News Details

CSI ANNOUNCES FORMATION OF THE BUILDING PRODUCT MANUFACTURERS ALLIANCE

Alexandria, Va. - The Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) announces the formation of the Building Product Manufacturers Alliance (BPMA), a new group that will bring together leading manufacturers to share knowledge that will reshape and enhance the future of the building industry.

BPMA will help its members improve their products and services and strengthen their outreach to the entire building industry by providing a forum to discuss common issues and challenges and to share best practices.

"Today's construction market increasingly calls for high-performance buildings, environmentally friendly materials and practices, and technologically advanced components," says CSI Executive Director and CEO Walter Marlowe. "BPMA will help building product manufacturers across all product categories meet the needs of the changing marketplace."

As the national association of specifiers, architects, engineers, contractors and suppliers, CSI is in a unique position to bring together manufacturers and to connect them to other key sectors of the building industry through BPMA. The alliance will offer a wide range of benefits to participants, including:

identifying critical trends in building construction, design and business that will affect the industry; addressing new technologies that will benefit the building construction industry as well as affect the performance of building product manufacturers; promoting more effective communication between leading building product manufacturers and architecture, engineering and construction firms; commissioning research to better understand, define and communicate issues and opportunities important to building product manufacturers and the building industry; and providing an online discussion forum for members to share information and seek input from other building product manufacturers.

BPMA's inaugural meeting is scheduled for March 3-5, 2008, at the Georgia Institute of Technology's Global Learning Center, in Atlanta. Featured speakers include James Cramer, Hon. AIA, co-founder of the Design Futures Council, editor of the Almanac of Architecture & Design, and chairman and principal of The Greenway Group, Inc., of Atlanta, and Charles Eastman, a professor in Georgia Tech's College of Architecture and College of Computing and co-author of BIM Handbook: A Guide to Building Information Modeling for Owners, Managers, Designers, Engineers and Contractors.

The conference also includes sessions on:

Georgia Tech's research initiatives

Building Information Modeling (BIM)

Sustainable construction

Trends in building construction

Critical issues facing building product manufacturers

Concurrent roundtable discussions and networking opportunities also are scheduled throughout the conference.