Blogging About Buildings

We know what you're thinking: (Sigh.) Not another blog. According to BlogPulse, there are more than 177 million blogs spilling over from every nook and cranny of the Internet, with 100,000 new ones launched every day. That's more than one new blog added every second.

Butchers, Bakers, Bloggers
From AppleInsider to Zen Habits, there are blogs on every topic you can think of (and many you can't), including blogs by butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers. You, yourself, probably have a blog, and no doubt so does your neighbor, your grandmother, and your neighbor's grandmother blogging about her frog garden.

Why then a blog about buildings—specifically, a blog about making buildings better?

Buildings Are Our Business
Here at Rand, buildings are our business: Our engineers, architects, and project associates spend their days walking on roofs, riding up and down scaffolds, checking out walls and windows, poking around in basements and boiler rooms, and inspecting apartments inside and out. Back at the office, we're designing plans, writing specifications, researching properties, reviewing codes, and producing reams of reports about repairing, restoring, and upgrading buildings and building systems.

Throughout it all, we're constantly talking with owners, property managers, board members, residents, and tenants about their buildings and how we can help keep them safe, watertight, properly cooled and heated, and operating smoothly—not to mention looking good. Suffice to say, buildings are important to us.

This blog will reflect our passion for buildings and what makes them tick. We plan on sharing our experiences and expertise, our observations and insights, as well as our successes and failures (or what we like to call "lessons learned"). And when so inspired, we'll share our musings and opinions on industry issues and topics that are important to you.

Fun, Frustrations, Fascinations
We'll also talk about the fun—and frustrations—we have working on buildings and tell you about the intriguing, quirky, baffling, and sometimes fascinating things we come across in the course of our day. Hopefully along the way we’ll interest you, inform you, engage you, and maybe even entertain you. It's all part of our quest to make buildings better for the people who live and work in them.

Let's Talk
But more than just us talking to you, we also want you to talk to us. After all, blogs work best as a means for dialogue. So we invite you to let us know your likes and dislikes, your ideas and suggestions, your thoughts and concerns, and yes, even your hopes and dreams (at least for your building).

The comments box awaits. If you would like a larger forum to let us know what you think, we invite you to write a guest post for this blog. With any luck, you'll learn about us, we'll learn about you, and we'll learn from each other.

Welcome to Rand's Better Buildings Blog. We look forward to seeing you here—and at your building.