November-December 2021

AMAZ NG BU LDINGS THE ARCHITECTURE OF ATHENS THE REME AWARDS

YOU NEED (OR MIGHT WANT) TO KN W THE OFFICE APOCALYPSE TR E DAT

ARTCH TECTURE IMPROVING INDOOR AIR QUALITY EGAL VIEW

THE TOBY AWARDS

THE HAPPIEST CITIES IN THE U.S.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF LOS ANGELES REAL ESTATE F THE FU URE

THE FASTEST GROWING CITIES IN THE U.S. CDC SPEAK BRADWELL V. ILLINOIS

PROFILES OF SURV VAL SETENIL DE LAS BODEGAS

The VOICE OF REAL ESTATE IN TEXAS

The Best Diversions

Give yourself the gift of smiles. J

A handsome, artbook-style volume with the best Diversions to appear in over the last decade. A compendium you will treasure for years to come.

"This collection is laugh-out-loud funny!"

Kirkland Review of Books

"Prescription: Read 3-4 pages a day for a month. It’ll brighten your day! And make it last a month."

Susan Carnegie, The Montreal Voice

From Where I Sit FREE

The Editor’s Page in is almost totally devoted to humor and wisdom and this is a collection of some of the best of them. www.crestnetwork.com get the digital book for free!

Vertical Lines

A Compilation of Sarcasm, Word Play, and Witticisms from the pages of

"This is simply genius. I kept on laughing the whole day when I read it."

Maria Tariq

"...absolutely hilarious! I laughed so hard that it brought tears to my eyes."

Randal Maynard

also from The CREST Publications Group

My Hand Book

"Incisive yet expansive - as if the psychology of R.D. Laing encountered the self-exploration of Hugh Prather to help readers delve into their own thought, experiences and behaviours."

The Rockford Tribune

"Curiously intense and ironic. This is a work that will make you think and feel and you will revisit it over and over.

Marion Danziger, The Toronto Town Crier

S.H.I.T. from the Internet

“An often off-color (but always entertaining and almost always hilarious) collection of jokes that you will read, enjoy – and probably tell –over and over.”

Joey Cousins, The Greenwich Times

Leading With My Heart

"It matters not who we have been, or why, with whom, or how. What matters is that we have met and who we are from now."

Original reflections on new love, its flame, intensity, and all-consuming spirit. Short, poetic expressions of heartfelt longing, passion, and desire. Intimate expressions of tenderness and adoration, accompanied by romantic pictures. A wonderful gift for someone you love.

“So simple. So eloquent and beautiful. Absolutely wonderful!”

Allison Templeton

16

THE BLUEPRINT

THE TOBY AWARDS

Pictures of BOMA’s 2021 winners of the International Outstanding Building of the Year designations. 20

THE FASTEST GROWING CITIES IN THE U.S. AND WORLDWIDE

With thanks to the Visual Capitalist, a graphic view the pace at which cities are growing.

FEATURES

NEGOTIATING

HISTORIC CHANGE

RESHORING

Eric Voyles of TexAmerica Center looks at how the pandemic is affecting the appeal and benefits of offshoring.

REAL ESTATE F THE FU URE-TELOSA

The idea of Marc Lore and the design of Bjarke Ingels will create a Utopia in the American Southwest.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF ATHENS, GREECE

A pictorial of the birthplace of democracy— renowned for its monuments.

THE 2021 REME AWARDS

IREM’s annual honorees for Real Estate Management Excellence.

27

IMPROVING INDOOR AIR QUALITY

Dave Harris Kolada introduces us to the latest smart devices in healthy air technology.

31

HOW TO BOOST CELL SIGNAL IN COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES

Jeff Gudewicz of Wilson Electronics tells you how to do it quickly and easily.

32

24 AMAZ NG BU LDINGS –BRINGING THE COSMIC DOWN TO EARTH

34

22 35

PRODUCT REVIEW –WYND PLUS

THE OFFICE APOCALYPSE

Richard Rubin, founder & CEO of Repvblik, examines the conversion and reuse of distressed commercial properties.

THE MAGNIFICENT BUILDINGS OF LOS ANGELES

A pictorial of the second largest city in the United States.

BOOK REVIEWS

48

ESTATE

BUSINESS

Contributing Editor Rose-Mary Rumbley fondly looks at Sam Houston and his family(ies).

49

THE PAGE

An historical low point for the U.S. Supreme Court -Bradwell v. Illinois.

50

EGAL VIEW – MANAGING MEDICAL OFFICE BUILDINGS

THE HAPPIEST CITIES IN WHICH TO BUY A HOME

Mortgage Advisor’s AI facial recognition tool studied buyers in the U.S. and around the world. 36

Contributing Editor Anthony Barbieri looks at what you need to know.

52 58 57

ARTCH TECTURE

Kal Gajoum paints striking city portraits –with a palette knife! YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP (OH, WAIT. SOMEBODY DID.)

Jerry West and Bob Dole.

The CDC issues guidelines for politically correct speech.

Now in our 29th year, reaches over 50,000 Texas real estate professionals bimonthly, and an additional 100,000+ throughout the U.S. via social media! We proudly serve and service any and all real estate associations in the state of Texas - including (but not limited to) the ones you see here. If your group isn’t shown and you’d like for us to include pictures, information and event-coverage, please let us know. Email: editor@crestnetwork.com or call the number above.

EXECUTIVE STAFF

ANDREW A. FELDER: Publisher/Managing Editor. aafelder@crestpublicationsgroup.com

XENIA MONTERO: Associate Editor and Art Director. xeniam.design@gmail.com

ANNETTE LAWLESS: Social Media Manager. annettelawless@hotmail.com

MARK ANGLE: Director of Business Development. mark@crestnetwork.com

MARIA TARIQ: Technical Director, Book Division. mariatariq070213@hotmail.com

EMILY GREY | DIGITAL WEBSTERS: Digital Marketing Agency. info@digitalwebsters.com

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

ANGELA O’BYRNE, AIA: Amazing Buildings.

ROSE-MARY RUMBLEY: Herstory.

ANTHONY BARBIERI: Legal.

JULIE BRAND LYNCH: Professionals on the Move.

ROXANA TOFAN: Profiles of Survival.

ADVISORY BOARD

KIM GHEZ: Director of Marketing, Presidio Title.

KRISTIN HIETT, CAE: Executive Director/CEO – IREM Dallas Chapter.

KIM HOPKINS: Executive Director, CREW Dallas.

JONATHAN KRAATZ: Executive Director, USGBC Texas Chapter.

DOUG MCMURRY: Executive Vice President, San Antonio AGC.

LAURA MCDONALD STEWART, RID, FASID, ILDA LEED AP: Editor of PLINTH and CHINTZ, an interior design blog.

JESSICA WARRIOR: Director of Property Management, Granite Properties.

STAFF, EDITORS & ADVISORY BOARD

Chad R. (Fort Worth, TX)

(Search: Crest

...truly a brighter, lighter side of real estate. Marti C. (Freehold, NJ)

...entertaining

Carla C. (New Braunfels, TX)

risk. The publisher makes no guarantees or representations as to, and shall have no liability for, any content delivered by any third party, including, without limitation, the accuracy, subject matter, quality or timeliness of any Content. Change of address: Mail to address above or email editor@crestpublicationsgroup.com

Laura McDonald

Digital Websters. Maria Tariq. Mark Angle. Kim Hopkins. Jonathan Kraatz. Doug McMurry. Stewart. Jessica Warrior. Kim Ghez.

Rose-Mary Anthony Julie Brand

Andrew A. Felder. Xenia Montero. Annette Lawless. Kristin Hiett. Angela O’Byrne. Rumbley. Barbieri. Lynch. Roxana Tofan.

Our Digital Edition is an exact replica of the printed magazine, only better! Browse, save articles, or even check the archives for something you want to read again!

CRAIG GOODLIFFE (P. 47) is the CEO of Cyberbacker, one of the fastest growing remote working companies, which currently provides online services to over 1000 companies around the world. He is currently an Executive MAPS Coach for real estate business owners.

DAVE HARRIS KOLADA (P. 29) is a managing partner at Greensoil PropTech Ventures of Toronto, whose mission is to digitize and decarbonize the built environment, the biggest asset class on the planet, and which is responsible for up to 40% of global energy-related CO2 emissions. GSPV invests in early to mid-stage venture capital opportunities, in North America, Europe and Isra el, that make real estate more productive, efficient and sustainable.

ROSE-MARY RUMBLEY (P. 48) holds a Ph.D. in communications from the University of North Texas. She is a well-known speaker in Texas and enjoys researching each and every topic. She is a Contributing Editor of and Herstory appears in every issue.

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

ANTHONY BARBIERI (P. 50) is a shareholder at Kessler Collins, where he enjoys a broad legal practice. He has been a speaker for ICSC, IREM, and BOMA, has taught continuing legal education seminars, and has been named a Texas Super Lawyer Rising Star for many years, as well as being a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America. He and his wife, Cathy, enjoy traveling and spending time with their extended families, getting involved in their church and supporting the community through various programs – including raising awareness of muscular dystrophy, education and exercise to fight heart disease, providing care and treatment for autism, and counseling domestic-violence victims. He is also a Contributing Editor of and his Legal View appears in every issue.

JEFF GUDEWICZ (P. 31) is Chief Product Officer at Wilson Electronics, an industry leader in cellular signal repeater technology dedicated to delivering wireless network coverage to everyone, everywhere.

IVAN FRIEDMAN (P. 40) is president and CEO of RCS Real Estate Advisors, a leading national retail real estate advisory firm that has advised some America’s largest chains on lease restructuring and other financial matters for over four decades.

ANGELA O’BYRNE (P. 32) is the president of national architecture, design-build, and real estate development firm Perez, APC. She champions the principles of smart growth in her home community of New Orleans and in her frequent travels across the country and abroad. Born in Cali, Colombia, Angela is a licensed architect in over a dozen states, a licensed general contractor in Louisiana, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and a member of the National CREW Network (Commercial Real Estate Women) Board of Directors. A singer, golfer, music-lover, and globetrotter, she relishes spending free time with her three grown children and large extended family. She is a Contributing Editor of and her Amazing Buildings feature appears in every issue.

ROXANA TOFAN (P. 37) is the owner of Clear Integrity Group in San Antonio, Texas and the company’s principal broker in Texas, Ohio and South Carolina. Her main focus is multifamily commercial brokerage in San Antonio area and property management. She enjoys taking over nonperforming properties and turning them around. She is also a Contributing Editor of and her Profiles of Survival will appear in every issue. In addition to her company, her passion is giving back to the community as she volunteers for various support organizations such as Boy Scouts of America, Special Olympics, Alzheimer’s Association and supporting the military. She loves to travel with her teenage children and supporting their extra-curricular activities.

ERIC VOYLES (P. 43) the Executive Vice President & Chief Economic Development Officer at TexAmericas Center, is a seasoned public-private partnership economic developer with more than 25 years of progressive experience in regional economic, community and real estate development.

THE UPSIDE OF DOWNTIME...

Fans of will love these compilations of humor from the last decade. The Best of Diversions is just that – the very best of the hilarious Diversions that have appeared on the pages of the magazine. Vertical Lines is over a hundred pages of wit, witticisms and sarcasm that have appeared between the

the network bookshelf on days off on off-days on rainy Sundays if you’re alone if you need a break to pass the time to brighten your day to sharpen your skills to open your mind to make you smile turn to

www.crestnetwork.com

RICHARD RUBIN (P. 35) is a Principal of Repvblik and a lifelong entrepreneur.  He pioneered adaptive reuse of high-rise commercial office buildings into large scale affordable housing developments in South Africa.  He moved to the United States in 2015 and founded Repvblik with Chris Potterpin of PK Companies.

pages (”in the gutter”, as they say). They are both available at your favorite online bookseller and you can see samples at the link here My Handbook is… well… look at the cover comments and a few sample pages. You’ll know soon enough if it’s for you.

YOU NEED (OR MIGHT WANT) TO KNOW Editor’s note

ANDREW FELDER aafelder@crestpublicationsgroup.com

Managing Editor & Publisher

INFORMATION PLEASE

When I Was quIte young, my father had one of the first telephones in our neighborhood. I remember well the polished, old case fastened to the wall. The shiny receiver hung on the side of the box. I was too little to reach the telephone but used to listen with fascination when my mother talked to it. Then I discovered that somewhere inside the wonderful device lived an amazing person. Her name was "Information Please," and there was nothing she didn’t know. Information please could supply anyone's number and the correct time.

My personal experience with the genie-in-a-bottle came one day while my mother was visiting a neighbor. Amusing myself at the tool bench in the basement, I whacked my finger with a hammer. The pain was terrible, but there seemed no point in crying because there was no one home to give me any sympathy. I walked around the house sucking my throbbing finger, finally arriving at the stairway. The telephone! Quickly, I ran for the footstool in the parlor and dragged it to the landing. Climbing up, I unhooked the receiver in the parlor and held it to my ear. “Information, please," I said into the mouthpiece just above my head. A click or two and a small clear voice spoke into my ear. "Information."

“I hurt my finger," I wailed into the phone. The tears came readily enough now that I had an audience.

"Isn't your mother home?" came the question.

"Nobody's home but me," I blubbered.

"Are you bleeding?" the voice asked.

"No," I replied. "I hit my finger with a hammer, and it hurts."

"Can you open the icebox?" she asked. I said I could. "Then chip off a little bit of ice and hold it to your finger," said the voice.

After that, I called "Information Please" for everything. I asked her for help with my geography homework, and she told me where Philadelphia was. She helped me with my math. She told me my pet chipmunk, that I had caught in the park just the day before, would eat fruit and nuts. Then, there was the time Petey, our pet canary, died. I called Information Please and told her the sad story. She listened, and then said things grown-ups say to soothe a child. But I was inconsolable. I asked her, "Why is it that birds should sing so beautifully

and bring joy to everyone, only to end up as a heap of feathers on the bottom of a cage?"

She must have sensed my deep concern, for she said quietly, "Paul, always remember that there are other worlds to sing in."

Somehow, I felt better.

Another day I was on the telephone. "Information, Please," I said. "Information," said the now familiar voice. "How do I spell fix?" I asked.

All this took place in a small town in the Pacific northwest. When I was nine years old, we moved across the country to Boston. I missed my friend very much. Information Please belonged in that old wooden box back home and I somehow never thought of trying the tall, shiny new phone that sat on the table in the hall. As I grew into my teens, the memories of those childhood conversations never really left me. Often, in moments of doubt and perplexity, I would recall the serene sense of security I had then. I appreciated now how patient, understanding, and kind she was to have spent her time on a little boy. A few years later, on my way west to college, my plane put down in Seattle. I had about a half-hour or so between planes. I spent 15 minutes or so on the phone with my sister, who lived there now. Then, without thinking what I was doing, I dialed my hometown operator and said, "Information Please."

Miraculously, I heard the small, clear voice I knew so well. "Information."

I hadn't planned this, but I heard myself saying, "Could you please tell me how to spell fix?"

There was a long pause. Then came the soft-spoken answer, "I guess your finger must have healed by now."

I laughed, "So it's really you," I said. "I wonder if you have any idea how much you meant to me during that time?"

"I wonder," she said, "if you know how much your calls meant to me. I never had any children and I used to look forward to your calls."

I told her how often I had thought of her over the years, and I asked if I could call her again when I came back to visit my sister.

"Please do," she said. "Just ask for Sally."

Three months later I was back in Seattle. A different voice answered, "Information." I asked for Sally.

"Are you a friend?" she said.

"Yes, a very old friend," I answered.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this." she said. "Sally had been working part time the last few years because she was sick. She passed away five weeks ago."

Before I could hang up, she said, "Wait a minute, did you say your name was Paul?"

"Yes."

"Well, Sally left a message for you. She wrote it down in case you called. Let me read it to you." The note said, 'Tell him there are other worlds to sing in. He'll know what I mean.'

I thanked her and hung up. I knew what Sally meant.

I DREAMED I HAD AN INTERVIEW WITH GOD...

"Come in," God said. "So, you would like to interview Me?"

"If you have the time," I said.

God smiled and said, "My time is eternity and is enough to do everything.

What questions do you have in mind to ask Me?"

"What surprises You most about mankind?"

God answered: "That they get bored of being children. They are in a rush to grow up, and then long to be children again. That they lose their health to make money, and then lose their money trying to restore their health. That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present… such that they live neither for the present nor the future. That they live as if they will never die and die as if they had never lived."

God's hands took mine and we were silent for a while. Then I asked: "What are some of life's lessons You want

Your children to learn?"

He replied with a smile: “To learn that they cannot make anyone love them. What they can do is to let themselves be loved. To learn that what is most valuable is not what they have in their lives, but who they have in their lives. To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others. All will be judged individually on their own merits, not as a group or on a comparison basis. To learn that a rich person is not the one who has the most but is one who needs the least. To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in people we love, and that it takes many years to heal them. To learn to forgive

by practicing forgiveness. To learn that there are persons that love them dearly, but simply don’t know how to express or show their feelings. To learn that money can buy everything but happiness. To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see it totally differently. To learn that it is not always enough that they be forgiven by others, but that they have to forgive themselves.”

I sat there for a while enjoying and enraptured by the moment. I thanked Him for His time and for all that He has done for me and my family, and He replied, "Anytime. I'm here 24 hours a day. All you have to do is ask for Me, and I will answer." n

There are three religious truths:

1. Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.

2. Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian faith.

3. Baptists do not recognize each other in the liquor store or at Hooters.

A: Beer Nuts are $1, and Deer Nuts are always under a buck.

Q: What's the difference between Beer Nuts and Deer Nuts?

I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t look up ‘Jim Crow’ myself. I think it was in July (when the coverage about state election laws was all over the news) that not a day went by without someone on TV using the expression. Thanks for shedding light on it for me – and, I’m sure, for many others.

Roland Tansman, Jacksonville, FL

My son loves your book –Vertical Lines. He has been reading it and just told me it's now his favorite book of all time.

Gary Revel, Sr. , Killeen, TX

I’ve been reading “The Best Diversions” and have really enjoyed the collection. It’s hard for me to stay focused. I hungrily move my eyes from place to place, sometimes missing spots. However, I always put them back in their sockets, without eating them, when I’m through. LOL! I cannot believe the quality of material that was used. Fantastic!

Bruce Lyngaas, Gleason, TN

I am enjoying checking out the full magazine!  Very cool.

Alysia Heun, Phoenix, AZ

The cover and artchitecture section artist has a wild imagination (as well as talent). Great stuff!

Jane Mendlinger, Wichita Falls, TX

Ed: Watch for more photographic surrealism in 2022!

'PARIS ON BASTILLE DAY'

by Kal Gajoum

"I wanted to encompass the exaltation in Paris on Bastille Day (Quatorze juillet) in this painting. This fateful day shaped France as we know it today. There are also important symbols of France represented in the “Arc de Triomphe” (a/k/a “Étoile” because a major boulevard intersects with this particular roundabout and seems to branch out like a star), including the French flag, and the people marching down the street. This painting represents a nation’s resilience, its fight for freedom and the pride of its people. It is widely celebrated throughout the world."

IMPORTANT

JOSIE

Whether

With

You decide which products you want or need.

You install it where you want it.

You control your system.

You choose what songs to play.

Whether your home or away, you can keep an eye on your favorite people, pets, and possessions. When

HOW DO MOSQUITOS SURVIVE IN THE RAIN?

Cold temperatures Can sloW insects down, and water droplets add weight to them (and can make their wings stick together) Also, high winds can easily push insects off course, and they may have to expend more energy to stay on track.

Insects are exothermic (cold blooded); therefore, their body temperatures and activities are heavily influenced by their environment. But what do they do in the rain? That depends on the insect. A single raindrop can weigh 50 times as much as a mosquito, for example. So how can they fly through a downpour and come out alive? A new study reports that the answer lies in the mosquito’s low mass and its strong exoskeleton.

About 25%of the time, raindrops fall between a mosquito’s wings. In these cases, the mosquito is absorbed into the falling water drop, but it pulls away just before the drop hits the ground. The insect’s long wings and legs make it “like a kite with long tails, and it can pull away,” said Dr. Hu, a mechanical engineer and biologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology. They don’t resist the impact of a water drop and instead “go with the flow. It’s kind of like boxing with a balloon,” he explained. “There’s no way to pop the balloon because it doesn’t resist you at all.”

WEDNESDAY

The German name for the day, Mittwoch (literally: "mid-week"), replaced the former name Wodenstag ("Wodan 's day") in the 10th century. The Dutch name for the day (“woensdag”), has the same etymology as English Wednesday. It comes from Middle Dutch (“wodenesdag”, which means ("Odin's day"). (Wodan = Odin and Odin is generally depicted as the king of Norse gods.)

SUN SHOWERS

We usually associate rain with clouds. Sometimes, though, rain can fall out of a seemingly cloudless sky. It is commonly referred to as a sun shower or serein. A sun shower is a meteorological phenomenon in which rain falls while the sun is shining. It is usually the result of accompanying winds associated with a rainstorm sometimes miles away, blowing the airborne raindrops into an area where there are no clouds. Another possible cause is rapidly dissipating clouds. The time it takes for raindrops to leave a cloud and start falling to the ground, to the time it reaches the surface, plays an essential role in the formation of a sun shower. If a cloud has very little moisture left to form water droplets (or rising atmospheric temperatures in the cloud make reaching the dew point impossible), it starts to dissipate quickly after the last raindrops fell from it. Since the rain takes a couple of minutes to reach the ground, the chances are that the cloud will have broken up completely by the time you experience the rainfall on the ground.

INTERROBANG

Also known as the interabang and often represented by ?!, !?, ?!? or !?!), this is an unconventional punctuation mark used in various written languages and intended to combine the functions of the question mark, and the exclamation point. The glyph is a superimposition of these two marks. (The interrobang was first proposed in 1962 by Martin K. Speckter.)

Q: Why do men find it difficult to make eye contact? A: Breasts don't have eyes.

CONTROLLER VS COMPTROLLER

A comptroller and controller hold key positions regarding an organization’s financial operations. A comptroller is a high-level executive who oversees accounting tasks and financial reporting for governmental or non-profit organizations. The main difference is that controllers perform those duties at for-profit businesses.

YOU NEED (OR MIGHT WANT) TO KNOW YOU NEED (OR MIGHT WANT) TO KN W

A: A pimp.

KNOTS AND FATHOMS

Q: What do you call an Alabama farmer with a sheep under each arm?

Ever notice that measurements are different on land and sea? Mariners (as boaters often call themselves) have their own unique nautical language and that includes their own nautical measurement systems. While the rest of the world thinks in miles (or kilometers) per hour, boaters think in terms of knots. A knot is one nautical mile per hour, and it’s equal to 1.151 statute (regular) miles per hour. They use nautical miles (instead of statute miles) because of basic navigation; the distance of one nautical mile corresponds to one minute of latitude on a chart. Long ago, sailors needed a way to measure the speed of their boat, so they tied knots in a length of rope, one knot at every 47’3”, then tossed the end of the rope over the side of the boat and counted how many knots passed by in a 30 second period. (Conversion trick: Multiply MPH by 1.151 to get knots, and divide knots by 1.151 to get MPH.)

Today, a fathom equals six feet—quite an inconvenient number to use in your head when trying to go back and forth between feet and fathoms— but it was once used as a general term to mean the distance between a man’s out-stretched arms. (Thus, it could be five feet; it might be five and a half feet, or it might be six – or anywhere in between.) At some point a few hundred years ago, someone realized that six feet was almost exactly one-thousandth of a nautical mile (6,080 feet), so it made sense to standardize the term at that length.

IDIOMS

Your expectations are wrong and unreasonable; you’d better think again. It is almost always preceded by "If you think (something).". The phrase is commonly mistakenly spoken as "you've got another thing coming.". If you think you can walk in here and just demand a raise, you've got another 'think' coming.

"You've got another think coming."

THE FILIBUSTER

...is a parliamentary tactic used in the United States Senate by a minority of the senators (sometimes even a single senator) to delay or prevent parliamentary action by talking so long that the majority either grants concessions or withdraws the bill. The practice goes all the way back to the Senate of ancient Rome. The word filibuster is related to the Dutch word "vrijbuiter" meaning "pirate." It may have acquired its current meaning because pirates took hostages for ransom; filibusters hold senators hostage.

Some regard the filibuster as a tactic that preserves the rights of the minority and assures careful consideration of issues. Others criticize it as intrinsically undemocratic in that it allows the minority party to ‘dictate’ to the majority.

The filibuster is not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, nor is it part of our system of checks and balances. There is no Senate rule which specifically mention filibusters; it evolved accidentally in the U.S. senate.

When the House of Representatives and the Senate were established in 1789, they had similar rules for cutting off debate on a bill or any other matter. In 1806, senators changed their rules, but likely didn’t realize that they had made it possible for one or more senators to carry on an endless debate.

During the 20th century, Southern senators often used filibusters to block civil rights legislation. From 1922 to 1949, they blocked five separate antilynching laws. In 1957, Strom Thurmond (the Senator from South Carolina) spoke in the Senate for 24 hours and 18 minutes in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent a vote on a civil rights bill. That stands as the record for a one-man filibuster. To conduct a one-man filibuster, a senator has to remain on the Senate floor continuously and talk nonstop. Bodily functions present a distinct problem. Thurmond took a steam bath before his record-setting filibuster to dehydrate himself, reducing his need to use the bathroom.

In 1975, senators changed the cloture rule to require only a three-fifths vote (60 rather than 67 senators) to cut off debate. New procedures also allowed senators who could muster at least 41 votes to delay a particular piece of legislation while the Senate proceeded with other business. They didn't need to conduct an actual filibuster, only threaten one. Intended to make the Senate more efficient, this change increased the frequency of filibusters The cloture rule, also known as Rule 22, is the only formal procedure that senators can use to break a filibuster. But senators have always been reluctant to give up the power that the filibuster affords them. Plus, reformers face a major obstacle: A rule change usually requires a two-thirds vote to pass — and that can of course itself be filibustered.

In 2010, senators discussed filibuster reform. These proposals failed, for the most part, though both sides agreed not to exercise the "nuclear option," changing filibuster rules by a simple majority vote. First used in 2013 In 2013, the nuclear option was first invoked by Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid to lower the 60-vote requirement to 51 for approving executive branch appointees and federal judges. Now, debate is again raging. In order to pass what they see as vital legislation, some are again calling for use of the nuclear option again. But President Biden (a senator from Delaware for nearly four decades before becoming vice president), is opposed to eliminating the longstanding rule—at least for now.

ISIS K

ISIS-K is a branch of ISIS that was established in January 2015 by disgruntled members of Taliban's Pakistani affiliate. They have been a sworn enemy of the Taliban. Their goal is to establish a caliphate, or an Islamic empire governed by Sharia law, in the historic Khorasan region (hence the ‘K’ in the name), which encompasses large parts of Central and South Asia. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (a U.S. foreign policy think tank) says the group has been responsible for 200 terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Reports suggest that the group has approximately 2,200 core fighters.

DIASPORA

From the Greek word meaning 'to scatter,' a diaspora is a community of people who do not live in their country of origin but maintain their heritage in a new land. Many can relate to this issue, having ancestral roots from one country but residing in a different place. In the United States, many ethnic communities exist, often classified according to sub-cultures (e.g., African-American, Mexican-American, Irish-American, etc.) Inclusion of emigrants, or people who have left their homelands to settle permanently in a different one, is a major characteristic of a diaspora.

ANTIBODY

An antibody (a/k/a an immunoglobulin) is a large, Y-shaped protein used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects such as pathogenic bacteria and viruses. The antibody recognizes and binds to a unique molecule of the pathogen, called an antigen, in an interaction similar to a lock and key. Each tip of the "Y" of an antibody contains a paratope (analogous to a lock) that is specific for one particular epitope (analogous to a key) on an antigen, allowing these two structures to bind together with precision. Using this binding mechanism, an antibody can tag a microbe or an infected cell for attack by other parts of the immune system, or can neutralize it directly (for example, by blocking a part of a virus that is essential for its invasion). n

Ed. Have something you’d like to see or learn about in this column? Email editor@crestnetwork.com and our crackerpot team of jack smokers will look it up for you!

Do Lipton Tea employees take coffee breaks?

Strom Thurmond

at the BuIldIng oWners and Managers Association (BOMA) International’s annual conference in Boston on October 10th, seventeen commercial properties were honored with The Outstanding Building of the Year® (TOBY®) Awards.

The TOBY Awards are the commercial real estate industry’s highest recognition honoring excellence in commercial building management and operations in specific categories of building type or size. To win a BOMA International TOBY Award, a property first must win both local and regional competitions. Judging is based on criteria that includes community impact, tenant and employee relations programs, energy management, accessibility, emergency evacuation procedures, building personnel training programs and overall excellence. A team of industry experts also conducted comprehensive building inspections.

The following properties were honored with 2021 BOMA International TOBY Awards:

BOMA INTERNATIONAL HONORS EXCELLENCE IN COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

/01/ Corporate Facility: Seattle Municipal Tower in Seattle, Washington, owned by the City of Seattle and managed by CBRE.

/02/ Earth Building:

353 North Clark in Chicago, owned by Heitman and managed by CBRE.

/03/ Historical Building:

Queen’s Quay Terminal in Toronto, owned by Northam CCPF II Tenco (QQT) Ltd. and 10954594 Canada Inc., and managed by Northam Realty Advisors Ltd.

/04/ Industrial Building:

1001 North Greenfield Parkway in Garner, North Carolina, owned and managed Duke Realty.

/05/ Medical Office Building:

1128 Hornby in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, owned and managed by Wesgroup Properties.

/06/ Mixed-Use Building: The Curtis in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, owned and managed by Keystone Property Group.

The nice part about living in a small town is that when you don't know what you're doing, someone else does.

/07/ Public Assembly Building: The

/08/ Renovated Building: 401 Park in Boston, Massachusetts, owned and

/09/ Enclosed Retail: 10 Dundas East in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, owned by 10 Dundas Street, Ltd. and

/10/

/11/ Suburban Office Park Low-Rise: 1-8 Prologis Boulevard in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, owned by Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) Realty Inc. and managed by Triovest Realty Advisors Inc.

/12/ Suburban Office Park Mid-Rise: SouthCreek Corporate Centre in Markham, Ontario, Canada, owned by Northam CCPF Tenco (Commerce Valley Drive) Ltd. and managed by Northam Realty Advisors Ltd.

/13/ Under 100,000 Square Feet: 3300 Paramount Parkway in Morrisville, North Carolina, owned by Perimeter Park Offices, LP, and managed by Trinity Partners.

/14/ 100,000-249,999 Square Feet: 511 EJC in Irving, Texas, owned by Codina Partners and managed by Crescent Property Services.

/15/ 250,000-499,999 Square Feet: 745 Thurlow in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, owned by 2748355 Canada Inc. and 45 Thurlow Street Holdings Inc., and managed by QuadReal Property Group, LP.

/16/500,000-1,000,000 Square Feet: 333 Bush in San Francisco, California, owned by 333 Bush LLC and managed by Tishman Speyer.

/17/ Over 1,000,000 Square Feet: 150 North Riverside in Chicago, Illinois, owned by 150 North Riverside Titleholder, LLC, and managed by CBRE. n

Harold Washington Library Center in Chicago, Illinois, owned by the City of Chicago and managed by CBRE.

managed by Samuels & Associates.

managed by BentallGreenOak.

Open-Air Retail: Shops of Oakville South in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, owned by Shops of Oakville South Inc. and managed by FCR Management Services LP.

On June 4, 1923, jockey Frank Hayes took off through the gates at Belmont Park in Elmont, NY. He and his horse, Sweet Kiss, made it to the finish line first; however, during the race, Hayes suffered a heart attack and died. Nonetheless, he was declared the winner - the only jockey to win a race while deceased. In fact, it’s the only time in sports history when a competition was won by a dead man.

TR E DAT

In 2014, Cards Against Humanity (a popular party game based in Chicago) bought an island in Maine to preserve wildlife. It is called Hawaii 2 and sold for $190,00. Hawaii 2 (a/k/a/ Birch Island) consists of six acres of land in St. George Lake, Maine, USA.

When the English astronomer William Herschel first discovered the seventh planet from the sun in 1781, he named it the Georgium Sidus (the Georgian Planet) in honor of King George III. It was given the name Uranus the following year, in honor of the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus.

The pizzly bear is the offspring of a polar bear and a grizzly bear, and they share characteristics of both bears while at the same time being different from both parents. The pizzly bear's body size is larger than a grizzly bear but smaller than a polar bear. The shape of the head is different from both parents as well.

TYROMANCY IS THE PRACTICE OF PREDICTING THE FUTURE WITH CHEESE. IN THE MIDDLE AGES, THE SHAPE, NUMBER OF HOLES, THE PATTERN OF THE MOLD, AND OTHER FEATURES WERE USED TO PREDICT RAIN, LOVE, MONEY, OR EVEN DEATH. YOUNG MAIDENS IN COUNTRYSIDE VILLAGES WOULD DIVINE THE NAMES OF THEIR FUTURE HUSBANDS BY WRITING THE NAMES OF ALL PROSPECTIVE SUITORS ON SEPARATE PIECES OF CHEESE. THE ONE WHOSE NAME WAS ON THE PIECE OF CHEESE THAT GREW MOLD FIRST WAS BELIEVED TO BE THE IDEAL LOVE MATE. (THIS ALSO WORKED JUST AS WELL FOR THE OPPOSITE SEX.)

The town of Stoughton, Wisconsin, hosts an annual Coffee Break Festival with coffee tastings, "brew-offs," and bean-spitting contests. According to city officials, the coffee break was "born" in the city in the late 1800s, as women working at the local Gunderson Tobacco Warehouse began the ritual of pausing during the workday to brew some coffee and have a chat.

Hershey’s Kisses got its name from the machine that makes them, which makes kissing sounds and appears to “kiss” the conveyor belt onto which the chocolate is dispensed.

There are 26 bones in each foot. That's 52 bones in both feet, out of a total of 206 bones in your whole body—which is more than 25 percent. (There are 27 bones in each hand and fist—a total of 54. So, more than half of a human’s bones are in his/her hands and feet!

Clouds are not as light and fluffy as they appear. In fact, researchers have found that a single cloud weighs about 1.1 million pounds. How do they know? Well, that number is calculated by taking the water density of a cloud and multiplying it by its volume. Fortunately, the cloud can still "float" at that weight because the air below it is even heavier.

A 'nurdle' is toothpaste-length squirt of toothpaste, (often shaped like a wave).

Sneezing while driving can be hazardous to your health. If you sneeze while traveling at 60 mph, your eyes are closed for an average of 88 feet. Since your eyes automatically close when you sneeze, it means that on average you will lose control of your vehicle for several seconds. (Also interesting: People don’t sneeze in their sleep due to their brain shutting down the reflex.)

Magpies are widely considered to be intelligent creatures. (The Eurasian magpie, specifically, is thought to rank among the world's smartest creatures and is one of the few non-mammal species able to recognize itself in a mirror test. They are generally found in temperate regions of Europe, Asia, and western North America, with populations also present in Tibet and high-elevation areas of Kashmir. The birds called magpies in Australia are, however, not related to the magpies in the rest of the world.

My blond girlfriend told me, "I was worried that my mechanic might try to rip me off, but I was so relieved when he told me all I needed was blinker fluid."

It's hard to make a comeback when you haven't been anywhere.

GREENLAND RESEARCH CENTER: ILULISSAT ICEFJORD CENTRE

THE FACTOR

danIsh arChIteCtural fIrm dorte mandrup Arkitekter has completed the Ilulissat Icefjord Centre, a climate research and visitor center on the west coast of Greenland - about 155 miles north of the Arctic Circle, The hub of research, education and exhibitions exploring the impact of climate change in the region is not open to the public.

The twisted, triangular structure and a rooftop viewing platform were made to appear open and lightweight, so visitors

feel connected to the landscape. Interior spaces are fully glazed on all sides so visitors can always see the landscape.

Greenland is the world's largest island that is not a continent; it only has daylight during the summer. n

DIVERSI NS THE LIGHTER SIDE OF THE PANDEMIC – PART 10

Can someone tell me if the next quarantine will be with the same family...or can we change?

(Submitted by a mother of 3)

Q: What’s the difference between COVID-19 and Romeo and Juliet?

A: One’s the Coronavirus and the other is a Verona crisis.

(Submitted by a reader who likes Shakespeare)

Is it true that the booster shot will be available in suppository form?

(Submitted by someone who should’ve directed this question elsewhere)

If the meeting to reopen schools takes place via ZOOM for the safety of the participants, maybe you shouldn’t be discussing reopening the schools. Just sayin’...

(Submitted by a very Illinois-ing person)

So... you’ve been eating hotdogs, chicken nuggets and processed meat all your life – but you won’t get the shot, because you don’t know what’s in it?! Well, aren’t you a special kind of stupid!

(Submitted by a doctor)

If a mask mandate is an infringement of rights, why is controlling a uterus a function of government?

(Submitted by a woman, asking for her daughter)

Photographs by Adam Mørk

Dorte Mandrup

"I am not a female architect. I am an architect"

REAL ESTATE F THE FU URE

TELOSA

THE CITY OF THE FUTURE

Lore's idea is to acquire a large plot of land that would be donated to a community endowment so that its increasing value could fund the city's development and improve the resident's welfare. He said that building Telosa from scratch would allow it to become "the most sustainable city in the world".

the CIty Is the idea of Marc Lore, an entrepreneur and former CEO of e-commerce at Walmart, who sold his start-up website Jet.com to the supermarket giant for $3.3 billion in 2016. Danish architect Bjarke Ingels is its master planner and the city will be called Telosa. Lore conducted a survey of his LinkedIn followers to help him pick a name. They settled on Telosa, which derives from an ancient Greek word meaning “highest purpose.”

Ingels is the founder of BIG, one of the world's most successful architecture studios. He recently launched Nabr,a home design company that aims to "reimagine the way we build our homes". He is also drawing up a master plan for the whole planet to "prove that a sustainable human presence on planet Earth is attainable with existing technologies". His firm’s amazing work has graced these pages on more than several occasions.

The vision is to create a new city in America that sets a global standard for urban living, expands human potential, and becomes a blueprint for future generations. Telosa is a city that will be built on a 150,000-acre

vacant site in the western United States; the actual site is currently being scouted. The projections are to have built 30,000 acres (for 1,000,000 people) in 10-20 years and a total of 150,000 acres (for 5,000,000) over 40 years. That is roughly 33 people per acre (like the density of San Francisco). Ambitious? To be sure. But this is the brainchild of Bjarke Ingels – therefore it is certainly doable!

The reasoning for a city is straightforward. 80% of people in the U.S. live in urban areas. Cities today are not inclusive; there is a shortage of housing options, little regard for environmental impact and transportation is time-consuming, inconvenient, and stressful. Cities today, the website (www.cityoftelosa.com) declares, are not sustainable; they are not open; they are not fair; and they are not inclusive.

Telosa is planned to be Open (a safe and welcoming community that freely exchanges ideas and information to build accountability, competency, authenticity,

Q: What do you call four bullfighters in quicksand? A: Quatro sinko.

é Marc Lore (L) and Bjarke Ingels.

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow is not looking good either.

and trust), Fair (where people will have equal access to opportunity and share in the prosperity that they help create), and Inclusive (where everyone is an important and valued member of the community whose voice should be heard and contribute to new possibilities).

IMAGINE THIS

Fresh water will be stored, cleaned, and reused on site. Renewable resources will provide power for the city. Autonomous cars will allow for safe, flexible streetscapes. An open city, where citizens are provided with honest and clear financials, where they are informed and politicians

are held accountable, where the environment is always a priority, where every student has access to the best teachers and resources, where quality training programs prepare people for the jobs of today and the future, where there easy and affordable access to healthcare, and where there are diverse housing options. An inclusive city where nature and safe public spaces bring people together, and where people can access all their needs within a 15-minute commute. A city with an economic system in which citizens have a stake in the land; as the city does better, the residents do better. Sounds like Utopia! They call it Equitism n

the Irem® reme (Real Estate Management Excellence) Awards champion the great companies and individuals in the industry and highlight the excellent work they are doing to propel real estate management forward. In this time of extraordinary challenges, it’s good to know that real estate managers have risen to the occasion with creativity, innovation, and commitment to professional excellence. The REME Awards honor the real estate professionals and companies that manage to make a difference. Here they are – the IREM REME Award class of 2021:

AMO® OF THE YEAR

PHYSICIAN’S REALTY TRUST, AMO®

Being in the healthcare business, this is a company that truly understands what it means to be on the front lines of a global pandemic. From the very first reported case of COVID-19 in their markets, they implemented strategies to protect their staff and tenants, and built strong and supportive relationships with their healthcare partners.

ARM® OF THE YEAR

DORIS GRANGER, ARM®, JMG REALTY

CPMs OF THE YEAR

JULIA PALUKA, CPM®, THE RMR GROUP

business. In fact, their employees are so passionate about giving back that the company officially designated an annual day of service for teams from across the country.

IREM EXCELLENCE AWARD –INDIVIDUAL

DIVERSI NS

ONCE UPON A TIME

A computer was something on TV from a science fiction show of note. A window was something you hated to clean. And ram was the father of a goat.

The depth of IREM’s membership is reflected in this category, CPM of the Year, and the tough decisions made by the REME Award judges. Julia Paluka has been advancing the real estate management profession by encouraging greater participation in IREM. Her efforts have resulted in 21 new CPM candidates over the past year. Lucinda Lilley dreams of evolving the real estate management profession to become equally human-centric as well as profit-centric. To get there, she’s been leading her organization with people-driven management concepts that bring out the best in people, resulting in greater revenue generation.

IREM EXCELLENCE AWARD –CORPORATE THE RMR GROUP

Doris Granger’s personal philosophy is to always do the right thing, even if no one is looking. Her ethical business practices have secured the trust of her residents and vendors, and has helped her build strong teams – teams that can mentor the next generation of professionals.

The RMR Group believes philanthropy is both good citizenship and good

As a relationship-driven business, Jonathan understands the impact real estate managers have on the lives of so many. That’s why he tells students that if they want to make a difference in our world, they should consider a career in real estate.

IREM INNOVATOR AWARD

CRC COMPANIES

In 2019, CRC Companies launched CRC[X], an initiative to put the customer experience at the forefront of every product, business strategy, and person-to-person interaction. Now in its third year, they’ve reaped the rewards, as they see its benefits come to life in tangible ways every day. n

Meg was the name of my girlfriend. And gig was a job for the nights. Now they all mean different things - and that really megabytes.

An application was for employment. A program was a radio or TV show. A cursor used profanity. A keyboard was a piano.

Memory was something that you lost with age. A CD was a bank account. And, if you had a 3-inch floppy, you hoped nobody found out.

Compress was something you did to the garbage, not something you did to a file. And if you unzipped anything in public, you’d be in jail for a while.

Log on was adding wood to the fire. Hard drive was a long trip on the road. A mouse pad was where a mouse lived. And a backup happened to your commode.

Cut you did with a pocketknife. Paste you did with glue. A web was a spider’s home. And a virus was the flu.

I guess I'll stick to my pad and paper. And the memories in my head. I hear nobody's been killed in a computer crash. But when it happens, they all wish they were dead!

I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by.

LUCINDA LILLEY, CPM®, FBS PROPERTY MANAGEMENT, AMO®

JONATHAN TUCKER, CPM®, CORTLAND

Tell me what you need, and I’ll tell you how to get along without it.

BY TH3 NUMB3RS: GEOGRAPHY

10 RICHEST COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD TODAY

Worldometer (wordlometers. info) is a fascinating site. It has running totals of birth, deaths, coronavirus cases, water, food, energy statistics world wide – all updated as you watch. It also presents detailed population information (check this out) like the information you see here.

PROJECTIONS: THE MOST POPULOUS COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD IN 2050

10 POOREST COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD TODAY

LARGEST COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD

the Chapter Was represented by 18 amazing members at the 2021 CREW Network Convention & Marketplace held in Las Vegas from September 28-30. Thanks to the efforts of the Charity & Community Outreach Committee, and the support of the membership, nine* of these member attendees were awarded scholarships from the Chapter to attend. Pictured here are the attendees.

AFFILI TE

CREW SAN ANTONIO ATTENDS CREW NETWORK CONVENTION & MARKETPLACE

ç Standing (L-R): Erin Salinas*, Chapter Champion; Raven Bruno; Natasha Sattler*, Secretary; Michelle Solis; Diane White*, Treasurer; Cheri Short*; Dawn Vernon, President; Alexandria Tatem*; Jennifer Soto*, Director of Special Events; Tanya Shannon*; and Carolyn Fletcher. Sitting (L-R): Laura Gilliland, President Elect/UCREW Liaison; Jaslyn Garza*; Robin Grove, UTSA Student; Giselle Crawford*; Beverly Fortner; Ariana Santeliz, UTSA Student/CREW San Antonio Scholar; and Jania Matthews, UTSA Student.

*2021 Scholarship Recipient

on oCtoBer 6th, at its 34th annual event (postponed from May due to the coronavirus), the North Texas Commercial Real Estate Hall of Fame, in cooperation with NTCAR, inducted Ray L. Hunt, executive chairman of Hunt Consolidated, Inc., and Leon J. Backes, founder and chief executive officer of Provident Realty Advisors, Inc., into the 2020/2021 Commercial Real Estate Hall of Fame. Also, B. Diane Butler, the co-founder and previous executive chairwoman and chief executive officer of Butler Burgher Group, received the Michael F. McAuley Lifetime Achievement Award.

The NTCAR Hall of Fame was launched in 1988, when the first six distinguished real estate recipients were Trammell Crow; Lyn Davis; Henry S. Miller, Jr.; John M. Stemmons, Sr. and his brother, L. Storey Stemmons; and Angus G. Wynne. Later additions to the roster included John Carpenter; Roger Staubach; Henry S. Miller Company; Jerry Jones; Ross Perot, Jr.; Gerald Hines and Jeff Hines; and many others.

In addition to event co-chairs Greg Cannon and Lynn Dowdle, the North Texas Commercial Real Estate Hall of Fame Committee members are Darrell Hurmis, Robert Grunnah (Emeritus), Chris Teesdale, Kathy Permenter, Bill Cox and Jack Gosnell.

Holland Morris is executive director of the North Texas Commercial Association of Realtors and Real Estate Professionals.

ê Past and current inductees in the NTCAR Hall of Fame along with the 2020/2021 Hall of Fame committee members.

November 12th

CHOCOLATE & WINE ANNUAL RECEPTION

Grapevine, 5pm-7pm

Get your tickets here!

January 14th

WASTE MANAGEMENT SYMPOSIUM

Ruthie Jackson Center, 8am-4pm

Get your tickets here!

managIng landfIll spaCe, proteCtIng the land, water, and air— it’s all about awareness, collaboration, and partnerships. The symposium will be a straight-forward discussion presented by experts and designed to inform and energize leaders to address short and long-term challenges. To landfill, recycle, reuse, transition to other package materials, continue to explore green energy—these are just a few of the questions for which we must develop answers. Guest speakers will include Scott Pasternak (Burns & McDonnell) and David Gray (EPA Region 6). n

è Ray L.Hunt, B. Diane Butle and Leon J. Backes

Needing someone is like needing a parachute. If he isn’t there the first time, chances are you won’t be needing him again.

DAVE HARRIS KOLADA dave@gspv.vc

Dave Harris Kolada is a managing partner at Greensoil PropTech Ventures of Toronto

IMPROVING INDOOR AIR QUALITY

as people InCreasIngly return to shared indoor spaces, COVID-19 presents a once-in-a-generation disruption that focusses new scrutiny on the quality of indoor air and drives the opportunity – and demand – to make workers and customers healthier.

But healthy air challenges transcend the pandemic. From Beijing to Los Angeles and London, citizens are regularly warned to stay indoors because of bad air quality, as pollution and climate change cause issues such as smog and wildfire smoke. Fortunately, innovations in property technology (PropTech), specifically in the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) space, offers solutions to reduce pollutants and pathogens, and commercial property owners and tenants alike are taking notice. They’re pouring money into IAQ systems that offer real-time particle recognition and remediation.

PropTech firms can't keep up with the demand from buyers in cities across the U.S., Canada and the U.K. Hotels, health-care providers, schools, restaurants, retailers, and offices are snapping up these smart, connected air monitoring and purification products to provide realtime data streams to improve air safety, occupant productivity and peace of mind. These “Internet of Things” devices combine wireless, internet-connected sensors and automation, with air quality data stored in the cloud and millions of lines of code to algorithmically adjust how the machines operate.

Simply put, they detect, predict, and remove germs and other pollutants, from dust to pollen and other allergens. Healthy air technology can also improve carbon dioxide levels. CO2 in spaces like offices can easily reach 1,000 parts per million (ppm) or two-and-half times the current level of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere. Meeting rooms, meanwhile, can reach 3,000 ppm (seven-and-a-half times the Earth’s atmosphere). Yet, a level of 1,000 ppm is enough to reduce cognitive performance in knowledge workers by 15 percent, according to researchers Harvard University, Syracuse University and SUNY Upstate Medical University.

Products like those made by the Bay Area company Wynd Technologies, are small, sleek personal air purifiers, placed on desks or transported in vehicles. Larger units (the size of dehumidifiers) handle rooms or offices. On a larger scale, companies such as Canada-based Oxygen8 are doing a brisk business selling sleeker, decentralized HVAC units bringing in 100 percent fresh air with no virus crossover using energy-efficient membrane technology.

Longer term, the insights these technologies provide promise to be even more disruptive. Sensor clusters (which resemble smoke detectors), like those also made by Wynd, can be mounted on walls, or integrated into buildings’ existing HVAC systems. The IAQ data provided by these sensors are used to predict and preempt air quality dropping below acceptable levels, using machine learning. Wynd is also building a very unique dataset which ultimately can be used to inform aid equip building owners, occupants and HVAC vendors as a compelling differentiator.

At one time, only health-care providers and NASA invested heavily in air filtration and monitoring. Now, healthy air technology deployments in buildings, from offices to restaurants, hotels, and schools, are ushering a new data-driven world, wherein real-time air quality readings and controls increase people’s actual and perceived level of safety.

Evidence-based healthy air machine designs are changing commercial real estate. The vast majority of North American buildings have big, bulky centralized HVAC systems (installed in the 20th century) that move around the same air with periodic, token infusions of outside air. They recirculate the same dirt, dust, and germs. In addition, they generally follow the same schedule for climate and air flow adjustments for every room, which is far less energy efficient. Oxygen8 has solved those issues. Their systems are small, decentralized and highly efficient. And they circulate 100 percent fresh air, cleaning and filtering it before it gets into the building.

For personal protection, healthy air “bubbles” or individual zones full of fresh air are revolutionizing real estate, too. The Washington Post, for example, recently featured a California restaurant’s experiment using Wynd’s mini air purifiers on customers’ tables, as the restaurant sought to create mini safe zones around individuals. The Big Sur eatery also installed sensor clusters, which are increasingly being placed on walls and in buildings’ HVAC systems. Research-based building standards – like the “Well Standard,” which was developed in the U.S. – are now selling points for landlords trying to distinguish their buildings and offices as a central part of their return-to-work plans.

The NASA-like future is here now, and it's a world where technology dynamically responds to carbon-dioxide and airborne particulate matter through intelligent ventilation and filtering out pollutants. n

the naIop sentIment Index is designed to predict general conditions in the commercial real estate industry over the next 12 months by asking industry professionals to predict conditions for their own projects and markets. It asks questions about jobs, space markets, construction costs, capital markets and other conditions for real estate development. If every participant in the survey selected the most optimistic answer to every question, the index would be 100. Conversely, if all the participants chose the most pessimistic response to every question, the index would be 0.

The current sentiment index is 56, up from 54 in April and equal to March 2019, one full year before the pandemic began. At the pandemic’s worst point – March through September 2020 – the Sentiment Index sank to 45.

AFFILI TE NEWS

the InternatIonal faCIlIty management Association (IFMA) announced the creation of a Research Advisory Committee, an international panel of multidisciplinary subject matter experts comprised of academic and business-oriented researchers focused on human experience and engagement, human-machine interfaces, facility management, real estate, sustainability and more. Together, the panel will help create IFMA's future research agenda.

"The facility management (FM) industry faces several inflection points induced by the sudden shift toward hybrid ways of working, ongoing sustainability challenges, rapidly digitizing operations and the adoption of circular approaches to building management. As a result, the industry needs to transform,” stated Jeffrey Saunders, IFMA Director of Research. “We need a globally-oriented and multidisciplinary team of advisors to help IFMA set

a future-oriented research agenda, and we are truly excited to see what they will recommend.”

The committee will conduct novel research surrounding ongoing FM transformations, but also examine global trends, innovations and more shaping the future of FM. It will be led by Saunders and overseen by Lara Paemen, Managing Director of IFMA Europe, Middle East and Africa (IFMA EMEA).

“Thought leadership is - and always has been - paramount for IFMA,” said IFMA President and COO Don Gilpin

“With this new globally diverse panel, IFMA will increase the number of resources provided to the FM community. We’re excited to see how the Research Advisory Committee will help IFMA evolve and innovate as we make the FM industry, and world, a better place.”

“The sentiment for commercial real estate is the most positive has been since the pandemic began,” said Thomas J. Bisacquino, president and CEO of NAIOP. “Our industry plays a significant role in the U.S economy, and we remain cautiously optimistic that commercial real estate and the nation’s economy will continue to expand.”

A total of 357 respondents from 263 distinct companies participated in this survey. When individuals were asked what property types they worked on, 71.5% indicated they work on industrial properties, 65.0% work on office properties, 39.8% work on retail properties and 38.4% work on multifamily properties. A regional breakdown shows that 51.4% of respondents are active in the West, 34.5% are active in the East, 36.7% are active in the South and 26.0% are active in the Midwest. View the full report.

the natIonal assoCIatIon of Women in Construction’s Houston chapter installed its new board, which adopted the theme of education. Starting by educating themselves and then reaching out to the industry. Working together with other associations, they hope to present a larger scale event for Women in Construction (WIC) Week in March 2022 as well as an Industry Appreciation Night featuring Pat

in February.

Last night

I lay in bed looking up at the stars in the sky, and I thought to myself, where the heck is the ceiling?

Kiley

ê Standing (L-R): Iris Flores, Jennifer Hayward, Sandy Field, Karen Voorhies, Nora Cassanova, Douaa Eldiraoui, Tracy Shoemaker, Kathy Cernosek. Seated (L-R): Abigail Soto, Angela Robbins Taylor, Leslie Reyes, Daniella Covarrubias.

Lighti ng can change your image , i f y ou DARE.

Since 201 1 EIS Lighting has bee n helping people change their perception of lighting and energy consumption for new buildings and remodels. Contact us if you are willing to make a leap to better lighting and reduce energy consumption. We do design, lighting audit, photometric layouts, procurement, installation supervision of your project, and commissioning.

Chris Colgin VP/Sales(214)-402 -7402

Michael Moore Tech. Spec. (817)-995 -2253

Marc CO-Founder/President (214)-325 -6567

the aIa dallas BuIlt Design Awards

celebrate outstanding achievement in architectural design by AIA Dallas chapter members and AIA Northeast Texas section members. The purpose of the awards program is to honor the architects, clients, and consultants who work together to achieve design excellence, both in the metropolitan area and around the globe, and to elevate the value of architectural practice in the local community. Submissions were judged on the skill, creativity, and thoughtfulness with which they resolved the functional, formal, and technical requirements of the project. Congratulations to the 2021 winners!

AFFILI TE NEWS

HONOR AWARD

5G Studio Collaborative

1217 Main Street

Small Projects & Critic Award: Julia

Gamolina

Photographer: Adam Mork

HONOR AWARD

Perkins&Will

Collin College Technical Center

Large Projects

Photographer: James Steinkamp, Peter Molick, Devin Eichler

HONOR AWARD

Perkins&Will

Singing Hills Recreation Center

Small Projects

Photographer: James Steinkamp

HONOR AWARD

Perkins&Will

American Cancer Society, Hope Lodge

Large Projects & Critic Award: Julia Gamolina

Photographer: James Steinkamp, Peter Molick

PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD GFF

SoupMobile

Small Projects

Photographer: Andrew Adkison AIA

BUILT DESIGN AWARD JURORS 01 02 03

/01/ James Timberlake, FAIA, LEED Fellow is a partner at KieranTimberlake.

HONOR AWARD

Perkins&Will

Lubbock City Hall

Large Projects

Photographer: James Steinkamp

/02/ Kirsten Ring Murray, FAIA is principal/owner at Olson Kundig.

/03/ Marlon Blackwell, FAIA, is a practicing architect in Fayetteville, AK. n

On the keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape key.

HOW TO QUICKLY AND EASILY BOOST CELL SIGNAL IN YOUR COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

many CommerCIal real estate buildings - from offices and industrial spaces to restaurants, multifamily rentals and retailers - have sat vacant for over a year due to the pandemic. Now, as these buildings begin to repopulate, landlords and commercial property owners must ensure that their buildings are ready to accommodate the return, including guaranteeing reliable cell signal for all tenants. More important now than ever, strong cell signal is crucial for keeping tenants in any commercial property happy. However, several challenges exist in providing reliable service in commercial spaces.

Overloading the existing data infrastructure is a common issue—a result of the sheer volume of people using their devices at the same time in one combined space, which can affect the quality of cell service provided. For example, if during a big conference attendees experience a slowdown or are unable to send a work email with attachments, it is likely because there are too many people competing for the same amount of bandwidth. The same situation often happens in commercial buildings, where numerous people are simultaneously using their devices.

Poor cell signal can also be caused by a building’s construction materials. Concrete, wood, brick, stone, shingles, and drywall can have a similar effect, weakening and sometimes completely blocking signals. Even energy-efficient windows, which are coated in metal-oxide, can result in signals bouncing right off the surface.

Strong cell signal is no longer just a convenience – it is an absolute necessity. It allows for seamless collaboration between employees in the office and those who continue to work from home; it enables customers at restaurants and retailers to make payments on their phones and ensures tenants can stay in touch.

Cellular repeater technology is an affordable, quick way to immediately improve poor cellular signal. These repeaters find outside cell signal, amplify and distribute the improved signal within buildings. They work with all U.S. carriers, so will boost cell signals simultaneously for Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile users and others. Cell signal repeaters can be installed and turned on in a matter of days as opposed to an active distributed antenna system (DAS), which requires hardwiring a building and may take several months to complete.

Here are a few simple steps property owners can take to ensure they are selecting the right cellular signal repeater to guarantee reliable, consistent cell signal for employees, clients, and customers.

JEFF GUDEWICZ jgudewicz@wilsonelectronics.com

Jeff Gudewicz is the Chief Product Officer at Wilson Electronics.

IDENTIFY AREAS WITH WEAK SIGNAL

The first step any property owner should take to improve poor cell signal is to schedule a site survey, which will help identify the areas of the building with the weakest and strongest signals. A signal scan can also help property owners gather crucial details including bandwidth, strength levels and signal frequency on different floors and areas of a building. After pinpointing exactly where the signal is struggling most, a unique solution can be designed that will fit the customer’s specific needs and optimize signal where it's needed most.

SIZE MATTERS

There are many different options for cellular signal repeaters on the market, so make sure to select a product that fits your business needs. When selecting a repeater, the size of a building matters. A cellular signal repeater designed to work in a small office isn’t suitable for a large department store. Different repeaters are engineered to cover different areas, and there are unique repeaters to fit every building.

BE 5G READY

5G is a massive jump forward in communications technology. It delivers 10 times the speed, supports 100 times the number of devices and handles 10,000 times more traffic than 4G LTE. Major U.S. carriers have already invested in creating the infrastructure necessary to provide 5G nationwide, so 5G will be key for the CRE industry to implement. As such, make sure to select a cellular signal repeater system that supports 5G frequencies, so they’ll continue to be useful as wireless communications technology continues to evolve.

Having cellular signal repeaters with dedicated 5G support will improve the tenant experience, allow property owners to utilize 5G to communicate with tenants and create a marketing advantage for property owners. Having strong 5G signal will also allow commercial properties’ systems to work together in one integrated system, which will allow property owners to collect data on their utility usage so they can implement the most efficient mechanical processes possible.

FEATURES ARE IMPORTANT

A cellular signal repeater that is easy to monitor and use is important when deciding what solution is best for a commercial property. For example, many repeaters include a color LCD touch screen that allows property owners to easily monitor the status of their amplification systems. These displays show the gain and power levels of each band, so property owners can set up, control, and troubleshoot each antenna. Taking the time to do some research upfront will ensure that property owners can feel confident knowing the solution that they put into place will work for their budgets and business needs.

A cellular signal repeater is a great option for improving poor cell signal in commercial properties. Taking the time to do some research into the options available and what works best for each specific properties’ needs will provide strong signal throughout the building and most importantly, will help guarantee connected and content tenants. n

AMAZ NG BU LDINGS

ANGELA O’BYRNE aobyrne@e-perez.com

BRINGING THE COSMIC DOWN TO EARTH: THE SHANGHAI ASTRONOMY MUSEUM

If you Were to set a formal challenge for an architect, confiscating their straight lines and right angles would be a particularly diabolical move. However, that’s precisely the limitation the team at Ennead Architects set for themselves as they designed the forms of the Shanghai Astronomy Museum.

In part a tribute to China’s history of astronomy and their ongoing space exploration efforts, the Museum is the largest dedicated astronomy museum in the world. Taking its cues from the curves of orbits and the movement of celestial bodies, the building itself is a marvel of spirals, circles, and spheres in gleaming whites and metallics. You won’t find rigid, rectilinear geometry in space, after all.

From the ground, the building resembles a cross between a futuristic spacecraft and a kind of astrolabe. Considering the stars’ role in navigation, those resonances are likely no accident. That connection between the sky and the sea is reinforced by a large reflecting pool near the entrance and a prominent pearl-like planetarium, which seems to hover gracefully above an oyster-like “shell.” At night, the orb is illuminated from within, resembling a glowing planet or moon.

Of course, sphere-shaped planetariums are nothing new in the world of star study. Typically, astronomy is presented in dark rooms, with star projections shot onto domed ceilings. However,

the Shanghai Astronomy Museum is no mere venue for Pink Floyd light shows. It’s a 420,000 square-foot embodiment of the beauty of space.

“In making this building, we wanted to create a place where the institutional mission is fully enmeshed with an architecture that itself is teaching and finds form in some of the fundamental principles that shape our universe,” explains Thomas Wong, a Design Partner at Ennead and the project’s chief architect.

You are slower than a herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter.

Angela O’Byrne, FAIA, is President of Perez, APC, a 70+ year-old architecture, planning, interior design, and construction firm. She is also a Contributing Editor of

From above, the complex resembles a giant orbital model. An extension of the existing Shanghai Science and Technology Museum complex, the Museum is ringed by concentric lawns arranged in elegant terraces. Conceptually, it was inspired by astronomy’s infamous “three-body problem,” as the Museums’ three main features seem to exert a kinetic and unpredictable pull over each other.

Rather than merely attempting to bring space to life solely though exhibits and artifacts, the Museum puts visitors in direct, physical engagement with the very forces that shape our universe, grounding the celestial through intentional design and careful vantage points.

Throughout the Museum, dramatic skylights and windows highlight the passage of the sun throughout the day, reminding visitors that we’re always in motion—whether we realize it or not. The passing of the years is marked by an elegant, gold-clad opening in the ceiling called the Oculus, a kind of elaborate sundial. Throughout the day, its light moves across the floor to mark the earth’s rotation. And each year, at midday on the summer solstice, the Oculus casts sunlight on a specific spot, demonstrating the reliable precision of our orbit.

Elsewhere, the Museum evokes a sense of weightlessness with its massive, suspended spherical planetarium, seemingly in defiance of the familiar force of gravity. Submerged halfway into the building, the floating orb even encourages daring visitors to venture underneath.

The Museum’s final focal point is the sky itself. Visitors’ progress up a spiraling ramp culminates on the building’s rooftop. Here, sky-gazers can step into the middle of an inverted dome, resembling a massive satellite dish. The concave dish effectively erases the surrounding skyline and encourages a moment of contemplation and wonder. “And at the end of your visit, there is this culminating moment directly with the sky, which is framed and supported by the architecture,” says Wong.

The Shanghai Astronomy Museum is a heartening reminder of how a curatorial environment can serve to enhance its subject matter. When handled well, a museum’s design can raise as many questions as the exhibits it contains, bringing its subject matter to life in imaginative and meaningful ways. n

from the edItor’s desk:. Here’s a company we really think you should know about.

Even before the pandemic, air quality was increasingly on people’s minds, from factories to forest fires. Now, amid coronavirus concerns, indoor air quality devices are having a moment as some of the hottest property technologies.

Building owners, businesses and investors alike are betting big that the machines will both protect people and make them feel safer as they return to the offices and other indoor settings. Enter Wynd. The Redwood, California-based company, founded in 2014, recently made headlines in commercial real estate trade publications for raising $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Greensoil PropTech Ventures and DBL Partners.

Wynd’s flagship product is actually two separate portable products – a small, sleek personal air purifier, that can be placed on tables or transported in vehicles and a tracker that slots into the bottom of the device. The personal monitoring portion of the device can be clipped onto clothing to track air quality anywhere you go.

Wynd describess its stout, water-bottle-sized Plus and Essential personal air purifiers as creating “bubbles” or clean air zones immediately around users. Such products are spreading the mainstream use of high efficiency particulate air or HEPA filters and sophisticated tracking and air quality improvement tools that were once only used on spacecraft and in hospitals.

Wynd’s devices actually make real-time adjustments to how they protect people based on what they detect, and they’re WiFi-enabled to make operating and air quality reports easily accessible via Wynd’s app.

The company also offers the Wynd Max room, an air purifier about the size of a dehumidifier, which has a 1,200-square-foot range. It can be paired with the company’s Halo air quality monitor – smoke detector-sized technology that can be placed anywhere in a room for detection.

Wynd is using its recent venture capital-backed fundraising to expand deeper into serving enterprise clients, offering a subscription monitoring service marketed toward small businesses. Property owners can place Wynd’s sensor clusters on walls or inside of buildings’ existing HVAC systems for increased monitoring power. It has been featured in a range of publications, from People to TechCrunch and Time, for its ease of use, affordability and the power of these devices. In other words, these “smart” air purification products make for smart investments.

Shop Wynd’s personal air purifiers (starting at $199) and room solutions (beginning at $399) at: shop.hellowynd.com (And see the companion article on page 29.) n

THE FACTOR YANJIN

Yanjin is the world’s narrowest metropolis. Built along the Nanxi River, between the steep mountains of China’s Yunnan Province, it’s hard to believe that such a place actually exists in real life –no less a city 450,000 people!

At its narrowest point, Yanjin is less than 100 feet wide; the widest part of the city is around 980 feet. It has one main road on each side and even though the city stretches thousands of feet along the river, there aren’t many bridges. Many of the apartment buildings are located right on the banks of the river and are built on stilt-like thin pillars, to protect them from flooding in case the water level rises.

Watch a 2-minute video here n

A pat on the back is only a few centimeters from a kick in the butt.

THE OFFICE APOCALYPSE

Investors BurIed theIr heads in the sand as retail died. Office buildings will likely meet the same demise.

The death knell for the retail sector was a long time coming. Cracks in its foundation began to emerge about a decade ago, as ubiquitous American malls and big-box stores started shedding customers to e-commerce giants. Landlords across the country scrambled to lure customers back by devising ways to turn simple shops into customer experiences and opening in-store restaurants and galleries. Then, COVID-19 hit, and even these experiential strategies couldn’t save retailers. Customers grew wary of indoor activities and gained comfort shopping online, dealing an irreversible blow to physical retail.

Retail REITs reported a 23.6% decline in funds from operations in the last quarter of 2020, per the National Association of Retail Investment Trusts. But reports from institutional investors, listed retail REITs, and large landlords painted a much rosier picture.

Relative to the massive loss of value, there has been surprisingly little forthright acknowledgement of the true extent of the carnage from key stakeholders including pension funds, life insurance companies, and other institutional investors. Despite their purportedly conservative approach to managing “other people’s money,” they did not divest from retail assets in any significant way. A combination of factors may explain why they have buried their heads in the sand -- assurances from fund managers earning fees, a dearth of clear reporting, or a lack of knowledge of what’s

RICHARD RUBIN richard@therepvblik.com

Richard Rubin is the Founder and CEO of Repvblik, specialists in adaptive conversions and reuse of distressed commercial properties.

going on at the coal face. Only those shorting the market say that retail is dead.

Our cherished in-person activities will likely resume as the pandemic abates, but with much higher perceived hurdles. Now, we are spoiled for choice. We can watch movies from the comfort of our own homes, get our favorite dishes delivered to our doorstep, and order appliances that are delivered and installed the next day. The writing was on the wall for physical retail ten years ago, but its demise only became clear amid a global shutdown, cementing what is now commonly known as the “retail apocalypse.” For commercial office properties, a similar trajectory is afoot.

NOT WORTH THE WATER COOLER GOSSIP

The pandemic unquestionably shifted the way work gets done. Corporations were forced to either adapt or die. Federal programs helped buoy certain businesses, but ultimately had to accept that many folks would be working remotely or not at all. Only essential workers in most countries were permitted to work in-person at various junctures, and now, the emergence of the Delta variant coupled with vaccine hesitancy threatens to claim many more lives.

Work as we know it is changing permanently -- not unlike what happened to the retail sector. Commercial office buildings were once symbolic bastions of financial power to woo clients and to lord over competitors, shaping corporate culture. Employees had to plan their commutes, find childcare during the week, and painstakingly schedule meetings accounting for physical constraints. Now,

many have discovered they prefer working from home, and research shows productivity has risen as a result.

Corporate tenants probably won’t miss having to pay rental and office overhead costs if their offices stay remote. As for workers themselves, they might find it a relief not to waste hours commuting in traffic or buying pricey office attire just for the meager thrill of water cooler gossip.

THIS TIME AROUND...

Of course, this is a gross simplification of certain aspects of office life. But many companies are preparing for remote or hybrid work to become the norm. Tech companies like Twitter and Slack have declared most of their workforce permanently remote. The US federal government is reportedly shrinking its office footprint, and so is JPMorgan Chase, one of the country’s largest landlords. 74% of Fortune 500 CEOs expect to reduce their companies’ commercial office space, per a June report. Companies are largely realizing they can get things done faster and with less fanfare than they did in person.

We are now just beginning to witness what could become known as the “office apocalypse.” Already, offices in Manhattan are experiencing their highest vacancy rate on record, with 19% of office space unused, The New York Times reported in July. Office vacancy rates in cities like Los Angeles and Chicago are even higher. Undoubtedly, people will still work from offices, just as they still sometimes go to malls to shop, but not to the extent they did before. Consumer habits have changed forever, and there will be no reversion to the pre-COVID status quo

The very same behemoth institutions which held onto retail real estate assets will do what they did before, but this time with commercial office space. They will underreport the extent of the shift and attribute their lack of tenants to a need for redevelopment rather than a fundamental problem. Investment committees will sign off on deals. Acquisitions will be made. Pension funds and their brethren will pour billions into the office sector. It may take another ten years for the effects to play out, but the “office apocalypse” is well underway. n

The more crap you put up with, the more crap you are going to get.

THE HAPPIEST CITIES IN THE US IN WHICH TO BUY A HOME

onlIne mortgage advIsor reCently used an AI facial recognition tool to scrape over 300,000 geotagged pictures on Instagram to analyze the happiness levels of homebuyers in the U.S. and globally.

They collected a set of photos that featured various hashtags relating to having recently purchased a home, including #homeowner, #firsttimehomebuyer, and #newhome, and then used AI to discover the most dominant emotions displayed in the faces in every photo, allowing them to rank the most and least happy locations around the US and the world for homebuyers. Their key findings were that Atlanta is the unhappiest city to buy a home in America (with homebuyers 15.9% less happy than the national average on the happiness scale); that Miami is the second least happy (scoring 11.1% less happy than the national average); and that San Francisco is in close third (with 11%). The happiest city to buy a home in the US is Louisville, KY (with homebuyers 6.5% happier than the national average on the happiness scale).

The analysis was performed in August 2021 and considered two sets of Instagram posts: one was found using the hashtag #selfie and the other was found using hashtags relating to a recent home purchase, e.g. #homeowner. Every photo in our analysis was scanned with the Microsoft Azure facial recognition tool which analyzed and scored the levels of different emotions present. (The detectable emotions are anger, contempt, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise, and neutral.)

See all the results around the world at: onlinemortgageadvisor.co.uk/blog/where-are-the-happiestnew-homeowners-in-the-uk and see the full list of US data here and download the maps here n

You can go anywhere you want if you look serious and carry a clipboard.

Eat one live toad the first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.

PROFILES OF SURV VAL

GROWING OUT LOUD, DARLING

she Is the people “pusher”, he is the systems guy. It’s all about the people— coaching, consulting, marketing, human resources and more. Did I meet someone who is as energetic, passionate, and excited about people and business as I am?

I sat with Amy House, the founder and owner of Growing Out Loud, Darling in San Antonio. In her corporate career, Amy was hired by companies who had underperforming divisions to correct that situatoin. She then started getting headhunted by companies who were looking for fixers. She loved what she did and in 2014 she decided it was time to stop working for other people and to completely do her own thing.

Roxana: Who are your clients?

Amy: We work with executives or business owners, start-ups or companies that have been in business for many years, and everything in between. We do all industries, blue collar, banking, real estate, authors writing books, people doing product development, restaurants etc. Business is business and people are people.

Roxana: What do you like most about what you do?

Amy: I thrive on watching people succeed. When other people are succeeding that is when I succeed. I really believe in that. Business at its core is its people. Whether it's people working to improve themselves and how they think and operate, or how they communicate with others, how they lead and mentor others, every part of a business has a people-driven system. Businesses that struggle, struggle to communicate with people they lead. They struggle to build a culture with people. It's all about people. If I can help other people recognize how to improve that, they start getting results.

ROXANA TOFAN roxana@clearintegritygroup.com

Roxana: How do you help businesses and people?

Amy: We consult and coach in different ways. Consulting is us providing a recommendation but then clients are on their own to execute. Coaching brings accountability and we have different programs like mastermind networking or one-on-one coaching programs. It's very strategic and people must commit and do the work for it to be effective.

Roxana: What is toughest for business owners/professional to address?

Amy: They have to become self-aware that they've stopped growing personally and change that. They have to invest in their people constantly and commit to quarterly evaluations and discussions. And, they have to let go of services and products that are no longer viable. “We’ve always done it this way, or we invested so much time in it” is a recipe for business failure.

nesses pulled back, and our clients showed up in a big way. They had parking lot parties with social distancing, meetings at picnic benches with people bringing their own lunch. Salespeople met clients in their parking lots. When other companies were stuck and went silent, we had clients showcase their team and how their team was still servicing customers working from home, with their children doing homework at the dining room table. The message was simple, “We’re still here for you, and we are people just like you. Dealing with the same obstacles and we are here to help.” We simply changed the marketing message. And people engaged.

Roxana: What did your company do to grow during last 18 months?

Amy: Our company bought fun simple gifts every month and we mailed them out to clients letting them know we are here, we are working. Our business doubled last year, just because we made people smile. We weren’t sending gifts asking for their business, we were just letting them know there is still joy. People want to be around people who are positive, and it worked for us. We started telling people that we're going to be at this park, on this day, so bring McDonald's or Burger King or Whataburger and let’s meet – and people would show up.

Roxana: How has COVID affected your clients’ businesses?

Amy: I have always said that when people are retreating it is an opportunity to push forward. When you see people play defense rather than offense, there is an opportunity for your business to gain market share and do it strategically. The clients that worked with us during COVID grew 20% to 40%. Why? Because other people in their busi-

Eighteen months since COVID started and Amy and Doug have just opened their new office after always working virtually. They started a podcast show last year, have a You Tube Channel and a book is in the future. They discussed the opportunity to franchise their business model for people to do consulting or marketing with a model that works, or even open satellite offices in places like Dallas or Albuquerque.

Their approach and advice is quite simple: be creative, don't pull back, figure out how to move forward no matter what, because when you push forward, you get business mileage and gain market share. Like they would say, use these techniques and “Grow Out Loud, Darling”. n

Roxana Tofan is a commercial real estate and business broker and the founder and owner of Clear Integrity Group in San Antonio. She is also a Contributing Editor of

THE FACTOR

SETENIL DE LAS BODEGAS

It’s amazing how people can take even the most unusual of environments and find a way to build their homes. Setenil De Las Bodegas is one such place. Located in the Andalucía province of Spain, it has a history that dates back thousands of years. It inhabitants have carved away the walls of the gorge and built their houses into the recesses - homes that have been built and rebuilt over the centuries and are occupied to this day. Ancient rock looms over the main street, and in one place there are houses that have a million tons of rock above them and on top of that rock, there are even more houses.

Named after its once flourishing wineries - bodegas its white houses seem to emerge from the rocks, and some have rock roofs and even olive groves on their roofs. People chose to settle here for practical reasons. The natural caves turned out to be ideal living quarters; rather than having to build entire houses to keep out the heat in the summer and the cold in the winter, all they needed to build was a facade. It is believed people have been living here since pre-historic times. Today, there are around 3000 inhabitants (quite literally) - living under a rock.

When the bosses talk about improving productivity, they are never talking about themselves.

DIVERSI NS

I’D RATHER HAVE A

MY PREFERENCE?

THE DAY I FOUND OUT MY MOTHER WAS THE TOOT FAIRY

IVAN FRIEDMAN ifriedman@rcsrealestate.com

Ivan Friedman is the President and CEO of RCS Real Estate Advisors.

CovId-19 reWrote the rules of retail, but, in reality, those “rules” were already being rewritten. Now, as to the age-old question “What’s next?”, we are looking both backward and forward to define the impact of all the events of the last 18 months on retail, retailing and retail real estate. The answers and the impact on U.S. consumers and consumption are wide-ranging and somewhat surprising given the ongoing impact of COVID on everyday life.

WHAT’S NEXT: MORE CLOSURES OR STORE OPENINGS?

Prior to 2020, many retailers acknowledged they were overstored in North America, driven in part by the glut of retail and the availability of capital driving growth and expansion. The rise of online shopping was seen as an opportunity and a risk, generally less than 20% of total sales and a subordinate part of the business to stores.

Of course, that has all changed from the online business dramatically evolving with greatly improved transactional fluidity to the consumers’ confidence in purchasing online. The results for online sales were sensational for most retailers.

Today, we see business at stores rebounding at a faster pace than many expected due to pent up demand, government stimulus and now nearly full employment

NEGOTIATING

HISTORIC CHANGE WHAT’S NEXT FOR RETAILERS?

levels pushing up wages. The impact of pandemic-related disruptions on retail in the areas of logistics, material shortages amid supply constraints and high demand in the market have led to pricing strength and margin growth. But which of these trends is short-term or transient and which is going to sustain itself into the future?

• In-store sales: Our belief is that many retailers will experience an early holiday buying surge with purchases to avoid “sold out” products and delivery times that miss the gift giving days. We expect the closing weeks before the gift giving season to be chaotic and sold-out products will be a norm both in stores and online. That said, the stimulus monies are gone and that will be impactful ultimately.

• E-commerce: The elevated levels of online spending are not going to subside. These sales are permanent and profitable, and consumers will love it!

• Wages: The surge in wages are to subside or retreat. Ditto— staffing shortages.

• Logistics: Inevitably the issues of logistics and product shortages will be resolved. But the truth is that no one knows when, and it’s likely it won’t happen until late 2022 or maybe in the first half 2023.

So, who is taking advantage of today’s market and thriving? Will the pace of store closures subside? And what does store growth look like? From the activity of our clients, we are seeing interest in store growth. Critically, that growth is combined with portfolio efforts to maintain lease terms going forward to reflect a future that will include a normalization of sales, supply constraints, commodity inflation and increasing staffing costs. These issues are not receding or they’ll be doing so very slowly over the next couple of years.

That said, store growth is happening with many of the best owners and developers of retail real estate. Property owners and retailers are collaborating to maintain retail store portfolios with terms that are mutually beneficial, sharing opportunities for upside benefits and, of course, downside risk. To date we have transacted over 100 new store locations for our clients and see 2022 as full of further opportunities for smart growth.

It’s encouraging to see our clients growing after such a difficult period. We advocate a formula for successful expansion that includes more of a shared risk/reward structure than the deals that have been historically transacted. We think this is the model for the future of retail and store growth and to date the reception has been very positive. n

RESHORING AN INCREASINGLY POPULAR OPTION FOR MANY U.S. COMPANIES

as freIght expenses and overseas labor costs rise, it’s become obvious to some corporations that offshoring doesn’t hold the same appeal it once did.

Even as long ago as 2005, economic projections called for reshoring to become a trend worth investigating. Gasoline, for example, was a mere 69 cents per gallon in the 1990s but spiked to $3.50 per gallon in 2019 before settling at $3.19 in August 2021. Consider, too, foreign demand for better wages. In the past, manufacturers could make their products in Mexico for about 25 cents. Today, that cost is closer to $4, while labor costs remain mostly flat throughout the United States.

Now, factor in a global pandemic. Labor and material shortages following the initial shutdown are now resulting in extensive lead times. A full 36% of small businesses say they are experiencing domestic delays – particularly in the manufacturing, construction, and trade sectors, according to a U.S. Census Small Business Pulse survey. Experts do not have pre-pandemic data to compare it to, but believe these levels are considerably higher than in the past.

Those factors have led companies to find that the cost of keeping business in the United States is preferable to overseas transportation and labor costs. The result? A scramble for industrial space within American borders. Industrial vacancy rates remain at an all-time low, despite high levels of investment in new facilities. Industrial developers report twice the level of interest they are accustomed to. Throughout the country, there simply is not enough warehousing space available to meet this spike in demand.

For companies contemplating a move toward reshoring, the considerations are extensive. Minimizing downtime and supply chain disruption is a top priority, and those things can be achieved when you plan in advance. Consider these factors:

ERIC VOYLES eric.voyles@texamericascenter.com

Eric Voyles is the Executive Vice President & Chief Economic Development Officer at TexAmericas Center.

EXISTING OR NEW BUILD?

Determine first whether you would be best served by purchasing an existing building or a new facility designed to suit you. Don’t expect to catch a price break either way. While sky-high steel prices are lending toward more expensive building costs right now, the lack of availability on the market has existing buildings selling at premium prices.

SIZE CONSIDERATIONS

What is the smallest building you can handle? On the contrary, what is the most amount of space you expect to utilize? Begin your property search by looking for options within those parameters.

KEY AMENITIES

How many dock doors do you need? Which ceiling height? How much acreage? Do you need to be located near rail access? Don’t pay a premium for amenities that simply aren’t useful to your core business needs.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

If you have multiple trucks entering and leaving your facility daily, you may need to be within two miles of the interstate. If you don’t ship nearly as much product, you can opt for a less expensive building that’s further away. Just be sure there are 80,000-pound truck routes leading all the way to the interstate.

Once you’ve narrowed down your possibilities of properties, look more closely at your top candidates:

GET THIRD-PARTY VALIDATION ON THE CONDITION OF THE GROUND

If a property is truly development-ready, you can begin construction much sooner. You don’t experience a lengthy delay while the infrastructure, utilities, and transportation requirements are put into place.

ERR ON THE BIGGER SIDE

If you’re debating between two properties and one is a bit tight while the other is a tad large – go big. Factor in your 5 - 10-year growth potential. Once you are already established in your building, you don’t want to be so landlocked that you need to move again. The cost to move machinery and the disruption to production down the line is too high.

LOOK FOR FLEXIBILITY

Many developers will negotiate with tenants to give them access to additional acreage for several years, with the option to decline or accept that land later.

CONSIDER NEW AVENUES

If you’re a heavy truck user, it might be worth considering a location with rail access so you can eventually make the switch. Trains can carry four times the volume that trucks can, and they can do it for less. The downside is that rail is slower than trucks. Factor in your lead time and whether that’s a reasonable trade-off.

IDENTIFY NEARBY SOCIAL AMENITIES

Restaurants, hotels, and nightlife might not seem critical to industrial builds, but consider that your employees will want to go out to lunch. Clients will need a place to stay for site visits. Traveling executives will look for evening entertainment after their meetings.

Ultimately, companies find that reshoring gives them stability in the crucial areas of labor costs and logistics. It is a viable, longterm solution for many companies looking to better manage costs while enjoying the benefits of doing business in America. There is value in doing business on U.S. soil. n

athens, the CapItal of Greece and the birthplace of democracy, is renowned for some of the world's greatest cultural monuments like the /01/ Parthenon (built on the sacred Acropolis Hill, built in 448 BC on the site of an ancient sanctuary of goddess Athena), the enduring symbol of Ancient Greek beauty. It is one of the few temples that was entirely constructed of marble and the only one with Doric order, the oldest form in Greek architecture. In 1687 AD, the Venetians troops besieged the Turks (who were in the Parthenon) with a bomb that destroyed a great part of the masterpiece. (Parthenon means the apartment of the virgin and Athena was the goddess of wisdom, war and was also a virgin.)

/02/ The Temple of the Olympian Zeus is a half-ruined temple dedicated to Zeus, the chief of the Olympian Gods. Its construction dates to the 6th century and it is very close to other monuments of Athens.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF ATHENS

/03/ The Temple of Hephaestus (built around 450 BC) is the best-preserved ancient temple in Greece. It was dedicated to Hephaestus, the ancient god of fire and Athena, goddess of pottery and crafts. It was designed by Iktinus, one of the architects who also worked on the Parthenon.

After the Acropolis, the second most famous building in Athens is the /04/ Greek Parliament. With its austere Neoclassical architecture, this three-floor building was originally constructed in 1842 to become the palace and official residence of the Greek royal family of that time. In 1929, this building was eventually turned into the Greek Parliament. In front of the building is the Monument of the Unknown Soldier where the famous changing of the guards takes place.

Experiencing Athens (a city of 664,000, with an area population of over 3,000,000) truly means experiencing history. So much of it has been around for so long. But here is a taste of contemporary landmarks that are changing the look of the city.

/05/ The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center is a public space, where everyone has free access and can participate in a multitude of cultural, educational, athletic, environmental, and recreational activities and events. It includes the Greek National Opera, the National Library of Greece as well as the Stavros Niarchos Park, one of the largest green areas in the city.

If you are good, you will be assigned all the work. If you are really good, you will get out of it.

/06/ The Athens Concert Call (Megaron Mousikis), with its two large and two small concert halls, offers firstclass performances, conference centers, an auditorium, a digital library, gift shop, restaurant, a new ice-skating rink for the winter and a lawn for starry, outdoor summer concerts.

tinos Karamanlis chose the site in 1976, but its grand opening decades later, in 2009, reignited the age-old debate of whether the Parthenon Marbles should be repatriated from Britain. Swiss-French deconstructivist Bernard Tschumi wanted to create a modern building that would fit into the picturesque landscape using light, movement and mathematical precision inspired by the clarity of Ancient Greek structures.

/09/ The Onassis Cultural Center is a space to host modern cultural expression in all its forms— it has two state-of-the-art theaters with superb acoustics, exhibition spaces and lecture centers. The contemporary design building opened to the public in 2010, designed by French firm Architecture Studio which was chosen from 66 other proposals in an international competition.

/07/ The Athens Hilton was hailed by Conrad Hilton as “the most beautiful Hilton in the world” at its opening in 1963. Many Athenians, however, lamented that it overshadowed the Acropolis with its 213 ft height, making it the tallest city building at the time. Four top Greek architects (Emmanouil Vourekas, Prokopis Vassiliadis, Spyros Staikos and Antonis Georgiades) worked on its construction (1958-1963). In 2003, Alexandros Tombazis and Charis Bougadelis added a seven-floor northern wing ahead of the 2004 Athens Olympics.

/08/ The Acropolis Museum is like a new Parthenon – displaying artifacts from the ancient site – standing as a monument of the modern Greek image and custodian of Greek heritage. Greek statesman Konstan-

George Batzios, a world-renowned Greek architect, looks at Athens and sees chaos, charm, and torment. “Antennas, balcony awnings, hanging laundry, railings and solar panels! As an architect, I function like a chameleon. I feel that things need to be toned down amid the current situation being experienced in Greece – both as a result of the crisis and the chaotic urban planning environment. The chaos is the charm and torment of Athens. We need a framework that defines certain basic characteristics of a European city, and which can be used to enhance the city’s charm. Barcelona, for example, has managed to reach a state of controlled chaos. Athens can try and do the same.” n

The people who go to conferences are the ones who shouldn’t.

ê The haphazard architecture and often messy urban planning of Athens has its own attraction.

THE MAGNIFICENT BUILDINGS OF LOS ANGELES

We often desCrIBe as an eclectic publication, and, in that way, it is a lot like the architecture of Los Angeles. Some cities have a particular architectural identity but this one has many. There was the American Craftsman style, then Beaux-Arts and Spanish Colonial Revival and Mayan Revival, and then Art Deco arrived and proliferated during the many years that movie studios became the cornerstone of an economy that had previously relied primarily on oil.

/01/ U.S. Bank Tower, known locally as the Library Tower and formerly as the First Interstate Bank World Center, is a 1,018-foot skyscraper in downtown LA. It is the third-tallest building in California, the second-tallest building in Los Angeles, the eighteenth-tallest in the United States, the third-tallest west of the Mississippi River after the Salesforce Tower (in San Francisco) and the Wilshire Grand Center (below), and the 129th-tallest building in the world. .) It was designed (by Henry N. Cobb of the architectural firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners) to resist an earthquake of 8.3 on the Richter scale.

/02/ Completed in 2017, Wilshire Grand Center is the tallest building in the U.S. west of Chicago. (At 1,100 feet, it is taller than the U.S. Bank Tower [#1 above] by 82 feet.). It is a mixed-use hotel, retail, observation decks, shopping mall, and office complex with 67,000 sf of retail, 677,000 sf of Class

A office space, and the 889-room InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown, with the tallest open-air bar in the Western Hemisphere.

/03/ Los Angeles Union Station (LAUS) is the main railway station in Los Angeles and the largest railroad passenger terminal in the Western United States. Built in the 1930s, it combines Art Deco, Mission Revival, and Streamline Moderne styles. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and today is by far the busiest train station in the Western United States.

/04/ Also from the 1930s is the Title Guarantee and Trust Company Building designed by the father-son architectural team of John B. and Donald Parkinson.

/05/ The Richard J. Riordan Central Library (a/k/a the Los Angeles Central Library) is both a

leading public research library and a major architectural landmark. Comprised of the original 1926 library (now called the Goodhue Building) and a 1993 addition (named for former mayor Tom Bradley) it has been designated a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It was the last project of New York architect Bertram Goodhue, and the most innovative work of his career.

/06/ The Art Deco Los Angeles City Hall, completed in 1928, is the center of the government of the city.Its distinctive tower shows the influence of

At work, the authority of a person is inversely proportional to the number of pens that person is carrying.

the Los Angeles Public Library (#05 above), completed shortly before this structure was begun. An image of City Hall has been on Los Angeles Police Department badges since 1940. Interestingly, to keep the city's architecture harmonious, prior to the late 1950s the Charter of the City of Los Angeles did not permit any portion of any building other than a purely decorative tower to be more than 150 ft, so, from 1928 until 1964, City Hall was the tallest building in Los Angeles.

/07/ Opened in 2003, Walt Disney Concert Hall is the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Designed by architect Frank Gehry, it is an internationally recognized architectural landmark and one of the most acoustically sophisticated concert halls in the world.

/08/ Built in 1969, and a paradigm of brutalist architecture, Saint Basil Catholic Church, according to its designer Albert C. Martin, is “a marriage of early Christian with contemporary to recall the time when the church often served as a place of refuge. It is devoid of external embellishments as early churches were, but it is not a carbon copy of early churches. It at one time retains the feeling of the past and present."

/09/The Pacific Design Center, designed by Cesar Pelli, adds color to Hollywood. It was completed in 2013 and is open to design professionals only (e.g., designers, architects). It represents over 2,000 leading manufacturers dedicated to the best in residential and business interior furnishings, educational opportunities, and resource information.

/10/ The Coca-Cola Building is a bottling plant modeled as a Streamline Moderne building designed by architect Robert V. Derrah with the appearance of a ship with portholes, catwalk and a bridge from five existing industrial buildings in 1939. It was designated Los Angeles HistoricCultural Monument in 1975.

/11/ The Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites is a 367-foot, 33-story hotel constructed between 1974 and 1976. Designed by architect John C. Portman Jr., The futuristic hotel is the largest hotel in the city and the top floor has a revolving restaurant and bar.

/12/ The Getty Center is a campus of the Getty Museum, the Getty Research Institute, the Getty Conservation Institute, the Getty Foundation, and the J. Paul Getty Trust. IT opened to the public in 1997 and is known for its architecture, gardens, and views overlooking Los Angeles. Designed by architect Richard Meier, the campus (draws 1.8 million visitors annually) also included special provisions to address concerns regarding earthquakes and fires.

/13/ The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels opened in 2002. The center of the Roman Catholic dioces, there was considerable controversy over both its deconstructivist and modern design, and the costs incurred in its construction and furnishing, as well as the decision to build a crypt under the cathedral.

/14/ The Chemosphere is a modernist house designed by John Lautner in 1960. The building, which the Encyclopædia Britannica once called "the

most modern home built in the world" is admired both for the ingenuity of its solution to the problem of the site and for its unique octagonal design. Since 1998, it has been the Los Angeles home of Benedikt Taschen, of the German publishing house Taschen, who has had the house restored.

/15/ Grauman's Chinese Theatre is a movie palace on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame. The original theatre was commissioned following the success of the nearby Grauman's Egyptian Theatre. Both are in Exotic Revival style architecture, and both were built by a partnership headed by Sid Grauman between 1926-1927. Among the theatre's features are the concrete blocks in the forecourt, which bear the signatures, footprints, and handprints of popular motion picture personalities from the 1920s to the present day. Originally named Grauman's Chinese Theatre, it was renamed Mann's Chinese Theatre in 1973; that name lasted until 2001, after which it reverted to its original name. In 2013, Chinese electronics manufacturer TCL Corporation purchased the facility's naming rights (and it is now known as TCL Chinese Theatre.) n

It seemed so romantIC — and now so long ago — when Morgan Darnell courted Sara in Tennessee, finally convincing her they should marry and (in 1856) join a wagon train traveling along the “Trail of Tears,” through Indian territory, and across the Red River into Texas. In a twist of fate, Sara arrived in Dallas a 19-yearold widow, armed with plenty of pluck, and determined to open

BOOK REVIEWS

a general store in the tiny settlement of log cabins on the Trinity River. Standing in her way were cattle chasers, buffalo hunters, freighters, lawyers, and a bordello madame set on taking over the town. Would she be able to pull herself up by the bootstraps and overcome her own uncertainty, vandalism, threats and even being shot?

In Gone to Dallas: The Storekeeper 1856-1861, Laurie Moore-Moore spins a highly entertaining tale of migration, betrayal, dreams, and determination, salted with historically accurate events, and populated with real characters. It’s Portis’ True Grit meets Harrigan’s One Great Thing, A History of Texas.

Readers will follow Sara as she strives to create her store while living Dallas’ true history — from the beginnings of La Réunion (the European colony across the Trinity) to a frozen river, a grand

“The predominance of singlefamily home zoning regulations challenge access to affordable housing for a significant proportion of the population.”

Family models have evolved, society has reframed the role of cities, and ongoing urban realities demand opportunities to create housing for all, from firsttime homeowners to retirees, she added.

ball and the mighty fire that burns Dallas to the ground. Dallas is a challenging place, especially with the Civil War looming. Even with the friendship of a former Texas Ranger and Dallas’ most important citizen — another woman will Sara be strong enough to meet the challenge? Failure means being destitute in Dallas.

Laurie Moore-Moore was dubbed the “Luxury Real Estate Diva” by the Chicago Tribune during 15 years as founder and CEO of The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing. Previously, she

units (ADUs) as a way to address the needs of the aging population, boomerang kids and others. Transforming existing spaces, like basements and garages, that once housed “stuff” into livable spaces that now house people has become her passion, and these projects form the infrastructure of Housing for Humans.

co-founded Real Trends, Inc., a publishing, communications and consulting business. She is the author of Rich Buyer, Rich Seller — the Real Estate Agents’ Guide to Marketing Luxury Homes.

An early review: “Fiction and fact combine to personalize and to introduce people to history. Gone to Dallas is the compelling story of a young widow who must build a new life in the 1850s in Dallas, a tiny log-cabin village. Sara’s story is compelling and teaches us—in a fascinating narrative—what was happening in Dallas at the time. A recommended read to learn Texas history in an enjoyable manner.” --Douglass W. McDonald, Former CEO of The Alamo.

A copy of this work (just in time for Christmas) is available to one lucky contest winner.

(Please see the inside back cover.)

When you don’t know what to do, walk fast and look worried.

the quIntessentIal “amerICan dream,” in all its white-picketfence glory, may be exactly what caused the American nightmare that keeps millions awake at night — housing insecurity. “The overabundance of homogeneous housing is socially, racially and economically exclusionary,” said architect Ileana Schinder.

Schinder’s new book, Housing for Humans: A Book to Imagine, Create and Design a New Housing Model in America, is a provocative exploration into the history and causes of America’s housing crisis that challenges homeowners, policymakers and designers to re-imagine the future of housing for an ever-evolving population.

Schinder makes a compelling case for the design and implementation of additional dwelling

By normalizing the economic and personal realities of families in need of affordable housing that offers equitable access to community resources, Schinder launches a much-needed conversation regarding America’s prohibitively expensive housing market and provides a viable, sustainable solution.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ileana Schinder is an architect in Washington, D.C. She graduated with a Bachelor’s in Architecture from Universidad Nacional de Cordoba (Argentina) and an M.A. in Communications

from the American University (Washington, D.C.). To educate the public on housing issues, Ileana also writes blogs and holds educational sessions to inspire and promote innovative models of homes. n

A copy of this work (just in time for Christmas) is available to one lucky contest winner.

(Please see the inside back cover.)

Following the rules will not get the job done.

GROWING YOUR REAL ESTATE BUSINESS WITH VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS

When our real estate business, Good Life Real Estate Group, was growing by leaps and bounds in 2017, selling over 200 homes, we tapped into the power of virtual assistants. The skill and savvy of these virtual professionals helped us list and market homes, stay in touch with buyers and other agents, answer phones, post on social media, and do a litany of different tasks. This freed us up to work directly with potential buyers and sellers and grow the business even more.

We scaled the business with the help of virtual assistants we trained and who, in turn, trained new assistants. This created a network of highly trained professionals who could step in at a moment's notice on any task.

Growing your real estate business with virtual assistants isn't difficult. If you're looking to scale your business and know your strengths and weaknesses, putting virtual assistants into place can help you scale fast. Here are some important things to keep in mind or consider when bringing on virtual assistants.

WHAT ARE VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS?

Maybe you envision a robot programmed to take calls and perform specific computer tasks. But this couldn't be further from the truth. Virtual assistants are human beings with carefully honed skills and the ability to take on tasks that you may be needing to spend far too much time on, taking you away from the more essential aspects of your business. Virtual assistants give you back your time, which is priceless in the world of self-employment

VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS CAN BE JACKS AND JILLS OF ALL TRADES

What's great about hiring virtual assistants is that you can find a wealth of knowledge from

people all over the world, not just in your backyard. Virtual assistants can tackle various real estate office tasks, such as booking showings, updating listings, handling the phones, or social media posting. One person probably shouldn't be tasked with handling all of these jobs simultaneously, but with virtual assistant services, you can bring on multiple assistants to help you in different areas of need. If you have clearly defined roles and expectations for your virtual assistants, you are bound to find their services not only useful but lifesaving!

These days, it's almost unheard of not to have a social media presence for your business. Social media is where the clients are. The issue is that not everyone knows their way around social media, especially with a new platform seemingly every week. Virtual assistants can help grow your reach on social media and increase engagement, and your following, leading to far more leads generated and houses sold.

NOT ALL VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS ARE THE SAME

When we first started with hiring a virtual assistant for our real estate company, it was a leap of faith. For one, we had never hired a virtual assistant before. Two, the woman who applied for the position lived clear across the

CRAIG GOODLIFFE craig@cyberbacker.com Craig Goodliffe is the founder of Cyberbackers.

world in the Philippines. It ended up being a gamble that paid off, and that assistant is still with us.

It's important to remember that not all virtual assistants are the same. Make sure you are either using a reputable service to source virtual assistants or vet any who apply for positions thoroughly. You are putting a good amount of trust in them and doing your due diligence in the hiring process will save you a lot of heartache later.

Virtual assistants should be true collaborators and partners for you and your agents. It's integral to taking on virtual assistants to have clear processes in place before bringing them on. You also want to have a clear vision of what you expect to gain from virtual assistant help, how it works with your budget, and how you expect it to help scale your business. Managing expectations is paramount, and, like with any employee you bring on, you want to make sure that your vision and mission is being clearly communicated.

Virtual assistants are helping business owners across most industries focus their attention on the most important parts of their businesses. Virtual assistants give you back the most critical asset of your business: your time. n

DIVERSI NS HE SAID | SHE SAID – PART V

A husband and wife were grocery shopping together. He picked up a case of beer and put it in the cart. “What are you doing?” asked his wife.

“They’re on sale—only $10 for 24 cans,” he said. “Put them back. We can’t afford them,” his wife insisted.

They continued shopping and two aisles later, she put a $20 jar of face cream in the cart.

“What are you doing?” asked the husband.

“It’s my face cream. It makes me look beautiful,” replied the wife.

“So do 24 cans of beer,” said the husband, “and they’re half the price.”

That’s him in aisle 5.

ROSE-MARY RUMBLEY rosetalksdallas@aol.com

Rose-Mary Rumbley has written three books about her native city – Dallas. She has also written “WHAT! NO CHILI!” and a book about the 300th anniversary of the invention of the piano. She has appeared on the stage at the

HOUSTON

sam houston left tennessee and arrived in Texas just in time to sign the Texas Declaration of Independence— on March 2, 1836. He knew many of the men there at Washingtonon-the-Brazos—one in particular, Collin McKinney, (at 68) the oldest of the group. Talk about determination!! These guys declared Texas independent in spite of the fact that the Alamo was going to fall in six days and Goliad was going in 21 days! Where was their hope? Well, these declared Texans thought Sam could win the war even though he was drunk! Yes, Sam was known as The Big Drunk of Texas. Here's the story.

Dallas Summer Musicals and at Casa Mañana and was head of the drama department at Dallas Baptist University for 12 years. Today she is on the speaking circuit and teaches drama classes at Providence Christian School. Her loving views of Texas history appear in every issue of

SAMand he decided he knew everything. Mrs. Houston could do nothing but pray for him. Did her prayers save him? Maybe! Because the War of 1812 was raging, and Sam joined the army! That was good for him, because it was in the army that he met a man he truly loved and admired — Andrew Jackson.

Sam and Andy fought the British in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, where Sam was badly wounded. He struggled back to Tennessee remembering Andy's last words to him, "I'll never forget you, Sam." Andy went on to win the War of 1812 in the Battle of New Orleans. Jackson Square marks that victory. Then Jackson was elected President of the United States.

Houston came home and opened a school. He'd never been to school a day in his life, but he proved to be a successful and beloved teacher. He made the kids call him "Professor Houston!"

Andy wrote a letter, "Dear Sam, Come up to Washington. I need you!" Sam ran for congress, won, and went to Washington to serve. Then Andy sent him back to Tennessee. "Now, run for Governor of Tennessee, win, serve, and then run for the President of the United States. I did it. You can too!"

can’t do it drunk! Go to Texas, defeat the Mexican army, and bring Texas in as a state." And that is why Sam was in Texas drunk!

He sobered up, got a bunch together, went to San Jacinto, defeated Santa Anna, and declared Texas—not a state—but a Republic. "And I'm the President!"

He served two terms and then took a vacation to Alabama, where he met a 22-year-old Baptist girl, Margaret Lea.

He was a 46-year-old drunk. She fell in love with him and told her family she was marrying Sam Houston. They married and quickly departed for Texas, where he had his own city— Houston. Sam became a Baptist and was baptized in the river waters. Pastor Rufus C. Burleson, first President of Baylor University in Waco, dipped him in the river, declaring, "Sam, your sins are washed away!" Sam, with a smile, replied, "God help the fish!"

service in the Confederate Army. He was wounded in the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. He lay dying on the battlefield, when a Union doctor stopped to see if he could save this Confederate. The doctor took from Sam Junior's pocket a Bible, "Property of Sam Houston, Jr." He asked, "Are you really Sam Houston's son?" When the wounded Confederate said, "Yes!" The doctor did all he could to save Sam. The Union had always admired Sam Houston because he didn't want Texas in the Confederacy. Sam Jr. recovered to go on to medical school and later practice medicine.

One sister wrote poetry (as her mother did) and attended Baylor University. Another sister moved to San Antonio with her family and became a close friend of Elizabeth Ney, the artist. When she died, the flag at the Alamo was flown at half-staff. One sister lived in Abilene with her family where her husband practiced law. Another sister also wrote poetry. Her husband was a professor at Texas Military Institute in Austin. Later, they moved to College Station where her husband served as the campus doctor of A&M University.

Sam Houston was born in Virginia in 1793. When he was a child, his father died and left his mother with a bunch of boys to rear. She promptly moved the family to Tennessee to live with one of her husband's brothers. The boys were all good but one—a true rebel, Sam. He wouldn't go to school; he did what he wanted to do (which was to read and study for himself);

Sam came home, ran for governor, won, and moved into the Governor's Mansion. All was well—sort of. Sam was a womanizer! Ladies came in the back, front, and side doors, and there was talk...to say the least! His PR people got to him. "Sam, you must marry. We're grooming you for the presidency of the US, and we have discovered womanizers do not always make good presidents!" (Pause for laughter.)

Sam got married to Eliza Allen, a beautiful woman who stayed with him 11 weeks. Her leaving crushed him. He resigned as governor, joined the Indians, and began to drink. Andy wrote him another letter. "Well, you're finished politically. But you can still do one thing for me, but you

The marriage was a loving one, and Sam and Margaret had 8 children. As my mother would say, "And they all turned out good." When Texas joined the Union in 1846, Sam went to Washington as our first senator. He was well-liked, but when he came home in 1860, he demanded that Texas NOT join the Confederacy. "We can be a Republic again and I'll be the president and we'll let the North and South have a war. We will not be involved!"

Great idea, but there were too many Southerners in Texas. Texas joined the Confederacy. With a broken heart, Sam went home to Huntsville to die, never seeing the end of the war. Margaret, so much younger, died a few years later. She couldn't live without her Sam.

What happened to the kids? There’s a story of Sam Houston, Jr. and his

One of their children was visiting the Alamo. A guide pointed out, "Son, here is a souvenir from Sam Houston." He responded, "I'm a souvenir from Sam Houston!"

One son, Andrew Jackson Houston, ran for congress against W. Lee O'Daniel but lost! Pappy O'Daniel was a favorite! Even a Houston couldn’t defeat O'Daniel. Son Willie was in Oklahoma tending to Indian affairs when he died. His sister who lived in Dallas, brought his body to Dallas, where he is buried in the Oak Cliff Cemetery!

There you have it—the Houston Family, always adored in Texas. n

When confronted by a difficult problem, you can solve it more easily by reducing it to the question, "How would the Lone Ranger handle this?"

Sam Houston

Andrew Jackson

Margaret Lea Houston

W. Lee O'Daniel

AN HISTORICAL LOW POINT FOR THE U.S. SUPREME COURT BRADWELL V. ILLINOIS

BradWell v. state of Illinois was an 1873 United States Supreme Court case that solidified the narrow reading of the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and determined that the right to practice a profession was not among those privileges. Brought by Myra Bradwell, the case is also notable for being an early 14th Amendment challenge to sex discrimination in the United States.

The last person that quit or was fired will be held responsible or everything that goes wrong.

Myra Bradwell (circa 1870) BACKGROUND

(In 1869, Myra Bradwell (1831-1894) passed the Illinois bar exam and applied for admission to the Illinois bar in accordance with a state statute that permitted any adult of good character and with sufficient training to be admitted to the practice of law. Because she was a woman, however, the Illinois Supreme Court denied her admission, noting that the "strife" of the bar would surely destroy femininity. The legal rationale was based on the common law doctrine of coverture which denied a married woman a legal existence apart from her husband. (See inset.) Bradwell appealed the decision to the United States Supreme Court, arguing that her right to practice law was protected by the Privileges or Immunities clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

DECISION

The Supreme Court disagreed with Bradwell in an 8-1 ruling. It upheld the decision of the Illinois court and ruled that the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment did not include the right to practice a profession—therefore, it was properly regulated by the states.

Coverture was a legal doctrine in common law whereby, upon marriage, a woman's legal rights and obligations were subsumed by those of her husband, in accordance with the wife's legal status of feme covert. An unmarried woman, or feme sole, had the right to own property and make contracts in her own name. Coverture arises from the legal fiction that a husband and wife are one person. Coverture was established in the common law of England for several centuries and throughout most of the 19th century, influencing some other common law jurisdictions. After the rise of the women's rights movement in the mid-19th century, coverture was increasingly criticized as oppressive, hindering women from exercising ordinary property rights and entering professions. Coverture was first substantially modified by late-19th-century Married Women's Property Acts passed in various common-law jurisdictions, and was weakened and eventually eliminated by later reforms. Certain aspects of coverture (mainly concerned with preventing a wife from unilaterally incurring major financial obligations for which her husband would be liable) survived as late as the 1960s in some states of the United States.

AFTERMATH

Toward the end of Myra Bradwell’s life, the Illinois Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court admitted Bradwell to practice law nunc pro tunc, and the year of her admittance was officially, albeit symbolically, 1869. (In general, a ruling nunc pro tunc [which means ‘now for then’ in Latin] applies retroactively to correct an earlier ruling.)

It wasn’t until 1971 (in Reed v. Reed) that the Supreme Court would rule (for the first time) that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibited differential treatment based on gender n

The sole dissenter, Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, was unable to file an opinion because of deteriorating health. He was appointed as the 6th Chief Justice of the United States in 1864 by President Abraham Lincoln, having previously served as the Governor of Ohio, a Senator (representing the state of Ohio), and as Secretary of the Treasury. He is one of only a few U.S. politicians who have served in all three branches of the federal government.

The Supreme Court in 1873

YOU NEED (OR MIGHT WANT) TO KNOW EGAL VIEW

ANTHONY J. BARBIERI ajb@kesslercollins.com

Anthony J. Barbieri is a shareholder of Kessler Collins, PC in Dallas, Texas. He is a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America and a member of the State Bar of Texas, Dallas Bar Association and the American Bar Association. He is also a Contributing Editor of

MANAGING MEDICAL OFFICE BUILDINGS

as our health-Care system expands and increases in sophistication, so does the real estate that houses all our country’s various hospitals, clinics and medical offices. Years ago, healthcare-real-estate development was pretty straightforward. Developers constructed facilities as big as they could and leased out every square inch to any physician group willing to pay the most money per square foot. But nowadays the medical office is an integral part of delivering an ever-demanding continuum of care. Healthcare-real-estate facilities are now designed and built to closely tie to how their tenants support patient care. This is forcing care givers to work together to provide healthcare services and real-estate services to each other in order to better service their patients.

This changing business model spawns many legal and regulatory risks and challenges that medical-office landlords and property managers must comply with when leasing property to health-care providers. Most real-estate professionals who are not familiar with these complex laws could find themselves subjected to extensive monetary and criminal penalties. This article will summarize two major laws – HIPAA and federal anti-referral statutes.

• A “Covered Entity” is any health-care plan, provider, or service that stores and transmits PHI in an electronic form and receives some type of government-backed reimbursement (Medicaid, Medicare, VA benefits, etc.).

but that both sides comply with HIPAA’s privacy and safeguard rules. In any such case, your lease should contain a copy of the parties’ Business Associate agreement attached as an exhibit.

HIPAA

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”), and its related rules and regulations, safeguards personal-health information from disclosure to third parties. HIPAA violations can be very expensive – fines range from as little as $100 per violation to $50,000 per violation. To understand how HIPAA can impact medical-office landlords and tenants, we must first cover some terminology and background information:

• HIPAA protects what is commonly known as “protected health information” (or “PHI”, for short), that is stored or transmitted by a Covered Entity or its Business Associates. PHI is any information about a person’s health status, provision of health care, or payment for health care. For example, a patient’s name, social security number, address, phone number, email address, and other information that could reasonably identify a patient is PHI.

• A “Business Associate” is any party that works with Covered Entities and receives PHI from the Covered Entity. This includes service providers and vendors working with Covered Entities. In order to receive PHI from a Covered Entity, the Business Associate and the Covered Entity need to enter into a business-associate agreement that requires the Business Associate to keep any PHI confidential and to otherwise comply with HIPAA and its various related rules.

Typically, most landlord-tenant relationships do not require the landlord to comply with HIPAA. However, some relationships, and some leases, may result in the landlord being subject to HIPAA. For example, if a lease permits the landlord to enter the premises for cleaning an area where PHI is located, then the landlord is not subject to PHI, but if the landlord is required to examine, relocate, or store any PHI in order to fulfill this service, then it will probably be deemed to be a Business Associate and thus responsible for HIPAA compliance. In such a case, the landlord and tenant would need to enter into a Business Associate agreement. Consider this non-exhaustive list of scenarios that trigger a landlord’s obligation to comply with HIPAA:

• If, upon surrender of the premises, the landlord is required to retrieve and remove PHI left on site by the tenant.

• An office-suite or other scenario where landlord provides administrative services such as file storing, a reception area, and any other medical-support services involving PHI.

• A landlord’s audit of tenant’s sales records, which permits landlord to examine PHI.

There are endless other scenarios where PHI may come into play as between landlords and tenants. In such instances, the parties must ensure that they not only enter into a Business Associate agreement,

Even if the parties are not Business Associates, the lease should acknowledge the existence and confidentiality of PHI, and the restricted access and safeguards in place that prohibit the non-covered entity’s access to the tenant’s PHI. Also make sure that any conflicting boiler-plate lease clauses are revised so as to not conflict with HIPAA, including any provision that permits unrestricted access by landlord to any area containing PHI.

Further, a prudent landlord may require all of its health-care tenants to store hardcopy PHI in a secure cabinet and identify any access points or storage areas where hardcopy PHI is stored. A landlord may also require the tenant to provide a secured/encrypted format for electronic PHI, and to identify a security officer (which is required per HIPAA) who is responsible to maintain PHI.

STARK & ANTI-KICKBACK LAWS:

Over the years, as the federal government keeps increasing funds paid out for medical care, it has also ratcheted up the penalties for those who abuse the system. There are several federal laws that come into play, but the most common are the Ethics In Patient Referrals Act (known as the “Stark Law”) and the Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”). These laws are intended to eliminate physicians and other players in the health-care system from taking advantage of available government funds. Additionally, several states have enacted similar “anti-referral” and “anti-kickback” laws. All of these laws are fairly complicated, but this article will summarize the salient provisions of the Stark Law and AKS so that those in the medical-real-estate world can see their impact.

The Stark Law prohibits physicians from referring patients for certain designated health services paid for by federal funds to any entity with a “financial relationship.” Stark Law violations can result in penalties from

“A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running.”

Groucho Marx

Q: What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary?

$20,000 up to $100,000 per violation for each health-care service that is based on a prohibited referral. Additionally, the federal government may also impose a penalty equal to three times the improper payment. Some large health-care provides have made headlines over the years after getting tagged with multi-million dollar fines Stark Law and AKS related fines. The Stark Law is a strict liability statute, so “intent” is a non-factor. Accordingly, even if a physician makes an accidental or unknowing referral, there is still a potential for liability.

A “financial relationship”, as it relates to Stark Law, is very broad and includes any direct or indirect ownership or investment by the referring physician, as well as any financial interests held by the physician’s immediate family members. Stark Law only applies to referrals for designated health services (or “DHS”). There are dozens of applicable DHS, including clinical laboratory services, physical and occupational therapy services, radiology, radiation therapy services and supplies, durable medical equipment and supplies, prosthetics, orthotics and prosthetic devices and supplies, home health services and outpatient prescription drugs.

In addition to the Stark Law, the AKS also deals with remuneration related to improper referrals. Although these two laws are similar, there are several important distinctions. The most obvious distinction is that the AKS includes a civil (monetary) as well as a criminal penalty, where the Stark Law only imposes civil penalties. Unlike the Stark Law’s strict-liability standard, in order to prove a criminal violation of the AKS, the federal government must prove intent. Further, the AKS is broader – whereas Stark Law only applies to physicians and DHS, the AKS applies to any services reimbursed by federal funds, and AKS involves any person or entity that makes a referral, not just physicians.

The AKS creates liability for anyone who consciously and deliberately accepts or offers any consideration with the intention of manipulating a referral. Punishment may include up to ten years in federal prison and fines as little as $25,000 up to $100,000 per violation. However, federal law provides for various safe-harbors to both the Stark Law and AKS, including bona-fide employment arrangements, personal services contracts, space and equipment rentals. In order to satisfy a safe-harbor requirement, these arrangements must be in writing and must be no more or no less than the fair-market value. Note that any fair-marketvalue analysis pursuant to Stark Law or AKS should be performed by an independent, qualified third party – the “back-of-the-napkin” analysis performed by the landlord’s property manager will not suffice.

In most conventional landlord-tenant relationships, Stark Law and AKS will not apply. However, in a medical-office or similar lease, these laws can come into play if the property were owned by multiple doctors or family members with certain interests in tenant medical businesses, or a tenant hospital at which the doctors have admitting privileges and provides services to the doctors’ patients. Another instance is if the tenants are those doctors who are owners and cross-refer to each other. The federal government has kindly issued warning signs for

when AKS or Stark Law may be implicated: (1) excessively high or low rent, (2) rental amounts conditioned or linked patient referrals; (3) companion payments that are not based on expenses for valuable services; (4) rent for space greater than the tenant’s business needs, (5) rent that is not fixed in advance, or are reset more than once per year, (6) rent based on hourly use without fixing the number of hours to be used, (7) rent based on Federal healthcare program beneficiaries referred, or (8) rent based on Federal health care program payments. These warning signs are not exclusive – they are just free, friendly advice from the federal government.

In a garden-variety retail or office lease, these warning signs would be irrelevant, but if you are involved in a health-care-facility lease, then these factors could be problematic and give rise to civil and criminal liability. So how are real-estate professionals supposed to navigate through this maze of federal regulations? Thankfully, the law provides safe harbor exceptions, which, if followed, will help you comply with the law. Although the safe harbors in the Stark Law and the AKS are not identical, both rules have the following general requirements for heal-care-facility leases:

1. All leases must be in writing and signed by both parties.

2. The lease must specify the premises being leased.

3. The lease term must be for at least one year.

4. The size of the premises must not be too large for the medical business.

5. The rent must be fair market.

6. The lease cannot have any charges or payments for the number or value of referrals.

7. The terms of the lease must generally be commercially reasonable.

Note that each law has some additional requirements that must be followed.

DIVERSI NS

A POLE GOES INTO A BAR

In conclusion, it is highly recommended that you perform a check-up on all of your health-care-facility leases to determine whether or not they are in compliance with all applicable health-care laws. Further, since business relationships morph over time, and laws are constantly changing, you should conduct an annual examination of your medical leases to make sure they are all in good health. If you find any facts or circumstances that could be suspect, take immediate action to cure the violation – especially since some laws have self-reporting requirements (yes, you must rat yourself out!). Lastly, don’t try and navigate these laws by yourself – you should engage trusted professionals that are qualified and experienced to spot and correct issues and help you plan for the future. n

Ed. Note: This piece originally appeared in the January/February 2019 issue of

ALCOHOLICS

PUNCTUATION MATTERS

“I was drawn to Paris and its alluring architecture. I was attracted to the lifestyle and the culture. I really love how valued art and cultural heritage are there. Paris is the most beautiful city I’ve ever been to; however, I settled in Malta because it was closer to home.”

ARTCH TECTURE

KAL GAJOUM ON THE CUTTING EDGE

kal gajoum Was Born in 1968 in Tripoli, Libya; he now resides in Montreal, Canada. He exquisitely wields a palette knife and color-rich oil paint to create (amongst a wide variety of subject matter) vibrant, captivating cityscapes.

His interest in art began at age 10 when he was introduced to oil painting and palette techniques by a friend of his family, who was an artist in attendance at the Leonardo Da Vinci School of art in Rome. He held his first exhibition (at the age of 15) in 1983 in Tripoli. In 1986, he moved to Paris to learn watercolor techniques and the Parisian style of painting from a private artist.

After a few years, he settled in Malta to be closer to home. (Malta is about 220 miles north of Tripoli.) He made a living restoring classic oil paint pieces at the Royal Fine Art Gallery while also selling his aquarelles pieces. While experimenting with the palette knife technique, he would soon develop a taste for the techniques for the Dutch and Italian masters, such as Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Caravaggio, to name just a few. During this time, he also continued his pursuit of artistic knowledge and travelled to Tunisia to hold exhibitions.

In 2000, Kal found himself in Britain where he ran the Centre of Britain Art Gallery. He began a permanent exhibition in the City of Carlisle, where he steadily developed his palette knife techniques and put together a set of four limited edition watercolor prints of the city. He sold this collection and donated the proceeds to a local charity. In 2003, he immigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and eventually settled in Montreal.

Gajoum has become an exceptional artist whose originality and sense of beauty is obvious. He captures us with his vigorous strokes that create unique and awe-inspiring ambiances; and his characters, dressed nearly all in black, tease us with just a hint of vibrant colors. He portrays the essence of modern cities of Europe, Vancouver, or the Old Quebec by recreating their architectural treasures with his palette knife.

He is represented by Gallery Rouge in the United Kingdom, Galerie Beauchamp in Québec and Toronto, and Plaza Galleries in British Colombia, as well as many galleries all over the world. n

out I’m

just

I

found

colorblind. The diagnosis came completely out of the purple.

Kal Gajoum

“Proof that we don’t understand death is that we give dead people a pillow.” — Jerry Seinfeld

You can see more of (and learn how you can buy) his amazing work at: kalgajoum.com

WHY ARTCH TECTURE ?

Great art is among the most sublime, meaningful, and redeeming creations of all civilization. Few endeavors can equal the power of great artwork to capture aesthetic beauty, to move and inspire, to change perceptions, and to communicate the nature of human experience. Great art is also complex, mysterious, and challenging. Filled with symbolism, cultural and historical references, and often visionary imagery, great artworks oblige us to reckon with their many meanings.

Architects and designers (many of our readers) have a lot of influence on the way we perceive the world. A structure often plays a significant part in how we experience a place. (Think of a restaurant, a museum, an arena, a stadium... even an office building - virtually anywhere!) The interior design impacts our sensory perception, our comfort, and our physical connection and there is also artistry in the exterior design. (That’s why we call it artchitecture.)

THE RES URCE PAGE

ç The housing market has been unusually strong this year, with strong demand in nearly every corner of the country. The property market has emerged as a bonanza for sellers and a source of anxiety for purchasers in the midst of this pandemic. Home prices have been rising in the mid-single digits for several years. The recent double-digit price rises reflect a combination of high demand and consistently limited supply. Prices are growing because there is a lot of money on the sidelines, and mortgage rates are very low. In order to spread awareness for future home buyers or sellers, TimeShatter analyzed the data and put together a resource on 2021 real estate trends & stats. You can find it here: timeshatter.com/real-estate-statistics Key findings from the research: the total housing market value reached $36 trillion; in July 2021, the total median home price reached $390,500; the housing market faces a supply shortage of 2.5 million housing units; the number of REALTORS has increased from 1,11 million in 2009 to 1.53 million in 2021, reaching an all-time high; Gen Xers make up the largest percentage of homeowners at 24%; there are twice as many single women homeowners aged 30 - 54 years compared to single men; June and July are the best months to buy a house.

è In commercial real estate, the COVID-19 pandemic presented new challenges for women and stalled their progress in the industry. Yet it also presented new opportunities to change the industry culture and remove persistent workplace barriers. CREW Network’s latest industry research paper, A Catalyst for Change: COVID-19’s Impact on Women in Commercial Real Estate, examines the pandemic’s impact on women globally and in the industry, especially women of color. CREW Network is a global business network and the leading producer of research on gender and diversity in the industry. ACCESS THE RESEARCH HERE

DIVERSI NS POLITICAL CORNER JUST SAYING

This is a list of heads of government who were later imprisoned. There have been several individuals throughout history who served as head of state or head of government (such as president, prime minister or monarch) of their respective nation states, who later became prisoners. Any serving or former head of state or head of government who was placed under house arrest or became a prisoner of war is also included. Leaders who were kidnapped by insurgents, convicted in absentia while in exile or those who received an international arrest warrant that was not consummated are not included, but the list still contains well over 200 in the last two centuries (including Jefferson Davis).

You may remember some of the names from recent history – Ferdinand Marcos (Philippines), Manuel Noriega (Panama), Mohammed Morsi and Hosni Mubarak (Egypt), Omar Al Bashir (Sudan), Agosto Pinochet (Chile), Mikhail Saakashvili (Georgia), Nicolas Sarkozy (France), Suharto (Indonesia), Charles Taylor (Liberia), Jacob Zuma (South Africa) Silvio Berlusconi (Italy), Park Geunhye (South Korea), Georgios Papadopoulos (Greece), and Isabel Martinez de Peron (Argentina)... just to name a few.

There are some who have wrongfully been imprisoned, most notably Nelson Mandela (South Africa) and Jawaharlal Nehru (India), and there are those who went into exile to avoid imprisonment, such as Idi Amin (Uganda) and Shah Pahlavi (Iran.)

And, of course, if you go back not too much further, you’ll find Nicolas Ceauşescu (Romania), and Benito Mussolini (Italy), and even further back to Kaiser Wilhelm II (Germany) or Napoleon Bonaparte (France). You get the idea.

THE FACTOR MUNCHMUSEET

there’s proBaBly no Better way to enjoy the work of Edvard Munch than at his own purpose-built museum. The Munch Museum is a 13-story, 280,000 sf, 188 ft tall building on the waterfront/skyline of Oslo, Norway. The museum itself initially opened in 1963 to mark a century since the artist's birth, but recently it has relocated to a brand-new location, designed by Juan Herreros of Estudio Herreros (which has offices in Madrid, New York, and Mexico City).

Munch bequeathed a large portion of his work to the city before his death in 1940, and this museum is the result. It contains books, paintings, drawings, sculptures, and letters (as well as his most famous work – The Scream.) Norway considers Munch to be their greatest cultural export - one of the most important expressionist artists of the 19th and 20th century. The building’s skin is made from recycled, perforated aluminum panels which reflect the shifting light throughout the days and seasons.

The original plan for the new building was created in 2008 as part of a competition. After years of political discussions and disagreements, the plans were eventually commenced in 2015, and officially opened in late October. n

IN THE N WS

ç Indeed Tower, the recently completed Class AA office tower in Downtown Austin, has been awarded LEED v4 Core & Shell (CS) Platinum Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. The property is the second largest LEED v4 CS project in the United States and the fifth largest in the world. Indeed Tower (Austin’s tallest office building) was developed by Trammell Crow Company and Principal Real Estate Investors, with Page serving as the architect, interior designer, and sustainability consultant and DPR Construction serving as general contractor. Los Angeles-based Kilroy purchased the property from Trammell Crow Company and Principal Real Estate Investors in July.

é We prefer to write about good news – nice things – awards, honors, accomplishments, etc. in this column but this is so horrific that we bring it to you, so that you know, and in the hope that (collectively) we care enough to do something about. WalletHub whose impartial surveys and analyses have often been cited in this column, particularly when a Texas city is among the ‘best of’ or ‘the best place to…’ recently ran a study of all 50 states and the District of Columbia— and Texas scored horribly. The third least vaccinated state (not just Covid – ALL vaccines!). And 51st out of 51 (that’s last, folks!) in the Best States for Children’s Health. See the results HERE. And, fellow Texans, we are 50th out of 50 in the percentages of children and adults who are not insured! Check it out! We don’t have to be the best at everything, but these are not areas where we should be scraping the bottom of the barrel n

SH UT-OUTS

é Kudos to Darren James and the team at KAI Enterprises for its design of the new Reby Cary Youth Public Library in Fort Worth. With its activity stations, bright colors, interactive art installation and cozy cubbies, its purposeful design serves children, teens, and their caregivers, as well as honors the late Fort Worth civil rights pioneer and educator who spent his life dedicated to learning as well as breaking down racial divides. KAI was also named Firm of the Year by the Dallas chapter of the AIA.

é Accolades to CREW Network, which, along with its charitable arm, CREW Network Foundation, has committed $100,000 as a founding partner of the Alabama Center for Real Estate’s Career Opportunities in Real Estate (CORE) program which aims to attract talent from underrepresented groups to commercial real estate careers. Through this partnership, CREW Network will provide scholarship funds, educational content, and mentoring for female students at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). CORE is part of a diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative to empower over 100,000 young adults into real estate positions by 2030 by delivering credential based-workforce development programs that enable diverse populations to transition into successful careers n

DIVERSI NS BEER V GAS

The first time I got a universal remote control, I thought to myself, ‘This changes everything.’

é Congratulations to Dalfen Industrial for winning the Best Industrial Deal award from the Dallas Business Journal for the East Dallas Logistics Center in Mesquite. The larger building is 407,195 square feet, and the smaller building is 138,402 square feet.

YOU NEED (OR MIGHT WANT) TO KNOW PROFESSIONALS ON THE

JULIE BRAND LYNCH

julie@LYNOUS.com

Julie Lynch is the principal of LYNOUS, a talent management firm that provides recruiting, interim staffing and training to the real estate industry. She is also a contributing editor of

01/ Jim Cuddihee was promoted to Senior Vice President of Field Operations at Manhattan Construction.

02/ Brittany Maki joined Endeavor Real Estate Group as Vice President of Capital Markets.

03/ Kim Lyon and Scott Hobbs joined Newmark in Dallas as Tenant Representative Experts.

04/ Brad Cantrell joined PDR in Dallas as Design Director.

05/ Joe Lindemann was promoted to Vice President of Operations in North Texas at Skanska.

06/ John Wise joined J. Beard Real Estate Company in The Woodlands.

07/ Myers Barnes joined Keller Williams as Chief Training Officer. He will be based in Kittyhawk, NC.

08/ Tucker Schneemann joined Belvoir Real Estate in Midland as an associate.

09/ Ryan Lovell joined Molto Properties as Vice President and manager of its Houston office.

10/ Vishal Gandhi was promoted to Senior Vice President of Operations and Accounting at Hillwood Development.

11/ Brian Wilson joined Wwhitebox Real estate as Dallas Office Managing Director.

12/ Rob Darnell joined Weitzman in Dallas as Vice President of Research.

13/ Justin Beck joined Trinity Real Estate Investment Services as a broker in Fort Worth.

14/ Aarica Mims joined KDC as Director of Leasing.

15/ Ryan Kasten was promoted to Managing Principal of Cushman & Wakefield’s Austin and San Antonio offices.

16/ Brooke Haneborg joined Manhattan Construction as Director of Business Development.

17/ Cecilia Zimmerman joined Westmount Realty Capital LLC in Dallas as Director of Investor Marketing.

18/ Tim Storms joined Reserve Construction as President in DFW.

19/ Carter Thurman was promoted to Vice President of Transwestern’s Industrial Team in Austin.

20/ Ryan Kee joined MVI Construction as Manager of Business Development.

21/ Grant Mendeljian was promoted to Vice President of Preconstruction at Moss Construction in Dallas.

22/ Clayton Kline joined Stream Realty Partners in Dallas as Executive Vice President in the Occupier Services division.

23/ Jan Odom joined the Houston law firm of Wilson, Cribbs + Goren focusing on commercial leasing.

24/ Nicole Kintop Smith joined the Dallas law firm of Greenberg Traurig LLP as a shareholder.

25/ Herb Deazvedo joined White Construction Company as Director of Corporate Interiors.

26/ Suzanne Brasuell was promoted to CEO of Entos Design in Dallas.

27/ Corey Pruitt was promoted to Director of Operations at KWA Construction in Dallas.

28/ Nicole Fontaine joined the Austin office of United Properties as Development Manager.

29/ Jeff Pappas rejoined Mohr Partners in Dallas as a broker.

30/ Parker Sherrill joined Newmark in Dallas as a Director.

31/ Afshan Kabani joined Four Pillars Capital Markets as a Director in Dallas.

32/ Jonathan Horowitz joined Midway in Houston as head of its Hospitality Development Group.

33/ Brooke Armstrong joined CBRE in Dallas as President, Advisory Services for DFW.

34/ Danny Kearns joined CBRE Project Management as Business Development Director for TX and OK.

35/ Rock Linton joined CBRE in Dallas as a Senior Associate.

36/ Walker Lafitte joined CBRE in Dallas as a Senior Associate.

37/ Steve Trese was promoted to Executive Vice President at CBRE in Dallas.

38/ Chandler Sims was promoted to First Vice President at CBRE in Dallas.

39/ Brice Wells was promoted to Vice President at CBRE in Fort Worth.

40/ Weldon Martin was promoted to Managing Director of Stream Realty’s Office Occupier Services team in Houston.

41/ Nicole Patel joined Four Pillars Capital Markets as Director in Dallas.

42/ Amy Oclon joined The Retail Connection in Austin as a Senior Property Manager. n

I invented a new word today: Plagiarism.

Ed. We thought of calling this new feature ‘I’ll Never Forget Old What’s His Name’ or ‘Where Are They Now?’ but this seemed to say it best. In words and pictures, we’ll look back at people (performers, athletes, politicians) you’ll remember (by name or appearance) but whom you haven’t heard about in a long time. If there’s someone you’re curious about seeing on this page in the future, just let us know.

Moms have Mother’s Day, Dads have Father’s Day. What do single guys have? Palm Sunday.

jerome alan (jerry) West (born in1938) is an American basketball executive and former player. He played professionally for the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA. His nicknames included "Mr. Clutch", for his ability to make a big play in a clutch situation, "the Logo", in reference to his silhouette being incorporated into the NBA logo; and "Mr. Outside", in reference to his perimeter play with the Lakers .West played the small forward position early in his career, and was a standout at West Virginia University, where he led the Mountaineers to the 1959 NCAA championship game. He earned the NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player honor despite the loss. He then embarked on a 14-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, and was the co-captain of the 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal team, a squad that was inducted as a unit into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. After his playing career ended, he took over as head coach of the Lakers for three years and took them to the playoffs each year. Working as a player-scout for three years, he was named general manager of the Lakers before the 1982–83 NBA season. Under his reign, Los Angeles won six championship rings. In 2002, West became general manager of the Memphis Grizzlies and helped the franchise win their first-ever playoff berths. For his contributions, West won the NBA Executive of the Year Award twice, once as Lakers manager (1995) and then as Grizzlies manager (2002). At age 69, West retired as Grizzlies general manager in 2007.

In 2011, West joined the Golden State Warriors as an executive board member (purportedly with an undisclosed minority ownership stake in the team. In 2015, the Warriors won their first championship in 40 years; it was the seventh earned by West while serving as a team executive. He earned his eighth in the 2016-2017 season. In 2017, joined the Los Angeles Clippers as an executive board member, where, in December of 2020, it was reported that West and the LA Clippers were under investigation by the NBA following a lawsuit filed against the LA Clippers over the recruitment of Kawhi Leonard to the team. In 2011, West and bestselling author Jonathan Coleman wrote a memoir entitled West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life. The book has had tremendous critical acclaim and became an instant New York Times bestseller. During an interview on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, West revealed that as a child he was the victim of physical abuse from his father and has suffered from depression ever since.

West married his college sweetheart (Martha Jane Kane) in 1960; they had three sons and divorced in 1976. He married his current wife (Karen) in 1978; they have two sons. West was often described as an introverted and nervous character, but he also drew the highest praise for his uncompromising work ethic. Today, he resides in Los Angeles with his wife; he is very outspoken and still responds to interview requests.

roBert joseph (BoB) dole (born in1923) is an American politician and attorney who represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996. He was the Republican Leader of the United States Senate during the final 11 years of his tenure, including three nonconsecutive years as Senate Majority Leader. Prior to his 27 years in the Senate, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 1961 to 1969. Dole was also the Republican presidential nominee in the 1996 election and the vice presidential nominee in the 1976 election.

Born and raised in Russell, Kansas, he established a legal career after serving with distinction in the United States Army during World War II. In his role as Republican leader, he helped defeat Democratic President Bill Clinton's health care plan.

President Gerald Ford chose Dole as his running mate in the 1976 election after Vice President Nelson Rockefeller withdrew from seeking a full term. Ford was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter in the general election. Dole sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1980, but quickly dropped out of the race. He experienced more success in the 1988 Republican primaries but was defeated by Vice President George H. W. Bush. Dole won the Republican nomination in 1996 and selected Jack Kemp as his running mate. The Republican ticket lost in the general election to Clinton, making Dole the first unsuccessful major party nominee for both president and vice president. He resigned from the Senate during the 1996 campaign and did not seek public office again after the election.

Dole has remained active since retiring from public office and has authored several books. He appeared in numerous commercials and television programs and served on various councils. In 2012, he unsuccessfully advocated Senate ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. He initially supported Jeb Bush in the 2016 Republican primaries, but later became the only former Republican presidential nominee to endorse Donald Trump, after Trump clinched the Republican nomination. In 2018, Dole was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his service to the nation as a "soldier, legislator and statesman," and in 2019, the U.S. Congress unanimously passed a bill promoting the 95-yearold Dole from captain to colonel for his service during World War II.

He is married to former U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina. She lost her seat in the 2008 elections. Today they reside in Kansas. Dole still holds the record for longest-serving Republican leader. In February 2021, Dole announced he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer and would undergo treatment. He is receiving immunotherapy to treat the disease, forgoing chemotherapy due to its negative effect on his body.

YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP!

(OH, WAIT. SOMEBODY DID.)

you mIght thInk that the CDC would have enough on its plate, so to speak, what with the pandemic and promoting vaccination. But they found time to issue ‘Preferred Terms for Select Population Groups & Communities’, in an effort (at taxpayer expense) to politically change or modify or contort words or phrases to conform to euphemistic political correctness. Or not. Don’t believe it? Go HERE. (This is a direct quote.)

In their words: “Language in communication products should reflect and speak to the needs of people in the audience of focus. The following provides some preferred terms for select population groups; the terms to try to use represent an ongoing shift toward non-stigmatizing language.”

CORRECTIONS & DETENTIONS

Instead of this…

• Inmate

• Prisoner

• Convict/ex-convict

• Offender

• Criminal

• Parolee

• Detainee

Try this…

• People/persons who are incarcerated or detained (often used for shorter jail stays or youth in detention facilities)

• Partner/child of an incarcerated person

• Persons in pre-trial or with charge

• People who were formerly incarcerated

• Persons on parole or probation

• Non-US citizens (or immigrants) in immigration detention facilities

• People in immigration detention facilities

DISABILITY

Instead of this…

• Disabled

• Differently abled

• Afflicted

• Handicapped

• Confined to a wheelchair or wheelchair-bound

Try this…

• People with disabilities/a disability

• People who are deaf or hard of hearing or who are blind or have low vision

• People with an intellectual or developmental disability

• People who use a wheelchair or mobility device.

Notes:

• Avoid using vulnerable when describing people with disabilities.

• CDC is aware that some individuals with disabilities prefer to use identity-first terminology, which means a disability or disability status is referred to first; for the purposes of these guidelines, CDC promotes person-first language.

DRUG / SUBSTANCE USE

Instead of this…

• Drug-users/addicts/drug abusers

• Alcoholics/abusers

• Persons taking/prescribed medication assisted treatment (MAT)

• Persons who relapsed

• Smokers

Try this…

• Persons who use drugs/people who inject drugs

• Persons with substance use disorder

• Persons with alcohol use disorder

• Persons in recovery from substance use/alcohol disorder

• Persons taking/prescribed medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD)

• Persons who returned to use

• People who smoke

HEALTHCARE ACCESS & ACCESS TO SERVICES AND RESOURCES

Instead of this…

• Underserved people/communities/the underserved

• Hard-to-reach populations

• The uninsured

Try this…

• People who are underserved by [specific service/resource]

• People who are underserved by mental health/behavioral health resources

• People who are medically underserved

• People who are uninsured/people who are underinsured/people who do not have health insurance

Note: Underserved relates to limited access to services that are accessible, acceptable, and affordable, including healthcare. Do not use underserved when you really mean disproportionately affected.

HOMELESSNESS

Instead of this…

• Homeless people/the homeless

• Transient populations

Try this…

• People experiencing homelessness

• Persons experiencing unstable housing/ housing insecurity/persons who are not securely housed

• People experiencing unsheltered homelessness

• Clients/guests who are accessing homeless services

LOWER SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS (SES)

Instead of this…

• Poverty-stricken

• The poor/poor people

Try this…

• People with lower incomes

• People/households with incomes below the federal poverty level

• People with self-reported income in the lowest income bracket (if income brackets are defined)

• People experiencing poverty (do not use “underserved” when meaning low SES)

Note: “People with lower socioeconomic status” should only be used when SES is defined (e.g., when income, education, parental education, and occupation are used as a measure of SES).

MENTAL HEALTH / BEHAVIORAL HEALTH

Instead of this…

• Mentally ill

• Crazy

• Insane

• Mental defect

• Suffers from or is afflicted with [condition]

• Asylum

Try this…

• People with a mental illness

• People with a pre-existing mental health disorder

• People with a pre-existing behavioral health disorder

• People with a diagnosis of a mental illness/mental health disorder/behavioral health disorder

• Psychiatric hospital/facility

Notes:

• Mental illness is a general condition. Specific disorders are types of mental illness and should be used whenever possible (i.e., when not referring to people with different mental health disorders collectively). For example, consider:

Person with depression

People with obsessive-compulsive disorder

• When referring to people who are experiencing symptoms (e.g., depression, anxiety) but a condition has not been diagnosed or the symptoms may not reach a clinical threshold, consider:

People experiencing mental distress

Persons experiencing crisis or trauma

Persons experiencing persistent high stress or anxiety

NON-U.S.-BORN PERSONS / IMMIGRATION STATUS

Instead of this…

• Illegals

• Illegal immigrants

• Illegal aliens

• Illegal migrants

• Foreigners

• The foreign-born

Try this…

• People with undocumented status

• Mixed-status households

• Immigrant, migrant

• Asylee or asylum seeker

• Refugee or refugee populations

• Non-U.S.-born persons/foreign-born persons

Notes:

• Use accurate and clearly defined terms when referring to foreign-born persons. For example, do not use “refugee” if you mean “immigrant”.

• The term “alien” (person who is not a citizen of the United States) may be stigmatizing in some contexts and should only be used in technical documents and when referring to or using immigration law terminology.

• Non-U.S.-born or foreign-born persons may also be used to refer to individuals born in a country other than the U.S., similar to the international migrant concept.

• The term “migrant farmworker” or “migrant agricultural worker” is often used to refer to persons who travel from their home base to another location within the same country, or from one country to another, to perform agricultural work.

• If combining subpopulations in writing, ensure American Indians and Alaska Natives from tribes located in what is now called the United States are not included in the “immigrant” category.

OLDER ADULTS

Instead of this…

• Elderly

• Senior

• Frail

• Fragile

Try this…

• Older adults or elders

• Numeric age groups (e.g., persons aged 55-64 years)

Note: Tribes, American Indian and Alaska Native urban communities, and federal agencies define AI/AN Elders aged ≥ 55 years.

PEOPLE WHO ARE AT INCREASED / HIGHER RISK

Instead of this…

• High-risk people

• High-risk population

• Vulnerable population

• Priority populations

Try this…

• People who are at increased/higher risk for [condition]

• People who live/work in settings that put them at increased/higher risk of becoming infected or exposed to hazards

RACE & ETHNICITY

Instead of this…

• Referring to people as their race/ ethnicity (e.g., Blacks, Hispanics, Latinos, Whites, American Indians, etc.)

• Referring to people as colored people, colored Indian (to refer to American Indian)

• Native American (for federal publications)

• Eskimo

• Oriental

• Afro-American

• Negro

• Caucasian

• The [racial/ethnic] community (e.g., “the Black community”)

• Non-White (used with or without specifying non-Hispanic or Latino)

Try this…

Racial groups:

• American Indian or Alaska Native persons/communities/populations

• Asian persons

• Black or African American persons; Black persons

• Native Hawaiian persons

• Pacific Islander persons

• White persons

• People who identify with more than one race; people of more than one race; persons of multiple races

Ethnic groups:

• Hispanic or Latino persons

When describing a combination of racial/ ethnic groups (e.g., 3 or more subgroups) use “people from some racial and ethnic groups” or “people from racial and ethnic minority groups”.

Notes:

• Preferred terms listed for racial and ethnic groups align with OMB Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting. However, as feasible, be as specific as possible about the group you are referring to (e.g., Korean persons, Samoan persons).

• Consider racial/ethnic groups as proper nouns and capitalize (e.g. Black, White).

• “People/communities of color” is a frequently used term, but should only be used if included groups are defined upon first use; be mindful to refer to a specific racial/ethnic group(s) instead of this collective term when the experience is different across groups. Some groups consider the term “people of color” as an unnecessary and binary option (people of color vs. White people), and some people do not identify with the term “people of color”.

• American Indian and Alaska Natives are the only federally recognized political minority in the United States. Tribes hold a unique government to government relationship with the United States.

• “American Indian or Alaska Native” should only be used to describe persons with different tribal affiliations or when the tribal affiliations are not known or not known to be the same. Other terms, “tribal communities/populations” or “indigenous communities/populations,” could also be used to refer to groups with multiple tribal affiliations. Otherwise, identify persons or groups by their specific tribal affiliation.

• The term “Indian Country” describes reservations, lands held within tribal jurisdictions, and areas with American Indian populations. “Indian Country” is generally used in context and is rarely used as a stand-alone – it typically is used in writing only after “American Indian or Alaska Native” (AI/AN) has already been used, and the writer wants to avoid continuing to repeat AI/AN or “tribes” and refer more broadly to the general wide community of AI/AN peoples and tribes. Within context, there shouldn’t be any confusion about it referring to the Asian country, India.

• Latinx has been proposed as a gender-neutral English term, but there is debate around its usage. Its use may be considered on an audience-specific basis.

Latino (individual man, group of men, or group of people including men and women)

Latina (individual woman or group of women)

RURAL

Instead of this…

• Rural people

• Frontier people

Try this…

• People who live in rural/sparsely populated areas

• Residents/populations of rural areas

• Rural communities n

ANSWERS FROM THE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER CONTEST – WHO AM THAT?

12 Marco Polo

13 Charles Dickens

14 Queen Victoria

15 Nelson Mandela

16 Amelia Earhart

17 Harriet Beecher Stowe

18 Benedict Arnold

19 Annie Oakley

20 Plato

21 Sojourner Truth

22 Susan B. Anthony

23 Julius Caesar

24 Betsy Ross

25 Christopher Columbus

26 Daniel Webster

27 Ferdinand Magellan

28 Pocahontas

29 Sigmund Freud

30 Galileo Galilei

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF OUR CONTEST WINNERS!

Lynn Gladstone of Great Neck, NY won the Skidmore Owings & Merrill monograph.

Geneva Smith of Houston, TX won the Studio Gang monograph.

Reynaldo Bautista of McAllen, TX won a copy of Proptech 101 by Block & Aarons.

Randall Jamieson of Wichita Falls, TX won a copy of Building a Multimodal Future by Schor & Tallis.

Ellen Graeber of Jacksonville, FL won a copy of Santa Clause Worldwide by Tom Jerman.

DIVERSI NS WHO KNEW?

BOLO (BE ON THE LOOK OUT) FOR WHAT'S COMING NEXT

On the cover (and in Artchitecture) we’ll feature the vibrant paintings and artistry of David McLean many of whose works have been made into jigsaw puzzles, AND, courtesy of the Vermont Christmas Company, we will offer five of those beautiful puzzles to our contest winners.

In Herstory, Contributing Editor Rose-Mary

Rumbley asks: Does GOOD ever come from BAD? And answers: In Texas it does! And she demonstrates it via Doris Miller (at Pearl Harbor), the New London explosion, Hitler's freeways, Jim Bowie’s protest march at VMI, and the bad joke that led to a win for Ann Richards. The History Page will introduce you to Joseph M. Bartholomew, an African American who specialized in designing golf courses, but who (because of segregation laws) was not allowed to play on them.

Contributing Editor Roxana Tofan will talk to Sissy Maroney Fitness in her Profiles of Survival and Contributing Editor Tony Barbieri’s Legal View will examine legal issues involving tortious interference with contracts. Contributing Editor Angela O’Byrne’s Amazing Buildings will look at the ongoing renovations to Rome's Colosseum, including plans for a new retractable floor and allowing visitors to stand where the gladiators once did. We’ll continue our look at the architectural treasures of American and World cities, this time via Sister Cities – New York and London

We’ll have a recap of IFMA’s World Workplace, and, in You Need (or might want) to Know, we’ll explain the phases of the moon, how it came to be that in some countries, they drive on the other side of the road, the origin of some idioms you hear (and may

even use) often (e.g., clean as a whistle) and a lot of other (always) interesting stuff.

The Founder of Engineered Tax Services Julio Gonzalez discusses the tokenization of real estate and Grant Clayton, the owner of 1% lists, challenges the residential real estate brokerage industry by offering deeply discounted services. And, of course, there will be other specially contributed articles from various segments of the real estate industry as well as our affiliates’ awards and special events, the Wow Factor, Diversions, True Dat, Vertical Lines, Professionals on the Move, The Resource Page, Shout- Outs Real Estate of the Future, and much MUCH more. We get a lot into 64 pages!

C NTEST: “GET ON THE BUS, GUS FIND A NEW PLAN, STAN”

Paul Simon’s lyrics (in 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover) have nothing to do with this contest—they just make a cool name. The contest is about the geography of the Middle East.

The suffix –stan is Persian and Urdu for “place of,” or “where one stands.” It is found in the names of seven countries: Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. In most of these titles, the first part of the name refers to an ethnic group that lives in the nation: the Afghans (or Afghanis), the Kyrgyz, etc. Pakistan means “land of the pure” in Urdu and Persian.

[The name Stanley (or Stan for short) has nothing to do with –stan. Stanley derives from the Old English for “stone field.”]

That being said, the Middle East for many reasons is a very important part of the world and one which is more and more in the news. If you haven’t learned where these places are from the news, here’s your chance. Enter the names of the countries from the list below in the space provided. Of course, you can refer to a map—and, after you do (J)— scan or copy this page andand send your entry to editor@crestnetwork.com or fax it to 817.924.7116 on or before November 24th for a chance to win a valuable prize.

Choose from this list:

United Arab Emirates

Israel

Qatar

Turkey

Afghanistan

Syria

Iran

Lebanon

Saudi Arabia

Uzbekistan

Jordan

Iraq

Turkmenistan

Yemen

Pakistan

Oman

Kyrgyzstan

Bahrain

Tajikistan

Kuwait

...BECAUSE SOMETIMES IS WHAT YOU KNOW

We Speak Real Estate

The Arsenal Companies are a diversified consulting, educational and publishing group, dedicated to service in the real estate industry. With national reach, regional strength and local sensibilities, we serve and service large and small companies as well as governmental entities in acquisitions, dispositions, leasing, licensing, contracting, procurement, insurance certificate tracking, educational program development, mediation services and collections.

Our Contracts and Procurement Services Division provides solutions and services that help real estate owners and companies effectively manage their contractual needs and commitments. We provide industry knowledge and we practice deal facilitation rather than obstruction. Whether you are a property, facility or asset manager, your functions are integrally related to real estate contracts. Quality management is all about contracts.

Leasing

Acquisitions, dispositions, renewals, surrenders, amendments, abstracting, administration, interpretation – our professionals are experienced in residential, commercial, industrial, professional and retail leasing issues of all kinds.

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Customized Purchase Orders

Are the contracts for services and supplies which your organization uses prepared for your organization – or are they the vendor’s or contractor’s agreement forms? Wouldn’t you be better off if those agreements and purchase orders were revisited from your perspective? Isn’t it time you fortified your real estate related contracts?

Contract Negotiation and Drafting Services

Do you have contract issues that call out for review, interpretation and the advice of a specialist? Do you have a service contract which is about to expire and will need to be renewed or replaced? Do you have oversight of a real estate or facilities function which has been given savings targets? Have you considered ‘outsourcing’ this part of your real estate function but fear a loss of control?

Don’t assume that problems won’t occur. Plan what you can do to avoid them. A small reduction in costs can be the equivalent of a substantial increase in value. We suggest ‘refinements’ to improve language and reduce direct and indirect costs. Our attorneys have successfully resolved leasing issues for both small and Fortune 100 corporations – effectuating $millions in savings.

We analyze the details of your proposed service contracts before they begin - while you still have leverage. Or, we can review your existing service contracts, help reveal cost efficiencies and/or savings opportunities. We look for pragmatic solutions that are sensitive to your business interests, anticipating issues that may arise, and we assist in minimizing those risks that cannot be avoided.

Leases are highly specialized documents. A few words can make a world of difference.

Anyone with experience.