Volumetric Building Companies

It was a pleasure to get back in the classroom and spend time with the U.S. Department of Labor Secretary, Keith Sonderling, at the Luzerne County Community College, just a few miles from Volumetric Building Companies factory in Berwick PA. LCCC trains its students in every trade resulting in skilled individuals ready to work in the industry and make a difference (and good money) from day one! Volumetric Modular Construction is one of the ONLY ways that a rural trade workforce can actually participate in the urban construction demand around the U.S. without moving, or leaving their families behind. That ability to participate is predicated on fair regulations and efficient permitting and inspections. Something that VBC has always received from all the states that it works with, especially from PA DCED's Industrialized Housing leadership team. Which makes the recent passing of SB908 on the floor of the Pennsylvania Capital within 48 hours of coming out of the Rules Committee, so confusing, and so troubling. This bill is designed with the sole intent of locking these rural workers out of participation in our state’s own demand for school and housing construction and preventing Volumetric Modular entirely on any projects with a state funding component (even IF that money actually originated from the federal government). While it hasn’t passed the House yet (likely), and would still need to avoid veto by the Governor (unlikely), and be proven constitutional and of sound legal basis (almost impossible), it’s troubling that it came to the floor in the first place. Luckily, we have a super supportive US Labor Secretary, an experienced and thoughtful leadership team at U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development championing affordability – like Joseph DeFelice and Don Billingsley. We have a City of Philadelphia who is actively seeking factory construction as part of their affordable housing plan unveiled by Mayor Cherelle Parker. Organized & Union labor is absolutely a part of the future and a part of the solution, but they do need to be thinking about the future, rather than trying to prevent it from showing up. The United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners of America are a progressive and innovative union, trying to embrace the future and support the jobs (and their members) for decades to come, kudos to Douglas McCarron and his team. It’s time for all the stakeholders to find ways to make this bill something that we can all be proud of. SB 908 is exactly the opposite of the Governors stated goals from his Housing Action Plan, so I would expect the Office of Governor Josh Shapiro to veto it anyway. Jake Blumgart of the The Philadelphia Inquirer & Ezra Klein of Vox, we’ve chatted about similar topics in the past. Maybe time for check-in call? Know someone who could (or should) help? Tag them in the comments & re-post. If you’re tagged and you aren’t already helping, or aware of this, then please consider this your ⏰ 📣.

Around the World in 5 Days Update # 3 Another busy day today… More cities. Less steps. Riyadh → Doha → Houston → San Antonio. Coffee with a potential client in Doha and I’m pretty sure I’ve found my new favorite airport on Earth. A literal forest inside the terminal. Magical. The next 20 hours of flights and transit? Less magical. Shoutout to Starlink, though — absolute game changer. Managed to: • Talk finance and capital markets with Carrie • Text Cooper about the future of structural systems in prefab • Lock in our speaking session at Modular Building Institute’s World of Modular (thanks Tom) • Stay in near-constant motion with the Volumetric Building Companies Building Companies team on Teams. Thanks to the time space continuum flying east to west, I managed to get a full work day in with Volumetric Building Companies - Europe too! Thanks Helena & Mark • Set a lunch meeting with Sara Torrelko to catch up and learn more about her journey at Modutize LLC since being instrumental in VBC’s product journey All while spending 19 of 24 hours inside a couple of very nice metal tubes built by Airbus Aircraft and operated by Qatar Airways. After missing a Houston connection I was always destined to miss (37-minute layover… hope is not a strategy as Dana would say), I’ve finally landed on The San Antonio River Walk, and then at a restaurant that just happens to be next to the Gensler office. Gensler has drawn many of the buildings VBC has delivered to date — especially a lot of citizenM hotels (right Menno?) — and we’re working together on several new ones now. Then I finally got to sleep in a bed for the first time in 60 hours. I do love a Marriott Hotels bed… But Dave Walsh — why didn’t we build this one again? We should fix that over lunch. Fun fact to close the day: San Antonio is home to one of the first modular hotels in the world — built in 1968 for the World’s Fair. Now a Hilton. 500 rooms. Less than 6 months. A fascinating reminder that innovation isn’t new, and the urgency around scaled deployment of new methods is increasing as our ability to build efficiently declines year over year. Check out the full story about the San Antonio hotel at the link in the comments. Another 3 cities. Same mission.