This one is for beer lovers. Breweries seem to be popping up everywhere. With craft brewing growing throughout the country, we decided to look into the construction of breweries this week. After looking at every permit that mentioned the word “brewery” to enter our system over the past month, here are the 11 breweries we thought were the most interesting.  Take a look and let … [Read more...]

Pictured: Illume, Project #8. Over the past week we took a deep dive into Chicago Building permits to find projects that we, at BuildZoom, found interesting. After scanning more than 2,000 building permits, here are the 9 projects we picked out as our favorites. The projects are limited to ones permitted in December, and span everything from office renovations to multifamily … [Read more...]

In a recent article on Houston's growth, The Economist wrote: Paradoxically, perhaps the city’s biggest strength is its sprawl. Unlike most other big cities in America, Houston has no zoning code, so it is quick to respond to demand for housing and office space. Last year authorities in the Houston metropolitan area, with a population of 6.2m, issued permits to build 64,000 … [Read more...]

In 2013, the City of San Francisco launched the "Mandatory Soft Story Retrofit" program as part of a multi-year initiative to retrofit older, more disaster prone buildings in San Francisco. Buildings are split into four tiers based on the relative urgency associated with the retrofitting work (e.g. Tier 1 includes buildings with educational, assembly or residential care uses). … [Read more...]

The City of San Francisco wants its residents to go solar. In 2008, they launched GoSolarSF, which offered powerful incentives for homeowners & businesses to install solar panels. There is a current proposal on the table, Solar Vision 2020, which would require all new commercial buildings to use solar power. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is trying to pass … [Read more...]