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 Brian Taylo |
Michael Taylor, executive director of the National Demolition Association (NDA), sounds suitably proud when commenting on one of the newest textbooks to hit the shelves at Purdue University in Indiana.
“This is the first systematic presentation of means and methods that define exactly what modern demolition contractors do,” says Taylor of Demolition: Practices, Technology and Management, published by Purdue University Press in 2010.
The association Taylor heads is making the book available to its member companies when they renew their membership in the NDA. The need for the textbook is reflected in Taylor’s remarks when announcing the availability of the book: “It describes an increasingly complex business that requires [knowledge of] construction, law, nearly every aspect of engineering and a Byzantine maze of environmental regulations.”
The book is co-authored by demolition industry veteran Richard J. Diven and Purdue University Professor Mark Shaurette, who in addition to holding a civil engineering degree also worked as a vice president with Ryan Homes and president of another homebuilding company.
Industry veteran Diven was a senior manager at Pacific Coast demolition company ICONCO, which was acquired in 2005 by New York-based LVI Services. Diven and Professor Shaurette have combined to address the demolition process and management considerations from initially analyzing a project through to recycling materials and leaving a clean job site.
Taylor and the NDA’s Education Committee have made it one of their goals to urge other universities to offer courses to their civil engineering students based on the textbook and its comprehensive overview of the demolition industry. “We expect the textbook to enlighten the university community, the construction industry, regulators and the public as to the skills, training and experience that are needed to be a demolition professional,” says Taylor.
Available through the Purdue University Press website at www.thepress.purdue.edu as well as the NDA website (www.demolitionassociation.com), the 180-page book provides a way for those who buy the book to operate by the book.
The Recycling Today Media Group welcomes Kristin Smith to our staff as an associate editor. Kristin will be writing feature stories and news items for Construction & Demolition Recycling.
Kristin, a graduate of Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa., has worked as a business journalist for three years. In addition to writing for C&DR and its website, Kristin also will be contributing to other Recycling Today Media Group magazines and their websites.
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