Building Better Buildings

Come Fly With Me, Let’s Fly, Let’s Fly Away

Sometimes you just need to change your perspective, like here at home being built on the Shores of Lake Michigan featuring better materials like those found with Wally Walls. Walls and roof panels built modularly with high R Values and no food values for midwest bugs. The south roof (not yet installed in this photo) will feature solar panels, virtually taking this high efficiency home off the grid. Construction took place during the winter months with no dumpster at the site. All material shipped 100% utilized without waste. Why not choose to live better?

Build Better. Build With Wally!

Better. Better. Better.

Rise and Shine

While we currently do not build many homes, we do build homes well. The perception is that homes built with wood can be constructed less expensively than with cold form steel. This is true when one considers only the cost of material and not the cost of general conditions (site waste), labor, or the long term energy and maintenance benefits of the two materials. When building, they say, you can choose from two of these three things, but not all three: Speed, Quality, Cheap. Wally Walls is focused on the first two.

What are you building with? Build Better. Build With Wally!

Better. Better. Better.

Wally Buys American Steel

We could choose to buy elsewhere. Wally could buy steel from China or other importers. But, we don’t. Wally buys 98% of its steel from manufacturers in the USA. While our prices are set to increase a bit due to the imposed tariffs, others that we compete with will have their prices increased even more because their baseline pricing was predicated on imported steel. While we may not entirely agree with the government’s policy, we do agree that buying goods manufactured in the USA is Better and we will continue to do so.

What are you building with? Build With Wally!

Better. Better. Better.

Lake Michigan Never Looked This Good

Just a house, by a lake, utilizing Energy Star quality materials. Lookin’ good Wally!

What are you building with? Build Better. Build With Wally!

Better. Better. Better.

Wally Walls Recognized As Better

As part of the Energy Star Multifamily High-Rise (MFHR) rating process, subject buildings are required to demonstrate 15% energy cost improvement over a minimally code compliant 'baseline' building with equivalent massing and use. Demonstration of energy performance of the baseline and proposed building is in accordance with the ASHRAE (American Society of Heating Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers) Standard 90.1-2010 Energy Standard for Buildings Appendix G Performance Rating Method. In states (such as Illinois) that have adopted the 2015 International Code Council International Energy Conservation Code (IECC 2015) the performance target is modified to require 20% improvement over ASHRAE 90.1-2010 baseline.

In addition to establishing that the subject building satisfies the energy performance criteria set forth in Energy Star, it is required to demonstrate that the building is minimally code compliant. In Illinois, such requires demonstrating compliance with the prescriptive or whole building performance paths set forth in either IECC 2015 or (by reference) ASHRAE 90.1-2010 Section 11 Energy Cost Budget Method.

Wally Walls was recently specified for a mid-rise development in Illinois and was determined to exceed the 20% threshold of performance. Wally Walls exceeds MFHR specifications, when used together with LED lighting. While not meeting prescriptive requirements of the Code, it is Wally’s performance that carries the day!  Wally Walls and Energy Star - Both Are Better.

What are you building with? Build Better. Build With Wally!

Better. Better. Better.

LOVING WHAT WE DO

It’s late on a Friday afternoon and the boys are ready to leave for the weekend, but a delivery truck of material shows up. The driver got held up in the blizzard that’s been pounding the Midwest since last night. No complaints at Wally Walls. Roll up the sleeves in the dead of winter, grab some shovels to clear some space, and keep going. No excuses, just results. Wally is Better because those that show up to work here everyday - rain, sleet or snow - are Better. I just happen to be lucky enough to work with them!

What are you building with? Build Better. Build With Wally!

Better. Better. Better.

Rafe Aybar

Rest In Peace Coach

The hockey community lost a great one. I had the opportunity to coach a team a decade ago with Rafe. It was an honor. There was no better youth coach. Hard stop. R.I.P Coach.

Specified Wally

“Put Me In Coach - I’m Ready To Play”

There are jobs you chase, some you get, some you don’t. Then there are those jobs where they call you by name in the spec. Sure, old hat for USG and other big boys in the industry. But when you start out as “the little engine that could” and a few years later find yourself specified in an upcoming submission to a municipality on a very large project, you feel not only like the kid on the bench in the Springsteen song, but like the Say Hey Kid going back on the ball in the World Series. Nice catch Wally!

Who is your MVP? Build Better. Build With Wally!

Better. Better. Better.

Coaches And CEOs Achieve Success When Others Thrive

You walk into your business and you look around and see things that work and things that don’t. You cultivate the good and make adjustments to the bad. You never stop tinkering - helping others become better and changing things that quite simply aren’t working. It’s what you do as an entrepreneur and as a coach. Most of the time there is no time to step back and look at your work from a distance because you are so caught up in the issue de jure or the current team you coach.

But then there are times like these when you get a call from a former player three years removed asking you to come watch him on his “Senior Night” in high school (pictured above), or a text from a player’s father telling you how well he is doing playing for his high school team after he had thought of getting out of the sport just before you coached him but stuck with it because of the messages you delivered to him that season. There is the random encounter with a player you haven’t seen in years who tells you how much he learned from you the season you had him, not just about how to play the game, but how to go about his business everyday. Then, there are moments reminiscing with your son and his friends who you coached years ago and whose lives they tell you have been impacted by the the lessons they learned from you when they were teenagers. And, most specially, the call you still get from your son finishing his college hockey career and listening to him break down the game, and life itself, in ways you never imagined. All of this provides perspective, and immense satisfaction, which can be difficult during the journey itself.

I am not sure that I have had a positive impact on all those that I coach or have coached or those that I have worked with or am currently honored to work with. For some, the message I am trying to deliver resonates and for others it falls flat. The job, however, is to not be satisfied with the successes achieved with those who understand but rather to bring along those committed but not fully on board. For those not committed, move on. Those not committed will inevitably bring down those committed to being their very best. It is true in sports and in business. When your team is made up of individuals committed to the cause, and you help them believe in themselves and what they are doing, championships are won, business thrives, and those around you are positively impacted. When that occurs, the coach smiles, for a brief moment, behind the scenes, away from others, before going back to work. (thing Herb Brooks celebrating by himself in the tunnel after the Miracle Team beats the Russians in 1980). Enjoy the moment, for a moment, and then keep striving to make others Better.

Who are you building your team with?

Better. Better. Better.

https://hbr.org/2015/02/how-to-coach-according-to-5-great-sports-coaches

721 McKinley, Lake Forest

They Say “Speed Kills” - Except In Construction Where It Is Everything

In late October Wally Walls delivered its first structurally insulated wall panels to Altounian Builder’s site in Downtown Lake Forest. Today, not only is the western building fully fitted with its masonry exterior, but the trades have been inside working on mechanical, electrical and plumbing installs since almost immediately following that delivery. Because the walls are installed insulated, from the moment they are installed, workers can work inside and outside to complete construction, thus delivering the building faster than outdated stick built construction. Not only does the builder save money on the install (less expensive purchasing completed Wally Walls than buying components individually and installing in the field), but the Developer reaps the reward of collecting $$$$$$$ earlier as a result of the abridged construction schedule. Oh, did I mention the long-term savings on utilities as a result of the highly insulated walls? Less expensive materials, quicker delivery of finished development resulting in dollars in the till earlier, and lower long-term operating costs - seems like a no brainer, right?

What are you building with? Build Better. Build With Wally!

Better. Better. Better.