A business culture that fosters superior interpersonal skills among its staff and takes total quality management seriously has kept Venture Homes among the top three J.D. Power performers in Atlanta for the past four years.
Unique designs, meticulous scheduling, and a focus on customer service helped A.F. Sterling Homes in Tucson, Ariz., tie for second place in 2004 in a very competitive market.
By really listening to recommendations from its suppliers and contractors, tying the company's back-office system to practical business tasks, and focusing on construction quality, Keller Homes in Colorado Springs, Colo., is sure to score well on the J.D. Power ratings every year.
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Though some builders are skeptical, consultant Paula Sonkin of J.D. Power & Associates maintains that there is no correlation between the size of the home builder and how well it does on the annual J.D. Power customer satisfaction scores.
At first glance, landing a resort destination project seems like a dream come true. The sites are invariably spectacular, and potential buyers are eager to tack on plenty of lucrative options.
Why should home builders care about information technology (IT)? Well, when IT is properly tied to business processes, it helps field supers stay on schedule, professionalizes the salespeople, and strengthens communications with subs—all factors that can help home builders double productivity...
Great design, they say, is in the details. Often, the details were custom touches that became part of the mainstream vernacular. Others are simply too exquisite not to share, even if they never make it to suburbia.
If you came upon these houses without the benefit of being invited inside, you'd never know the splendor of what lies beyond their thresholds.
Sometimes, especially in attached housing, you take what the land gives you—a truism that these two projects embraced with smart planning that delivered impressive results and value.
More than just providing some measure of beauty, great architecture considers and addresses its environment.
Three houses, all vastly different in their forms, materials, and execution with one common feature: an in-character, if slightly quirky, take on a cupola that provides light and, in all but one case, extra living space for its owners.
The builder's choice awards bore witness to the birth and maturation of traditional neighborhood design, starting with the concept's poster child, a budding Seaside, Fla., in 1986.
What makes a great elevation? Depends on which one you're viewing.
Done right, attached single-family homes can be every bit as attractive as their detached brethren, giving owners a similar sense of privacy and pride.
Mixed-use projects were not among the original six categories offered when we introduced the Builder's Choice competition to the residential design world in 1981, but by the mid-1990s the concept was catching on, and by the turn of the last century it had reached the mainstream, prompting us to add...
Row houses and condos aren't generally known for their bright and airy interiors, a necessary evil (or so it's said) of attached housing, except for these two projects. With innovative solutions drawn from outside the attached realm, both of them sidestepped conventional wisdom and made the most of...
Noise control is the next big thing in achieving optimal indoor comfort, with new solutions that make it a worthwhile investment for single-family builders.
Builders and planners in Tokyo decided that the only place to go was up.
Americans love their ipods and their big plasma-screen TVs, but the United States is still far behind the curve compared with Asia when it comes to wireless technology and home automation.
MalmÖ, sweden, on the north Sea was a center of shipbuilding for hundreds of years. Then, in the 1990s, the entire industry went to Korea. The region lost 40,000 jobs, and the Western Harbor area was a massive, abandoned brownfield. Faced with the need to reinvent itself, the city leaders chose to...
The British government's push for increased housing production fuels interest in everything from SIPs to flat-pack houses.
Most houses in Latin America are built out of concrete block, and with good reason. It's good quality—in most places—and it holds up well in earthquakes and hurricanes.
American builders are always on the lookout for innovations they can incorporate into the homes they build. But the United States doesn't have a corner on the next big idea.
On 600 acres in a town auspiciously called Fate, David Weekley Homes struck pay dirt.
Log the housing industry's extraordinary performance in 2005 ahead of 2004. Then put your record books away. Economists' projections for much of the past decade have underestimated home building activity, but most are certain that 2006 will mark a change of pace for the industry.
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The home office, once A luxury, is now an absolute necessity in an age of nomadic telecommuters, home-based entrepreneurs, online bill payers, instant messaging–obsessed kids, and closet creatives. In fact, many would argue that one office is not enough.
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There's much to be said for creative architecture, impeccable millwork, scrumptious building materials, and all-around stellar craftsmanship. But those things are hard to appreciate when they are eclipsed by piles of paperwork, fields of free-range electronic devices, and bulk toilet paper...
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If interior walls, doors, and hideaways have become anathema in the age of open floor plans and loft-style living, The Reality House dares to bring them back.
There are certain immutable laws of human nature that are pointless to try to change. Take, for example, the tendency of dinner guests to congregate in and around the kitchen.
Don't let the elegant details fool you. The rich wood Timberlake cabinets and sea glass tile may be easy on the eyes, but the main kitchen is all about business.
It's not like LRK And ISSA Homes were new kids on the block. LRK associate principal Mark Jones is the town architect for Celebration, and Issa Homes has built more than 300 residences in the TND since its inception by the Walt Disney Co. in 1994. But this house was different.
When we assembled the team that would create The Reality House, our show home to debut at the 2006 International Builders' Show in Orlando, Fla., our first order of business was to go out looking for signs of unrest in the marketplace.
The Mitchell Co. was able to reopen its headquarters two days after Katrina hit because it had a crisis management plan in place, in which each office has its own water and food supplies and is linked by satellite phones.
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Get this: teens and young adults don't really like lots of fanfare in their rooms, much less a lame impression of what's cool with the kids. Keep it simple, respect their privacy, give them the space to make it their own and corral their stuff, offer multiple escape routes, and throw in some views...
Let's say the wife has a bridge party with her gal pals going on downstairs. In most houses, there would be no choice but to leave the scene. Here, there's an attractive option just upstairs: a game room with access to the upper loggia (complete with its own outdoor kitchen and bar area), as well...
Savvy architects and builders know where their bread is buttered: in the kitchen, especially in one that is connected none-too-subtly to a comfortable gathering area and to the outdoors.
Set long and narrow across a lakefront lot of a budding new community west of Orlando, Fla., The New American Home 2006 looks good from any angle of approach.
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The consortium that created Builder Homesite has pooled its collective resources to produce
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More than 300 building products companies have found a way to move excess inventory, lighten their tax burden, and do good all at the same time.
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If you're a production builder, we want to hear from you for our annual BUILDER 100 and “next 100” lists.
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Bank regulators are concerned that obtaining a mortgage loan is becoming a bit too easy, putting everyone from homeowners to certain bond investors at risk.
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A home builder in Cobb County, Ga., was fatally shot Tuesday, Dec. 6, after a heated argument with a new homeowner turned ugly.
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MOST NONPROFITS THAT CONSTRUCT AFFORDABLE housing aren't donor magnets like The Salvation Army or United Way. So Pulte Homes' $1 million pledge to Mercy Housing last October was, if anything, noteworthy.
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In November, Wired.com asked professional futurists about which sexy-sounding technologies won't catch on. Topping the list were the “smart fridge” and the networked home.
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Los Angeles–based Pardee Homes is taking its environmentally friendly philosophy on the road, switching to hybrid autos in “selected field vehicles.”
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Digital Map Products, a Costa Mesa, Calif.–based company that develops Web geographic information system software, says its new LandVision product will help builders with the land acquisition process, from researching acquisition opportunities to locating a property and the ownership and...
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The negative news just kept coming for the public home builders late last year.
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Larger kitchens, bigger baths, and remodeling mania are expected to fuel increased demand for countertop material to the tune of 509 million square feet by the year 2009, according to The Freedonia Group, a Cleveland-based industrial market research firm. But a slowdown in single-family housing...
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Larger kitchens, bigger baths, and remodeling mania are expected to fuel increased demand for countertop material to the tune of 509 million square feet by the year 2009, according to The Freedonia Group, a Cleveland-based industrial market research firm. But a slowdown in single-family housing...
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Wood floors are increasingly popular with new-home buyers.
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The Florida building code has adopted an extensive set of installation guidelines for hip and ridge tiles after a tile industry survey revealed that damage to many roofs during the state's 2004 hurricane season resulted from poor installation.
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THE CITY OF SANTA FE HAS A new 30 percent affordability requirement for all new developments, an ordinance that at press time was under discussion in the county as well.
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Four of Canada's leading modular home builders have formed a purchasing organization, the Building Materials Buying Cooperative (BMBC).
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Lumber and paper giant Georgia-Pacific Corp. (G-P) agreed in November to sell to conglomerate Koch Industries in a $21 billion deal that includes a cash payout of $48 a share.
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The Homeownership Alliance, a coalition of 19 organizations, including the NAHB, released a report that offers an overview of the most effective strategies for delivering affordable housing.
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Ray Ellison Sr., the founder of what was once the largest home building company in Texas, died in October after suffering from Parkinson's disease.