A new expo and conference called AEC BuildTech— held in Rosemont, Ill., April 30 to May 2—brought together attendees and suppliers to explore best practices in implementing new technologies in the buildings sector.
“If somebody has learned a lesson, we ought to build as an industry off those lessons,” said Ben Bunge, senior project manager for the Weitz Co. Bunge presented with Kent Hodson, president of PIVOTek and Monty Muller, project manager from the Waldinger Corp., two companies that supplied prefabricated modules to speed construction of a Hilton Hotel in Des Moines, Iowa. Bunge and his team shared lessons about installing prefab bathroom pods from PIVOTek and mechanical/electrical racks and piping from Waldinger. Bunge said one lesson was getting “too aggressive” on what’s preinstalled on the bathroom pods to lift them over the half-inch of adhesive. “We had to go back and ‘undo a couple of items.’ ”