Entries are now being accepted for Advanced Textiles Association’s (ATA) revamped 2024 International Achievement Awards (IAA) competition. These awards return for the 77th year of recognizing the best projects across the specialty fabrics industry. The industry is constantly changing, and the 2024 IAA program is changing with it. Some categories have been removed, added or modified. Highlights include: NEW: Awning and Canopies HDPE Shade Structures and Sails PVC/Vinyl Freestanding Structures and Sails Permanent Umbrellas NEW: Advanced Textiles Military Innovative Design NEW: Geosynthetic ..read more

Registration is now open for Advanced Textiles Expo 2024. This year’s show takes place Sept. 24–26, 2024, with education from happening Sept. 23–Sept-26, at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif. This event brings together more than 4,500 decisions makers in the advanced textiles, specialty fabrics and shade and weather protection industries for three-plus days of sourcing, education and networking events. New events and features this year include: New Next Gen. Programming New Women in Textiles Programming New Networking Opportunities ATA Textiles Challenge New format for educatio ..read more

National Structures Events & Services installed this A-frame structure on an elevated platform to provide spectators unobstructed sight lines of the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas, Nev. All photos courtesy of National Structures Events & Services. There may be nothing better than being a part of an event that showcases a company’s expertise and benefits children at the same time. For the third year in a row, National Structures Events & Services of San Antonio, Texas, did just that. The tent and event company erected structures for the annual Shriners Children’s Open in Octo ..read more

A rendering of Current created by Janet Echelman and her design team. Image: Studio Echelman A 229-foot-long floating fiber sculpture by sculptor Janet Echelman is now a permanent installation in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Crafted from fibers braided with nylon and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, Currenthangs between buildings at the intersection of Gay and High streets. It was first installed in June 2023 and is part of the Columbus Museum of Art’s permanent collection.  An aerial view of Current hanging over Gay Street and High Street in downtown Columbus, Ohio, with colors ..read more

A prime example of the “adaptive reuse” approach, the Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater, Bridgeport, Conn., demonstrates strategies that reduce embodied carbon by repurposing an unused baseball stadium into a major-draw event facility. Photo: Carl B. Vernlund Photography Recent years have seen a number of announcements of heroic efforts to literally reach for the moon because terra firma is becoming unlivable due to global overheating. Nation after nation has declared its goal of landing on the surface of that celestial orb to colonize new territory, usually suggesting to 3D print dwellings usi ..read more

A lack of oil repellency for non-PFAS finishes could lead to flammability hazards for firefighters’ gear if exposed to substances such as diesel fuel and hydraulic fluid, NC State researchers have found in tests comparing PFAS-treated and untreated turnout gear. Future work will explore how much oil repellency firefighters need in the field. Image: NC State University/Bryan Ormond Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of several thousand fluorinated organic compounds. Because of their unique physical and chemical properties, PFAS have been widely used in everything from consum ..read more

Changing buying habits over the last couple of decades have spurred shopping centers to evolve as well. Many have been reimagined and reborn, such as the continuing transformation of the former Chesterfield, Mo., outlet mall into The District. The entertainment hot spot is now anchored by restaurants, a brewery, special events space, concert venue, fitness center, and recreational golf and bowling. It’s capped off by the Hub STL, a 700-person-capacity, $4 million, 40,000-square-foot outdoor area designed for fun and games, summertime concerts and events, and even a drive-in. Guests stay cool ..read more

Changes to the International Building Code® text for the 2024 edition involve temporary structures, many of which needed to be set up for more than the previous maximum of 180 days during the pandemic. The limit for a temporary structure in the U.S. is now up to a year. Pictured: An inflatable COVID-19 testing and vaccination structure. Image: Giant Inflatables Industrial Every three years the International Code Council® (ICC®) publishes a new set of International Codes®. These include the International Building Code® (IBC®) and the International Fire Code® (IFC®). The latest edition year of t ..read more

In October 2023, Rick Collins, ATA’s IT director, conducted a series of experiments with Midjourney to explore its potential. Using GPT-4, he created descriptions to feed to Midjourney, instructing the latter to generate images of the ideal event tent for hosting 200 attendees Although computers have been working with large amounts of data since their inception, they can’t learn or reason like humans. They follow code instructions to perform a task. Artificial intelligence (AI) computing differs from rote programming in that the algorithms are training the computer to learn from data presente ..read more

Photography by © 2023 Mark Skalny Photography Tony Ehrbar, owner and CEO of American Tent LLC, in Green Bay, Wis., didn’t realize he wanted to be an entrepreneur until he was 32. Burned out from years of consulting work and dissatisfied with corporate life, he was inspired to take on a new professional challenge after watching an episode of Shark Tank one night. While browsing businesses for sale on Craigslist, an ad for a tent rental company in his hometown of Green Bay felt like the right fit—a sentiment that persists more than a decade later. Ehrbar bought the business but was living in Chi ..read more