“In 2004, I was working for a company that specialized in cell phone tower site acquisitions throughout the Chicago Metropolitan area. A key component of the site acquisition work was permitting and I served as the company’s in-house permit and zoning expeditor. While in that role, I would often observe Burnham employees at city hall wearing their impressive uniforms.

Shortly thereafter Carson approached my company in an effort to convince them to utilize Burnham’s services, as opposed to performing the work in-house. I was impressed by Burnham’s services as well as Carson’s enthusiasm and drive.

At the same time I was planning a move to Denver,Colorado. I reached out to Burnham to inquire about opportunities in their Denver office. During that meeting Carson informed me that – while Burnham did conduct business nationwide – they did not possess a physical office in Denver. 

In that moment, a light bulb went off in both of our heads simultaneously. Later, I helped launch Burnham’s Denver office and proudly became a Burnham colleague.

Several years later, the Burnham Denver office has made its presence felt in Denver and throughout the west, having expedited permitting for hundreds of clients along the Rocky Mountain Front Range and from Arizona to Nevada.”- Lindsey Fleener, Burnham -Denver

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“Our first office was at 299 Broadway, it was a closet that fit three folding tables and three chairs. As business grew, we moved out and up to130 William Streetand 1500 roomy square feet. My first thought was, ‘ what are we going to do with all this space?’ It quickly filled up and shortly thereafter we moved up 4 floors and added 1500 square feet of office space for a total of 3000 square feet. Our current location is directly across the street from the NYC Department of Buildings, which is convenient for our clients and us. I think we can claim to be the closest consultants to the Building Department.

 As the new guys in town, our early years in NY were challenging. Mike Gaynor even spent a couple years working the streets trying to land new clients. Now we have a staff of 15 and in the past year alone secured permits for ABS Partners Real Estate, Brookfield Properties, CB Richard Ellis, Park Tower Management, Tribeca Green & The Veneto. It’s been a wild, crazy and rewarding ride. Here’s to another 20.”

-        Tom Walsh, Burnham -New York

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This year Burnham celebrates its 20th anniversary and we’d like to take this opportunity to share with you the story of how Burnham Nationwide came to be, where we are headed and how Daniel Burnham’s message has inspired us along the way.

 > Fast forward 6 years…

It’s 1998 and at Burnham Nationwide we have fully embraced Daniel Burnham’s sentiment to make no little plans. We’ve aimed high and made some big strides, and most importantly learned from our experiences. After the first couple years in business it became quite clear to us that in order to succeed we would need to develop partnerships with leading architects, contractors, and building managers who understood our values and appreciated our platform for managing their compliance obligations. Like many other companies, we recognized the importance Customer Relationship Management (CRM) would have in our future growth and success.

Big Changes in Technology  Service Lines and Locations

 Information systems that had been developed to manage the Chicago process were at their limit, for example: we needed bigger and better bandwidth. Working with Siebel Systems we developed a robust CRM system that would effectively manage our information and enhance the special experience in which our reputation was built.

 The Code Group was launched in 2001, and focused on developing a deeper understanding of building codes. This commitment has enabled Burnham to better define our technical services, and provide us with the credentials to provide services beyond that of a typical “Permit Expeditor”.

 Physically, we needed to be in more places to service our growing client base. We opened our first satellite office in New York City, a temporary office in St. Louis, and Detroit followed shortly thereafter. We also began efforts to find partners for offices in Seattle, Denver and Los Angeles.    

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Notice: 2011 Holiday Restrictions
Office of Underground Cooperation (OUC) – Holiday Restrictions
Per Information Received from Chicago’s OUC…

Due to the upcoming holiday season, the Department of Transportation has directed that NO Street Openings or Traffic Obstructions, other than those for Emergency purposes, be placed within the following limits:

“Beginning at the easternmost point of Division Street extending to Lake Michigan, then west on Division Street to LaSalle Street, then South on LaSalle Street to Chicago Avenue, then West on Chicago Avenue to Halsted Street, South on Halsted Street to Roosevelt Road, then East on Roosevelt Road to its easternmost point extended to Lake Michigan.”

This directive will be in effect from:
Friday November 18th, 2011 at 12:01 am to Monday January 2nd, 2012 at 12:01 am.
Please note that all existing permits will be automatically revoked during this period. Restrictions will not be lifted for any non-emergency work without special permit exemption by the City of Chicago Department of Transportation Division of Infrastructure Management Public Way Permits Division.

Special permit requests are to be made to:

Mr. Michael Simon
Assistant Director Public Way Permit Office
121 N LaSalle Street, Room 905
Chicago, IL 60602.

Also, all work performed January 2nd, 2012 thru April 1, 2012 will be subject to criteria acceptable for snow removal/control operations.

If you have questions or concerns regarding the holiday moratorium, give us a call at 800.407.7990.

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Once you decide to install one of the residential solar energy systems, you will probably have more questions than answers. Because installing these panels can be such an expensive process, it is best to have your questions addressed by an expert. As part of the Burnham special experience, the experts at Burnham Nationwide can offer you advice on all of the issues that you may face during the installation of your residential solar energy systems.

Initially, most consumers want to know how much these systems cost and how well they will offset their current energy bills. The cost of installing panels can be anywhere from $7 to $9 per watt of solar power that will be generated. However, these numbers are reliant on a lot of factors. The number of hours that the sun shines every day will impact how efficiently the panels work, just as the cost of electricity in your area will determine how cost efficient the panels ultimately end up being. The amount of sunlight that the panels can collect is an essential part of how much energy they can produce.

You can manipulate the amount of sunlight that is collected by positioning your panels in the most optimal spots. Most people agree that South-facing is the best direction for most solar panels in the U.S. In addition, most people agree that being as close to the sun as possible with an unobstructed view of it is also the most advantageous. Thus, most opt to install their panels on the roof. However, this can have its pros and cons. Installing panels on the roof is usually the easiest on new construction or on a home that is getting a new roof. This means the roof beams will be exposed, and it makes it easier to attach the mounts. However, maintenance for roof-mounted panels may be a hassle for some. Therefore, in some cases, it is actually more advantageous to scatter the residential solar energy systems in other places on the homeowner’s lot.

In order to ascertain where the best place for your panels is, you should speak with a consultant. They can advise you about everything from angles to location. It’s very important to remember that the more sunlight you collect, the more energy you will create and the more efficient your system will be.

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Using green construction materials can present a higher upfront cost for developers than traditional building materials. However, there is a very persuasive argument that these materials are worth the higher initial investment; they increase the resell value of the property, save the building thousands of dollars in yearly energy costs, and benefit the environment. In addition, as green building technologies continue to be developed, some of their prices will drop.

Trying to determine how much money is saved through the use of green construction materials may, at times, be hard. The cost of a roof made with green building technologies is difficult to assess, and so too, is the financial benefit. When contractors make a roof with LEED points in mind, they can use a roof-comparison calculator. These calculators, like the one created by the National Roofing Contractors Association, take into consideration a number of factors, from materials to roof size. Then, they calculate your potential energy savings. They cannot, however, take into account certain factors like the heating and cooling equipment, the local weather, or the efficiency of other areas of the building that may negatively impact the roof.

When you look at statistics, you need to keep in mind the fact that roof efficiency varies from building to building. Zinco, a green roof manufacturer from Germany, estimates that green roofing materials can help a building to save 2 liters of fuel per year for every square meter of roof. They estimate that the roof will pay for itself over two to three years of use. When their materials were used on a London roof, they saved £4,300 ($7,060) in energy costs per year at the current energy rate. In this case, their materials were added to a pre-existing roof, but if they had been used when the building was new, they may have saved £10,000 ($16,419).

The cost benefit of green construction materials is hard to calculate, but when you come across statistics, they are always favorable. In addition to energy cost savings, green building technologies offer a host of other advantages. They can remove carbon emissions from the air, sometimes at an incredibly impressive rate that allows one roof to remove the impact of dozens of vehicles. They also increase the resale value of the building in a manner that suggests that a two percent higher investment in building materials can yield a twenty percent return in resale value.

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During the summer heat, workers should be aware of the differences in flammable and combustible liquids. By definition, a flammable liquid has a flash point of under 100 degrees Fahrenheit (F), and a combustible liquid is defined as any liquid with a flash point greater than 100 degrees F. Flash point is defined as the lowest temperature of a flammable liquid at which it gives off vapor sufficient to form an ignitable mixture with the air near the surface of the liquid or within the vessel containing it. It is important to note that flammable liquids do not burn; rather, it is the vapors from a flammable liquid that burn.

One growing fix to this potential problem, especially during the summer heat, is the use of biofuels. Green technology can be applied to more than just energy efficient windows or roofing. Conventional diesel fuels are used in various types of machinery and vehicles and can emit harmful toxins into the environment. However, newer products, such as biodiesel, can provide a greener alternative for vehicles, as well as other machinery that normally uses diesel. Biodiesel is made from vegetable oils, animal fats, or even recycled greases. It can be used as a fuel for vehicles in its pure form, but it is usually used as a diesel additive to reduce levels of particulates, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons from diesel emissions. Biodiesel can be used in any diesel engine when mixed with mineral diesel.

A major advantage of biodiesel is that it is also safe to handle and transport. It is as biodegradable as sugar, 10 times less toxic than table salt, and has an extremely high flash point of about 300 degrees F. Not many flammable and combustible liquids can measure up. In the summer months, the heat index can rise to well over 100 degrees F in some cities. The flash point of standard diesel fuel is between 100 and 125 degrees F. This can be a dangerous situation at a job site, potentially endangering the lives of many.

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By: John Progar

Starting today and through next week Burnham will be going through a series of IT upgrades.  The base of the project is to enhance our data and telephone connections.  As Burnham expands with more employees and offices our data processing and communication needs also grow.

In today’s world, people are more connected than ever before.  Yet, many are only familiar with the tools used to communicate (i.e. social media web sites, phones, email, and instant messaging), but what is often forgotten is the infrastructure it takes to deliver those tools.  One piece to the puzzle are massive data centers that dot the world to store and compute data.  Most of the time you could drive right past a data center and think nothing of it because there is not much to see.  However, when you peal back the onion you will find a deep pool of technology.

Inside the data center you will find servers, power and cooling systems, and complex networks.  The network, in my opinion, is the key feature to any computer system.  Why?  If you or I could not speak to each other then what could we accomplish?  Servers, PC’s, mobile phones, tablets, and end-user applications such as, email clients could not accomplish anything without a network to tie it together.  For centuries humans have built networks.  Yes, centuries.  You might be thinking, “I don’t remember reading about the Romans using the Internet” and you are right, but people built roads to travel on and move goods.  After roads soon came pipelines and then the telegraph all which to bring people closer together.

Sure the argument can sway towards, “Well… Servers are the most important.  If we did not have computers and software then we would not need networks and nothing would work.”  I completely agree.  However, we have those things and want more so we need bigger and better roads; there’s a balance at hand as well.  On that is why Burnham is upgrading its network infrastructure.  We are adding capacity to give us the room to build more relationships and be the best in the industry with a solid foundation to work on.

At an end, I have a small marketing spot from Cisco.  The commercial is powerful and pronounces the validity of my remarks in this blog.  I hope everyone enjoys it and can see my point of view.  Finally, during our upgrade process we may have small disruptions to our phone lines and email presence.  I encourage all of our clients to contact Burnham project managers via his or her mobile phone.  Thank-you for your patience during this critical upgrade!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct0KTSHhhg8&feature=pyv

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Good Afternoon All! The City of Chicago has updated the class schedule for Self Certification Training Classes.  We know how important it is to you to keep your training current and wanted to share.

Per the City of the Chicago Website:

Self-Certification Training Class October 26-28, 2011

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