By Mary Salmonsen

Delray Beach, Fla.-based Akel Homes has opened its model homes and started new home sales at Villamar at Toscana Isles, a gated community of 208 single-family homes in Lake Worth, Fla.

The community will offer a total of 12 one- and two-story floor plans, priced starting from the $400,000s. The homes range from 1,809 to 2,980 square feet in size with two to six bedrooms, two to four bathroom and two- or three-car garages. Exterior options include Contemporary Spanish and Transitional, with a modern premium elevation available soon. A Design Studio is available on the community site for new home customization.

Villamar’s homes are designed to surpass Florida Building Code requirements, with a particular focus on hurricane Villamar’s homes are designed to surpass Florida Building Code requirements, with a particular focus on hurricane resistance. To this end, in lieu of wood-frame construction, the homes will be constructed from complete concrete block on both the first and second floor, without any compromise to interior or exterior aesthetics. Additional resilient features include impact-rated windows and gypcrete subflooring.

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by Danielle Malagarie Tuesday, May 21st 2019

FAIRBORN, Ohio (WKEF/WRGT) - Construction is underway at Fairborn Primary on a building that will house a tornado shelter capable of fitting 1,200 students inside. Once it's completed, it will be the first school in Ohio to have such a shelter.

Read the full story on fox45now.com >

Like most other American high school students, Garret Morgan had it drummed into him constantly: Go to college. Get a bachelor's degree.

"All through my life it was, 'if you don't go to college you're going to end up on the streets,' " Morgan said. "Everybody's so gung-ho about going to college."

So he tried it for a while. Then he quit and started training as an ironworker, which is what he is doing on a weekday morning in a nondescript high-ceilinged building with a concrete floor in an industrial park near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Morgan and several other men and women are dressed in work boots, hard hats and Carhartt's, clipped to safety harnesses with heavy wrenches hanging from their belts. They're being timed as they wrestle 600-pound I-beams into place.

www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/04/25/605092520/high-paying-trade-jobs-sit-empty-while-high-school-grads-line-up-for-university​Read more >

​https://ncma.org/resource/bracing-concrete-masonry-walls-under-construction/

​Tanner Brooks, a young concrete mason for an outfit based in the Phoenix area knows he has it good. Even as an apprentice, he's likely making more money than his former schoolmates and he has no student loan debt. He's also just 19 years old. "It allowed me to pay for my own vehicle, my own place to live, and I live comfortably," Brooks said. "I don't struggle all." He also didn't struggle to find his job. In fact, he says construction companies were calling him while he was in school, when he started working as an apprentice before he ever graduated. Numbers recently released by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) show the Phoenix metro area added nearly 14,000 construction jobs from March 2018 to March 2019. But it's not just Arizona -- it's nationwide. To read more, click here.

PCA report delves resilient construction at big picture, granular levels
Published: Thursday, 09 May 2019 10:13 Written by Concrete News

A new PCA report presents historical data, evidence from external sources, and structural material comparisons supporting the premise: Cast-in-place or precast concrete, or concrete masonry construction methods lead to longer lasting buildings owing to their ability to stand up to normal wear and tear plus resistance to extreme weather events.
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“The Real Value of Resilient Construction” addresses design, engineering and life cycle criteria for owners and lawmakers or officials behind policy affecting public or private building design. "U.S. taxpayers cannot afford to continue building and rebuilding the way we did in the past. Strong, robust structures ensure community continuity and provide long lasting value for scarce taxpayer dollars," says PCA CEO Michael Ireland—emphasizing a position the industry has held as Congress and government agencies take stock of escalating post-disaster costs rooted in sub-par construction. 

Read more==> http://concreteproducts.com/news/11697-pca-report-delves-resilient-construction-at-big-picture-granular-levels.html#.XN2r2XdFxPa 

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