Masonry Magazine February 2003 Page. 16
Contractor
To develop more business, to develop a larger market share. That brings in the need to develop promotion within the industry. I think it's really the responsibility of the contractors, as well as organized labor, to lend a hand in promoting the use of masonry. This will insure there will be plenty of work for us all in the future.
The second concern is training. I think we're all witnessing an aging of our workforce. It's a fact that there aren't as many young people entering our trade as we'd like to see. I think now is a perfect opportunity, with the downturn of the economy nationwide, to try to entice young people into our trade. They can certainly make a good living in this trade. I think that young people entering the job market now might be more receptive to a career in construction than they would have a couple of years ago.
Those two things - promotion and training are the two things that I not only need to maintain our level of success, but the industry also needs as a whole.
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Masonry has become an architectural item rather than a structural one.
Masonry: Do you feel that architects are informed and educated enough in masonry products?
Borman: No, I don't feel that they are. Since the architects are not required to build with masonry, they're not necessarily trained in the best use of masonry.
Let me give you a little history here... The masonry industry in this country changed dramatically with the World's Fair in 1893, when the Industrial Revolution and the development of the ability to build steel structures, rather than multi-wythe masonry structures, first really affected our industry. We lost a great deal of the market that we had, which was pretty extensive. It was only inevitable that that this would happen.
It didn't take long for masonry to recover to some extent because by the 1920s Frank Lloyd Wright was using reinforced concrete unit masonry in Southern California. But nonetheless, buildings are built taller and the frames are lighter than they were in the past.
So, for the most part, other than the retail stores and schools, masonry has become an architectural item rather than a structural one. I think we need to speak to the engineers as well and gain their confidence in the performance of masonry systems.