Construction Engineering

How did a simple design error cause one of the great disasters of the 1980s - the collapse of the walkways at the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel? What made the graceful and innovative Tacoma Narrows Bridge twist apart in a mild wind in 1940? How did an oversized waterlily inspire the magnificent Crystal Palace, the crowning achievement of Victorian architecture and engineering? These are some of the failures and successes that Henry Petroski, author of the acclaimed The Pencil, examines in this engaging, wonderfully literate book.

Estimating the cost of a project is critical to your business success. Done correctly, your company is profitable. Done wrong, you lose money. Michael Stone, a successful construction business consultant and trainer, shares his years of experience estimating residential projects in this manual. Estimating isn't difficult when you have a system. The purpose of this book is to help you create that system. It's an approach that helps you estimate without having to think about the process. An orderly approach makes estimating easier and more accurate.

With this updated edition of his earlier book, A Place of My Own, listeners can revisit the inspired, intelligent, and often hilarious story of Pollan’s realization of a room of his own—a small, wooden hut, his “shelter for daydreams” — built with his admittedly unhandy hands. Inspired by both Thoreau and Mr. Blandings, A Place of My Own not only works to convey the history and meaning of all human building, it also marks the connections between our bodies, our minds, and the natural world.

This monumental book tells the enthralling story of one of the greatest accomplishments in our nation's history, the building of what was then the longest suspension bridge in the world. The Brooklyn Bridge rose out of the expansive era following the Civil War, when Americans believed all things were possible.

This practical guide gives you easy-to-follow and customizable plans for building the backyard chicken coop that works best for you. You'll get the basic construction know-how and key information you need to design and build a coop tailored to your flock, whether you live in a small city loft, a suburban backyard, or a small rural farm.

After advising hundreds of contractors for fifteen years, author Chad Prinkey knows it comes down to having the right systems and culture in place across your business. In his book Well Built, Prinkey lays out the roadmap for contractors to make meaningful upgrades in how they operate, strategize, manage teams, win new business, and deliver for customers. You'll learn the step-by-step process contractors can use to join the top 2% and gain durable competitive advantages that increase profits for the long haul.

Are you fed up running your construction company? Sick of not being paid what you are worth? Stressed out with poor cashflow and low profits? Would you like to have a proven strategy to give you more time, freedom and money? Building Your Future is a practical business guide designed specifically for business owners in the construction and service industry who want to grow a highly successful and profitable business while reclaiming more time and freedom.

Are we "noble in reason"? Perfect, in God's image? Far from it, says New York University psychologist Gary Marcus. In this lucid and revealing book, Marcus argues that the mind is not an elegantly designed organ but a "kluge", a clumsy, cobbled-together contraption. He unveils a fundamentally new way of looking at the human mind - think duct tape, not supercomputer - that sheds light on some of the most mysterious aspects of human nature.

As the dominant species on Earth, humans have made astonishing progress since our ancestors came down from the trees. But how did the descendants of small primates manage to walk upright, become top predators, and populate the world? How were humans able to develop civilizations and produce a globalized economy? Now, in The Age of Wood, Roland Ennos shows for the first time that the key to our success has been our relationship with wood.

We are living in a new urban age and its most tangible expression is the "supertall": megastructures that are dramatically bigger, higher, and more ambitious than any in history. In Supertall, TED Resident Stefan Al—himself an experienced architect who has worked on some of the largest buildings in the world—reveals the advancements in engineering, design, and data science that have led to this worldwide boom.

As a manager or executive working in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry, you’re under pressure to do more with less, reduce waste, produce faster, and still turn a profit.

This is a book that offers a comprehensive exploration of the essential principles behind road construction and pavement, unraveling the complexity behind modern road infrastructure.

Applying the dozens of lessons and practical advice will save you the time, energy, and cost of learning them the way I did—the long way and the hard way. Adopting these principles early in your business career will significantly improve your chances of success and move you ahead of your peers who are not as well informed.

Did you know that before there were engineers and architects, there were builders who relied on their knowledge of nature and the seasons to create huge infrastructures? And what’s really fascinating is the fact that some these buildings are still standing today! Let’s go the ancient Roman sites to see and feel the buildings our ancestors have built many years ago. Open this book today!

During the 1930s, at the height of the Great Depression, thousands of workers began work on the Hoover Dam, built in the Black Canyon, which had been cut by the powerful Colorado River. The Colorado River was responsible for the Grand Canyon, and by the 20th century, the idea of damming the river and creating an artificial lake was being explored for all of its potential, including hydroelectric power and irrigation.

From a master carpenter, Making Things Right is a celebration of good craftsmanship and a tribute to manual labor in the story of a loft renovation. It is also a book about work and identity, about collaboration and pride in skilled craftsmanship, and about what it means to make things with your hands in a consumerism-driven world.

When you listen to Shipping Container Homes - Steps and Strategies to Building or Buying Your Own Dream Shipping Container Home, you'll discover everything you need to know about this unique and exciting way of life. When you join the growing number of people choosing this method to owning their dream home, you'll enjoy many benefits.

In the spring of 1931, in a rugged desert canyon on the Arizona-Nevada border, an army of workmen began one of the most difficult and daring building projects ever undertaken: the construction of Hoover Dam. Through the worst years of the Great Depression as many as five thousand laborers toiled twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, to erect the huge structure that would harness the Colorado River and transform the American West.

The demolition of Penn Station in 1963 destroyed not just a soaring neoclassical edifice, but also a building that commemorated one of the last century's great engineering feats: the construction of railroad tunnels into New York City. Now, in this gripping narrative, Jill Jonnes tells this fascinating story - a high-stakes drama that pitted the money and will of the nation's mightiest railroad against the corruption of Tammany Hall, the unruly forces of nature, and the machinations of labor agitators.

This audiobook allows you to peek behind the curtain and find out how designers and builders really differentiate between good and bad clients. You will learn how client behavior affects the price and quality of work and even how designers and builders choose their clients. That's right! Just because you have a project to bid doesn't mean anybody has to bid it.