All of this is at odds

All of this is at odds with the image overseas of China winning the “infrastructure race,” as the headline of an Aug. 24 online story from Foreign Policy put it. China’s structural woes stem in part from the government’s focus on quantity of growth over quality. The idea is to employ as many workers as possible. Wang Mengshu, deputy chief engineer at China Railway Tunnel Group, says that rather than use advanced technology to carve out railroad tunnels, the group often prefers to hire millions of pairs of hands “to solve the national employment problem.”

Officials admit there are challenges. At a forum on green building in 2010, Deputy Minister of Construction Qiu Baoxing said, “Every year, new buildings in China total up to 2 billion square meters and use up to 40 percent of the world’s cement and steel, but our buildings can only stand 25 to 30 years on average.” U.S. commercial buildings are expected to stand for 70 to 75 years, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

For residential and commercial developments, architectural design and construction phases are typically allotted half the time as in the U.S., says Beijing-based landscape architect Paul Maksy. “With such a rapid pace of construction, there’s often relatively little monitoring of standards,” says Stephen Hammer, a lecturer in energy planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has worked in China.

On a Saturday morning

On a Saturday morning in September, prospective homebuyers thronged the sales office for Fun City, a community of high-rises under construction on Beijing’s outskirts. Whether the buildings will still be standing a half-century from now is anybody’s guess. In July, massive flooding raised questions about the fitness of this low-lying stretch of land for dense development. Local media reported that properties adjacent to Fun City experienced water-logged basements, while parts of the nearby G-4 superhighway were submerged. At least 77 people died—many of them drowned in their cars—in part because of inadequate or clogged drainage systems.

Nearly every month brings news of an infrastructure failure, dramatic or mundane. In August a new $300 million eight-lane suspension bridge in Harbin collapsed, sending four trucks tumbling and leaving three dead. In 2009 a nearly completed building in Shanghai toppled like a domino because its foundation was inadequate. The U.K.’s Telegraph reported that within months of opening last year, the $210 million Guangzhou Opera House began to shed its glass window panels and developed large cracks in its ceiling. Last year writer Evan Osnos chronicled on his New Yorker blog the premature decline of his courtyard house: “When the rainy season hit Beijing, our house began to show its age. About four years old, to be precise.”

Initial R maintains

Rocs
Lexicon: Initial R maintains connection to Redskins heritage. Allows for rallying phrase “Washington D.C. Rocks!”
Placek: “It’s so much like Skins—it’s quick and it’s fast.”
Skiles: “The iconic mythological bird looms over the top of the type.”

Metros
Lexicon: No NFL team name starts with an M. Sounds modern, sleek, and powerful.
Placek: “We were looking for a little bit of poetry.”
Skiles: “Fashioned to work with the idea of a D.C. Metro token.”

Leopards
Lexicon: Mind share with existing Bengals, Jaguars, Lions, and Panthers. Keeps the new name in the “expected” range for pro football franchises.
Placek: “It’s pretty long, and people might create the nickname Leps—but what a beautiful identity.”
Skiles: “A fierce, iconic rendering of the mascot.”

Skins
Lexicon: Widely recognized current team nickname. Possible high acceptance among die-hard fans.
Placek: “The logo is going to be a little harder: Maybe it’s just a really strong S.”
Skiles: “A tattoo visual wrapped around a dynamic type mark, juxtaposing the tribal genre against a D.C. architectural icon.”

Here’s the full deck:

Tradition is important,

“Tradition is important, but so is innovation. The team has been known as the Redskins since 1932. A new name can represent a decisive way to leave controversy behind and step into the future.”

Here’s what Lexicon and Skiles came up with:

Rocs
Lexicon: Initial R maintains connection to Redskins heritage. Allows for rallying phrase “Washington D.C. Rocks!”
Placek: “It’s so much like Skins—it’s quick and it’s fast.”
Skiles: “The iconic mythological bird looms over the top of the type.”

Metros
Lexicon: No NFL team name starts with an M. Sounds modern, sleek, and powerful.
Placek: “We were looking for a little bit of poetry.”
Skiles: “Fashioned to work with the idea of a D.C. Metro token.”

Controversy over the name

Controversy over the name of the National Football League’s Washington Redskins surfaced again in May, when 10 members of Congress wrote to the league and Dan Snyder, the team’s owner, asking for a change. The legislators said the name is a “racial, derogatory slur” against Native Americans. Snyder has long resisted a change (in spite of the fact that one could argue rebranding would be profitable). NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell backed Snyder in a response to Congress, writing that the name stands for “strength, courage, pride, and respect.”

We asked David Placek and his staff at Lexicon Branding—the firm that came up with the names BlackBerry (BBRY), Febreze, OnStar (GM), Pentium, and FiOS—to cook up some new monikers for the team. Then James Skiles, creative director at Phoenix Design Works—maker of logos for hundreds of pro and college teams, including the Colorado Rockies and Philadelphia 76ers—drew logos to match.

In the PowerPoint presentation below, you can see Lexicon’s thought process. First, the company surveyed the NFL landscape and noted, for instance, that half of the 32 teams have animal names; 11 have “humanistic” names (Texans, Patriots); 4 are mythological; and 1, the lonely Jets, is named for a vehicle. Lexicon also tabulated favorite first letters and the use of alliteration, and created scatterplots to map team names on spectra such as passion vs. aggression and speed vs. strength. (The company did not give these names the trademark vetting it normally provides for corporate clients.) Placek & Co. conclude:

001

The coworking trend has exploded in recent years – according todeskmag.com, more than 110,000 people use coworking spaces worldwide now. BC is no exception to this trend, but many small business owners don't realize what coworking is exactly, or what coworking options exist right in their own neighbourhood.

What is Coworking and What Are the Benefits?

A coworking space is somewhere for entrepreneurs and remote workers to rent a different style of office space, either on a monthly or drop-in basis. Depending on your needs, you can rent anything from a shared drop-in "hot desk" to dedicated, private offices.

While business owners in the technology industry have been early adopters of the coworking trend, these spaces offer many advantages to owners of other kinds of small businesses as well.

Particularly when you're first starting your business, the cost of renting office space can be prohibitive. At the same time, using your kitchen table or a local coffee shop as an office may not provide an ideal environment for you to run your business. For these reasons, the flexible drop-in and short-term rental agreements offered by coworking spaces can be an attractive alternative to traditional office rentals for entrepreneurs.

Coworking spaces often offer office services such as a mailbox rental, internet access, and even a shared receptionist. Many also include conference rooms for meetings.

And whereas small business owners who work exclusively from home may miss the daily social interaction that comes with working in an office, coworking offers the unique opportunity to connect with fellow business owners, and meet entrepreneurs who drop-in from other cities. Some coworking spaces with locations in multiple cities may even allow you to visit their other office spaces as a part of your subscription.

Coworking Spaces in Your Neighbourhood

Coworking spaces are starting to pop-up all over the province. There are number of general coworking spaces in the Lower Mainland, including The Network Hub, The Hive, and The Office Vancouver. There are also some industry-specific options too, such as the 45WEST Shared Multi-Use Arts Studio (for hosting arts-related classes, workshops and rehearsals), and Vancouver Hack Space for technology professionals. Kelowna and Squamish also have active coworking spaces.

Wherever you're located, ShareDesk and Deskwanted can be used to find coworking options near you. Pricing structures vary significantly from space to space, so you'll want to thoroughly research options and even consider arranging a tour or trying out a space on drop-in basis prior to committing to any monthly contracts.

For more information on coworking, visit coworking.com or theShareDesk blog.