A recent internal communication from John Tocci, Chief Enabling Officer, to all Tocci employees:

Sunday, May 12th PBS will air an important show entitled “10 Buildings That Changed America,” Hosted by Geoff Baer. The program looks at important structures ranging from Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia statehouse (1788) to the Walt Disney Concert Hall by Frank Gehry (2003). I encourage you to put a placeholder in your calendar so you don’t miss it. The selection of these ten specific buildings above all others is debatable but the fact of their importance is not.

Why should we, as a construction company, care?

Because all our efforts in the realm of internal education, technology, and process improvement are directed toward constructing buildings that change our world. Architecture is incredibly important to the way we live. After a bombing raid on the night of May 10th, 1941 which destroyed the House of Commons, Winston Churchill, in addressing whether they should rebuild said, “We shape our buildings, and afterward our buildings shape us…”

Our buildings do indeed shape us and we should know why. We should also know what good shaping looks like… and bad. The goal of our many educational and process improvement efforts is to earn the right to be the builders of buildings that change our world. Significant buildings with great owners.

We should continue our improvements by increasing our understanding, and this show looks like an enjoyable way to accomplish it! A couple of links are below.

Cheers,

John

• Arch Daily article
• Building Design + Construction Blog