and what I liked about this

was that it demonstrated the capability
of Georgia Tech to take a very

round view of a piece of construction and
of a building that made

quite a difference because the building
of it was quite a sensation at the time.

And we had.

A frank dealing with
music at the time that we

had Russell gentry dealing
with the construction we had

Steve also man dealing with the economic
background and framework barrio car.

With the architecture and
with the building side of it as well and

I think this was this was generally the
people who attended I think thought that

that was really something
that was really quite good.

The section of the fourth

up this is some research
I've just finished and is.

Is a paper that I'll be presenting at
the next International History Congress

which is in in Paris.

Actually it's.

It's over July the third
to July the seventh and.

We complained to the.

The French organizers to say how come you
can put it over a national holiday and

they said well you know it's all
about classes we get runs and on the.

And we thought well.

The next these international
congress is a triennial So

the next one up in twenty fifteen
is actually going to be in Chicago

organized by a construction
History Society.

So we thought well we'll counter-attack
and hold it over July the fourteenth.

I don't imagine we will do that but
anyway.

This this particular paper

is concentrates on two Crystal Palace
this one in London that is extremely

well known eight hundred fifty one fact of
almost any building it is probably the one

that has been most written about
what it was being designed and

built there were there were weekly stories
in the in the London Illustrated News.

It really caught the attention of the
public people would flock to the site to

watch it being put together and

it really was quite an extraordinary piece
of work most of you seen pictures of it.

Of it before and will come back
to some of the lessons learned.

But the focus of this is not so
much on the character of this building and

the following one that was built in New
York in eight hundred fifty three in fifty

four also a Crystal Palace but it was
to compare the framework within which

these two were built the one in London
was a major success chief a great deal of

notoriety the one in New York was
late over budget it leaked and

so why would why was that the case and
my co-author and

I almost had to take a big

leap of intelligence to figure out that
the framework of the two countries

industries and economy at the time
were really quite different.

Burton was almost at the peak
of its industrial revolution.

In America.
It was only just beginning.

And so the conclusions really
are quite interesting.

And here's some shots of some of
the things that were actually done

the the there are a lot of innovation
of course in modular construction

prefabrication unique ways of laying
the glass and the roof and so on.

Is the one in in New York a much
smaller version of it of course but

certain similarities there for
probably one reason it didn't.

Isn't that well known is two years
it had burnt down and was no more.

Eventually the Crystal Palace in London
was moved to a site south of London and

that to burn but it wasn't until nineteen
thirty thirty five or thirty six.

OK And
then last piece of research is the one

that I'm working on now is
the electromagnetic pulse trestle

at Kirkland Air Force base in Arizona and

you may say well what on earth
is that to begin with them.

Why does it deserve some research.

Well.

It happens to be the largest piece of
construction built in would not so

much in terms of height or scale or
with but the sheer quantity of wood.

There are six and a half million board
feet of number in this in this facility.

And it is built the story
behind it is that.

In the late fifty's
the Americans popped off.

I guess it probably was one hundred ten
bomb fairly high in the in the atmosphere

in the Pacific and all of a sudden
all the lights in Hawaii went tot.

He was miles and miles away from her and
actually determine that.

The electromagnetic pulses that were
given off in atomic explosions.

We're enough to be able to disinter
mediate a lot of the electrical control

systems and so on so they were very
worried about what would happen and

it went through these calculations that
if the Russians dropped a bomb high in

the atmosphere at the Canadian American
border virtually blow out

all the trickle capabilities in the entire
United States so they were very concerned.

Initially there was not
much we can do about it but

they wanted to be able to protect the
military assets of all the various service

arms were given instructions to examine
what were their core facilities and

to make sure that these were protected
well the force had a bit of a problem

because of course the planes in the sky
there was no way of being able to test

these and so
the idea was to build this trust or.

Surround it with systems that would
simulate the electric magnetic pulse.

But of course it couldn't be built in
steel or reinforced concrete because

that would transmit the pulses
apparently had to be built in wood and.

So I'm sure an office building would
There's not one piece of metal in it.

I'll pass it around all these wooden
pieces a bolted together with wooden

bolts.

And just parts those around that
that actually hold it together and

so we're working on that and the Air Force
of in very helpful in opening up the.

Their archives to to to deal with that.

Well let's look back then at some
of the lessons learned here.

First off I think is as far
as the quantity surveying

is concerned I think
the lesson to be learned.

Is very clear.

If the owners.

Don't buy it it won't happen.

And this is you know we can do in the
industry we can come up with all kinds of

dreamy ideas for improving things or

even increasing our profits wherever
it would be but if the owners don't

the buyers of construction design and
construction services don't buy it.

It isn't going to happen.

So one of the in for
example now an interesting

initiative is the integrated
project a livery sounds good.

The architects the contractors
everybody's been working on it and

well will it take hold.

Some owners of bought off on it.

We shall we shall see.

So that's the lesson to be learned.

I think as far as
the Westinghouse Stuart is

concerned is lessons to be learned
of the strength of the family firms.

There are still several
of these left in America.

Turner is one.

To my knowledge there's no Turner
representative in the company or

if there is they're not at
the operational as a management.

Gil Bain is another one where
Tom Goldman is the sea.

And and so
that's one of the strength of the family.

And I think what the conclusions I drew
out of why Stewart was able to build this

this building in twelve months when the
Brits said it would take him five years.

Wasn't to do with technology didn't
change the design in any significant

way he did bring in a few technological
innovations from America like.

Brick lifts for
example instead of guys with.

Climbing up the ladders with the bricks
which improve the productivity but

it was the construction of fish and
see came more from a better and

intelligent management than
from technology or design.

That's why lean construction
deserves your attention to be

king to the students here
deserve your attention and.

As the.

Introduction of industrial techniques into
construction to improve its product over

the Santa Maria Del for your A.

I think they're coming back to
that that was a competition

as to how this dome would be actually
built and there were something

like a dozen responses to it and
only one of them the one from Brunelleschi

had a situation where he
was using no centering.

The owners then wavered on this.

They were the two of them.

It was so innovative that they were very
concerned about whether it's possible or

not but they bought into it
a little timidly to begin with but

eventually went through it with it all.

It was a it was a fabulous success and

the other the other thing is of course
there's this sense that the college has

this remarkable capability
of examining specific invent

vents of buildings from
from every angle and

I wish we could continue to do that and
I'd love to see a series like.

Great Buildings that made a difference or

whatever being done once
every other year or never.

Crystal Palace is again it's
the organizational brilliance of

the Cheveley success of
the British Crystal Palace and.

And and an industrial framework
that is capable of supporting it.

Somebody once said about
about the Crystal Palace.

It couldn't have been built twenty
years prior to this time and

that was largely because one major
component in that building was glass and

the French and Belgians had developed
a new system of cylinder glass

that enabled cheap glass to be
produced quickly in a much larger so.

This then was common with
the regular blown circular glass.

The trestle it's difficult to know what
conclusions would come out of that but

I suppose they would be that if
this is the equivalent of another

of another run cold war.

Just be prepared to build any crazy thing

that the government decides to throw money
at it as being something that will be

argued to be in the defense of
the of the country at large.

Mentioned I'd just like to yes
we're doing OK here quickly.

These are again maybe a little difficult
to read in my course I have the students

select a paper they pick a paper of their
own and work with them during the course

of it to push them into the right
directions in terms of doing research.

They're only turn paper so
that they're not.

They're not deep they're not.

Dissertations or anything like that but
just look at the variation of subjects

that are covered here and what this does
is illustrate what an incredible field

construction industry offers to
scholarship and research we have

for example four major cathedrals
have been addressed and in this.

This terms of grouping some Peters

because he's drawing Cologne which Rebecca
one of my students is back there is

dealing with Santa Maria Belfiore again.

And what have I missed
that not redound to Perry.

There are there are others that

just are worth pointing hard engineering
challenges faced by the Continental Army

really fascinating subject
the construction of the Mount Rushmore

monument Now how on
earth would think about.

Writing and realizing that there
was a story to be told and

perhaps some lessons to be learned
from that particular piece of work.

Nigeria's post-colonial construction
industry written by a Nigerian student.

I want one.

I rather like the second from the bottom
in the George Washington Bridge New York

New Jersey an engineering
curiosity on time and on budget.

As for you all know that's
not very often the case.

OK Just a few concluding remarks then.

It does then after a new field
of research it is not but

it is not any research going on in the in
the arena course have been for many many

years in the society of architectural
historians at least seventy years and

that is a viable subject that is
taught in every architecture program.

There is a public works Historical Society

the civil engineers A C.

has a history and
heritage society a.p.t is

a relatively new organization for
the preservationists A.I.A.

has a historic resources a society
of industrial archaeology and

one third up on the right there is
a pretty unusual one which is they

historic construction equipment
Association of America that

has collections of old old
construction equipment and

machinery and and
devotes itself to that so

I think our society is hoping to and
has already made links with

many of these two to begin to look at
things are more holistically that sect.

Opportunities research I've met.

And one of the targets of the society is.

To see if we can introduce the subject
into the curricular of construction and

an engineering isn't going to be
an uphill battle to do that but

it doesn't mean that we shouldn't
try because we think the value

of introducing it will be far greater than
the effort to get to go ahead and do it.

Erases the need for
text no cortex textbooks.

Again the society.

One of the plans is to basically take
my course and turn it into a textbook.

But with the addition of

more technology history which I
don't cover to any great depth.

And you know somewhere in America there
is an opportunity to develop a center for

construction history studies.

It would be wonderful
if I was a lot younger.

I would love to take this and shake it and
actually establish it here and

raise some funding for it.

But we shall see.

Anyway so I think that finally remember
what Andrew Seynt said not a bad idea.

Figure out where you are before you begin
to tackle what you want to look at so.

Thank you very much.

Dumbstruck.

I hope you will get there.

I've got some of these construction
History Society brochures here if you

would like to take one of those and
let me.

Yes.

Yes there is there's a fabulous
book just been published it.

So my bill I had this three thousand years
of designing construction history but

it's actually focusing largely
on engineering history in tech.

One of the reasons I don't teach
it is I'm not an engineer.

And so my grasp of it is not very strong
but it is true that the interface between

them particularly in more recent times
of the interface of technology with

the process of construction I mean we're
witnessing that right track with i T.

and what effect this is
happening on the industry.

Bill how this is the author is
a member of the society yes and

there is a copy in
the reference section here.

There's a great thick book and

is a fabulous resource
from that point of view or

you're

just an alum.

I get the occasional student in from
from over there so to speak and.

Yes

No no it's a it's an excellent point
in going back into those early days.

The possibly the largest cost.

In total between and

it was cottage was actually
bringing the materials to the site.

So there was a huge incentive
to use local materials and so

generally in these big
cathedrals they would

they would try to find a forest nearby
where they could you know they could get

their wood from a quarry nearby or
if it wasn't nearby that it that it was it

was close to water because
the water transportation

was was much much faster and
safer than road transportation.

No I haven't seen.

It's a sort of thing in find an article
about here or there I would imagine.

But you know the other
thing is interesting when.

The Virginia Company sent its
first settlers to Jamestown one

in seven was at sixty No seven.

They were no force and they included
a board there were I believe the number is

something like six carpenters two
brick layers and one stone mason.

Well the brick layers in
the stone mason had nothing to do.

OK Because when they arrived
here they suddenly stood and

saw this incredible sweep of primeval
forest and so for centuries.

The major source of
construction materials were.

And the carpenters were the leading
leading trade for years and years and

years which is kind of rather interesting
in relation to the trestle that

went back to using one.

Very much so.

Right.

Yes We we deal with that particularly
the day of the rise and eventual

fall almost of the unions and if they are
construction you can see the reasons why.

Well you know like thank
the libraries the library archives

co-sponsor co-hosts of the research for me

and they set up a new thing read and
video site so

if you want to look at this research
former you want to look more real.

I very well by and I'd also like
thank Brian for coming today and

sharing with us a life project and doing
great things when they're showing on time.

Let us know that you
very much like next year.

Thanks very much.