It was inevitable. Portland’s skyline will soon rise. Portland has been the center for Maine’s high-rise construction with such structures as Franklin Towers (175 feet); Back Bay Tower (172 feet); and 201 Federal Street (200 feet). With the announcement in May of the 30-story, 380-foot ‘Old Port Square’ proposed building, things are about to….
On the morning of April 22, 2026, Alan Mooney met with Aaron Bennett at the Boise Cascade truss manufacturing facility at 58 Industrial Park Road in Saco for an in-depth look at how modern wood trusses are designed and built. The tour was led by Plant Manager Bill Card, who walked through the facility’s operations….
Contributed by Ralph Manglass, P.E., Senior Engineer, Criterium Engineers If you own or manage a building with air conditioning or heat pump systems, you may soon notice higher replacement costs, and the reason may not be equipment age alone. Enacted in 2025, new federal refrigerant regulations began reshaping the HVAC industry, with significant cost….
A building’s exterior façade can experience water infiltration anytime during a its lifetime. The façade is composed of a variety of components including windows / door penetrations; wall cladding; and features such as balconies and other architectural elements. Water infiltration can occur while the building is undergoing transition from developer to a new condominium….
Typically, this time of year I act like an economist foretelling the future with greater and greater accuracy by presenting the prior year’s history of condonomics. I often address average condo sale prices and days-on-the-market data. Not this year. The past is not the story. Instead, we should focus on 2026 and the mega-condo developments….
Is your community facing resurfacing its flat roof(s) in the near future? This is a generational question as roof surfaces tend to last 25 to 30 years. By ‘flat roof(s)’ I mean a low-slope roof surface having a slope between ¼ and 3-inches per foot. In the Northeast, most existing flat roof surface membranes….
When a building is designed and constructed, it is necessary to consider how that building’s envelope will perform throughout its life span. Building Envelope Commissioning (BECx) performed by Criterium Engineers, is part of a comprehensive quality assurance program to verify that project specifications and requirements are incorporated into the building envelope’s design, interpreted accurately,….
The team at Criterium encourages commercial and residential property owners, property managers, and HOA board members to prepare for the Atlantic hurricane season which takes place June 1 through November 30 each year. This year’s Atlantic seasonal forecast was announced by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, a division of the National Weather Service. They predict another….
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) use is rising for condominiums and HOA community Reserve Fund and Transition building inspections. However, the use of UAV’s or drones is not for everyone. Condo boards will face future decisions regarding drone usage by either service providers or unit owners so the board should be prepared. For this reason, I….
There is an old Chinese saying, ‘May you live in Interesting Times’. This statement is interpreted to be more of a curse than a friendly greeting, as the interesting times refer to upcoming periods of chaos or uncertainty. Ask any investor or economic forecaster what they fear most, it is uncertainty. Unfortunately, this is….