Build Perspectives Podcast

We're joined by Denyse Von Opbergen, Director of Climate and Sustainability at EllisDon — one of Canada's largest general contractors — to work through what decarbonizing construction actually looks like inside a project, not on a slide. Denyse walks us through the influence-versus-control frame she uses to move the needle on scope 3 emissions a contractor can't dictate, the "no silver bullet" fil...

Record ed live at Advancing Prefabrication 2026 in Dallas, Tim walks the expo floor with James Haas, who leads modular and prefab efforts at Nichiha. (At the time of recording, Tim was also wearing a Nichiha hat. He's since moved on to a new adventure.)  The conversation everyone's having at Advancing Prefab this year? Data centers. But not the windowless boxes of yesteryear, municipalities are no...

Andrew Layman runs prefab at Enterprise Electrical, and he'll tell you prefab isn't the future of construction - it's already the gold standard. BUT, the line that stuck with us came at the end: this next generation coming into the trades isn't lazy or soft, they just want to know "why". Andrew makes the case that "respect for people" is an actual lean pillar, that the prefab shop is the best clas...

Safety leadership isn't about rules. It's about seeing people who've never been seen. Recorded live at Advancing Safety Leadership in Dallas, we sit down with Shane Harris and Lane Smith of Flintco to talk about how a 115-year-old GC is using recorded morning huddles, AI-powered conversation analytics, and a deep culture-change investment to close the gap between the planning table and the frontli...

When Scott Satory started his industrial roofing company 17 years ago with $10,000 and no capital for medical benefits, he made a decision. He'd pay people fairly, give them holidays and vacation from day one, and treat them like human beings. He figured he'd see how that worked out. It worked out. Debt-free. Multimillion dollars. 17 and a half years later. His wife Dr. Colleen Saringer spent that...

What Would It Take to Actually Fix Housing? Tyler Pullen of Terner Labs & UC Berkeley on policy, prefab, and the graveyard of good ideas. Tyler Pullen doesn't traffic in buzzwords. As leader of the Building Innovation Track at Terner Labs, the nonprofit accelerator spun out of UC Berkeley's Terner Center for Housing Innovation, he's spent years separating companies actually building homes from the...

Recorded live on the expo floor at Advancing Prefab 2026 in Dallas, this conversation with Robert Crotty, VP of Design & Construction at HCA Healthcare, is a masterclass in what it actually takes to run prefab as a program, not a project. Robert was hired by HCA a decade ago to advance offsite construction, and the timing of this recording, at an event literally named  Advancing Prefab, wasn't los...

This episode explores how better access to building codes, plus AI, can slash rework, de‑risk projects, and speed up knowledge transfer in an industry facing a looming expertise gap. We walk through the origin story of UpCodes, why fragmented regulations quietly tax every project, and how combining deep domain knowledge with technical talent creates tools that actually match how architects, builde...

Episode Description Sets the scene at the Hush Tunnel, calls out consolidation and the shifting talent market — enough to make someone curious without over-explaining. 3 bullets: Trade show ROI — is a booth actually worth it? Musical chairs is coming — talent market read Big distributors, bigger stakes — the consolidation question What We Cover The Rockwool Hush Tunnel tradition: How the tunnel —...

Most building-product strategies fail because they ignore the human element inside construction systems. This episode is about seeing what actually moves projects, before you try to change them. 📅 ADVANCING PREFAB - DALLAS, FEB 2-4, 2026 Use code: BUILDPERSPECTIVES10 for 10% off! Register: www. Advancing-Prefabrication.com Key Topics Covered: • How construction projects quietly shape material dec...

Real leadership isn't LinkedIn Oatmeal. In this episode, we share stories from 50+ years in building materials: the bosses who gave us range at 24, had hard conversations, and rewarded behavior over politics—plus the red flags every sales leader needs to recognize.   📅 ADVANCING PREFAB - DALLAS, FEB 2-4, 2026 Use code: BUILDPERSPECTIVES10 for 10% off Register: AdvancingPrefabrication.com About Bu...

Brought to you by Advancing Prefabrication, Feb 2-4 2026 in Dallas. Use the code BuildPerspectives10 for 10% off at checkout https://advancing-prefabrication.com/register/ On that note, most people wander through Advancing Prefabrication, IBS, or AIA hoping something "clicks."  In this episode, we break down how industry insiders actually plan events—mapping tracks, speakers, ICPs, and conversatio...

🔗 Take the Project Fluent Assessment at projectfluent.scoreapp.com Brought to you by Advancing Prefabrication, Feb 2-4 2026 in Dallas. Use the code BuildPerspectives10 for 10% off at checkout https://advancing-prefabrication.com/register/ Most construction pros are never formally taught how contracts actually work—or how risk gets silently shifted onto the people doing the real work. In this epis...

Brought to you by Advancing Prefabrication, Feb 2-4 2026 in Dallas. Use the code BuildPerspectives10 for 10% off at checkout https://advancing-prefabrication.com/register/ Tired of 2-year sales cycles? Losing deals because you're not speaking the right language? In this episode, Tim and Carolina breaks down Project Fluent - the training framework that helped her become the top salesperson at her c...

Brought to you by Advancing Prefabrication, Feb 2-4 2026 in Dallas. Use the code BuildPerspectives10 for 10% off at checkout https://advancing-prefabrication.com/register/ We're back! And we're starting with the uncomfortable truth: your salespeople might be collecting hotel points instead of closing deals. Join Tim and Carolina as they unpack why job sites are where the real intelligence lives, h...

The Musical Chairs of Building Products - Why Everyone's Changing Jobs (And What It Means for Our Industry) Recorded Live at AIA 2025, Boston Featuring special guest Michael Russo, National Sales Manager at Longboard Architectural Products The Big Idea The building products industry is experiencing a massive talent shuffle. From the Rockwell acoustic booth at AIA (where you can literally hear the...

The Big Idea The construction industry's 40-year experiment with specialization is ending. What I'm calling "encroaching vertical integration" isn't just a trend—it's a fundamental reshaping of how projects get built. And the companies that miss this shift will find themselves squeezed out of the value chain entirely. Why This Matters Now Most commercial construction projects finish over budget an...

In this illuminating episode of Build Perspectives, we bring together two mass timber industry veterans to break down the economics, challenges, and future of this growing sector. Erica Spiritos and Roy Anderson to offer invaluable insights into the nuanced world of mass timber pricing and market dynamics. Episode Highlights: Understanding the Mass Timber Performance Index : Discover how the index...

Great to catch up LIVE at  www. Advancing-Prefabrication.com with Amy Marks from Symetri USA and https://queenofprefab.com/   Whats your next Hanson Wade event?  https://advancingconstruction.com/ https://advancing-preconstruction.com/   Chapter 1: Intro 00:00: Tim introduces the event, "Build Perspectives," and his interest in the building products industry. 00:48: Amy Marks introduces herself as...

  Announcement!  Tim teases his upcoming podcast, " ConstructionVerse: Building Empires ," a deep dive into the origin stories of influential figures in the building industry who have transformed humble beginnings into multi-billion dollar enterprises. Paying Tribute: Tim remembers Gerry McCauley and Mark Mitchell, acknowledging their significant contributions to offsite construction and building...

Thanks to  www. Advancing-Prefabrication.com, Tim shares the latest activities and learnings in building materials / building systems / housing / real estate: unexpected things about advisory / consulting needs thoughts on recent  factory, lbm, and job site visits Columbus OH and how it impacts our industry Whizard Summit highlights ( purchase recordings here ) about tactical empathy and land deve...

Thanks to  www. Advancing-Prefabrication.com Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/timseims/   Tim's Website  www. TimSeims.com In this pod, I'm sharing a bit of a signal on construction labor. It's not what you might think, it's not about the labor market and data. This story isn't just about my friend Mark. It's about new creative human capital opportunities.

Tim and Carolina discuss the many upcoming points of interest coming in the following episodes by bringing contrarian viewpoints and thinking differently than before to build perspectives.   Sustainable growth in the building product space. Adoption curve alignment is important to ensure pricing power is more balanced.   Reminder: Do not panic - Make progress, expand and make way for the better, a...

Join us for shepherd's pie at The Ivy in London, on this second installment of Build Perspectives, live on location. Conversation on sustainability, the future of construction, life on the planet, and more. Recorded during Wimbledon June 2022 Resources : Tim is presenting on some of this at www. Advancing-Prefabrication.com.  Use Discount Code BP10 for 10% off and join us in Phoenix March 14-17th,...