Introduction

While I am new to Phoenix Architectural, I worked with their teams for some time when I was a project manager at Rice University over several years.

At Rice, I served as the owner representative for the design and construction of a new $132 million multi-building complex and managed several other projects including 75 federal grants for disaster assistance and hazard mitigation totaling $9.9 million. During this time, my experiences and research led me to develop a front end planning tool for sustainable projects, which was introduced at the International Conference on Construction Engineering and Project Management in Jeju, Korea, in 2009.

After a 5-year building expansion campaign and the recent recession, the grants I was writing and administering for Rice were adding up to more than their fiscal capital project budget cycles. So, I decided to see what I could do for other universities and institutions to help with their mitigation efforts.

What I have seen as I travel the Gulf Coast states now, is that clearly, there is an unmet need for disaster aid assistance in the distribution of these funds. This blog serves as a platform and forum for the design and construction management industry as it relates to emergency management. The goal is to improve your emergency management, maximize disaster aid from FEMA and HUD, and minimize repetitive losses and insurance premiums.