iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This housing feasibility study is basically a highlights reel of why zoning reform is necessary, but not sufficient, to get urban infill housing built. Zoning can't change: * high construction costs * condo financing challenges * historic preservation approvals engageoakpark.com/30486/widget...

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Federal appellate court in DC just released its opinion in this lawsuit from Alstom, siding with FRA, Siemens, and Brightline West, saying Alstom’s claim is without merit. media.cadc.uscourts.gov/opinions/doc...

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

ASME A17.1 strikes again. (this standard is also a big reason why our elevators are so expensive)

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

this person evidently missed the message that you’re not supposed to say the quiet part out loud when asked by a reporter why you don’t want upzoning www.oakpark.com/2026/09/22/z...

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

pretty grim that not even a fundamental overhaul of IL transit governance can’t force effective CTA board leadership Only hope is that the state senate exercises their new power to reject Barclay’s appointment

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

TIL For 25 yrs, HUD used urban renewal grant funding to effectively force 4k+ localities to adopt model building codes and drop expensive local req'ts in the process. It ended in 1974 after Congress revoked HUD's authority b/c Chicago refused to comply. babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=ui...

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

In California, you can cross the street between Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, and be subject to wildly different building code rules as long as the city justifies them with “necessary local conditions.” Who decides those conditions? The city, with almost exclusive discretion.

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

“[B]arriers are particularly acute in the homebuilding industry, as many products, from windows to sinks to furnaces, that are certified and tested to EU standards cannot simply be used in Canada. Those products must be retested and recertified against Canada’s CSA standards, adding cost and delay.”

ipolitics.ca

Canada wants more trade with Europe. Start with housing

A well-crafted deal with the EU could also lower the cost of building a home in Canada, while opening new markets for suppliers and manufacturers of construction materials.

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

For those you not familiar with my hometown Oak Park, we have quite the sordid history in housing and zoning. In the late 1940s, the village tried to ban ALL multi-family housing construction until the IL Supreme Court put a kibosh on it. www.oakpark.com/2026/04/28/p...

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Per a recent FTA audit report, CTA has hired a consulting firm to do a feasibility study of a “dedicated CTA police force”. Also, they are updating their fare evasion calcs to include data from automated passenger counts from buses. www.transit.dot.gov/sites/fta.do...

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

And the lack of state capacity in building codes is not a new problem. Some manifestation of this issue has bubbled up every 20 yrs or so. From 2005: (www.huduser.gov/periodicals/...)

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A City That Works @acitythatworks.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

“Among the jurisdictions analyzed by CBNA, only New York City has consistently stricter limits on the use of plastic piping for residential buildings than Chicago. Notably, the statewide plumbing code for Illinois is much more lenient than Chicago’s. “

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

In case you questioned John’s commitment to plumbing reform, this is his local time right now, before he’s even started his presentation:

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

It’s been fun seeing this chart I made take a life of its own. This was originally just a tracker spreadsheet I made after @stephenjacobsmith.com and @pipedreaming.bsky.social asked me to look into the various US plumbing codes and what piping/tubing they permitted.

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Daniel Koslovsky @dtkoslovsky.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

My next article in the @acitythatworks.bsky.social building code series is up, doing a deep dive on the plumbing code. Come to learn about the one weird trick the city could use to shave 5% off construction costs, stay to learn about the 19th century joint coupling method the city still mandates!

citythatworks.substack.com

Let’s fix the plumbing code

Lead and oakum joints belong in museums

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Overheard in the men’s bathroom during a particularly dull stretch of ICC committee meetings: “Isn’t the code process riveting?”

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

The agenda for NITA's first meeting for this Thurday is already up. First orders of business: choosing a board chair AND an interim executive director. nita.illinois.gov/uploads/file...

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

baby’s first ICC hearing! in the O’Hare Hilton of all places

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

“'Nearly all residential fire deaths occur in the dwelling units where the fire starts, not in adjacent dwelling units, not corridors and not stairways,' [Mark Chubb] said. 'A choice of two exits will not reduce or eliminate these fire deaths.'”

chicagotribune.com

Allowing single-stair complexes could create needed housing, but safety concerns loom in debate over ordinance

A group of advocates wants to pass an ordinance allowing developers to construct a single staircase for residential buildings of up to five stories, instead of the required two staircases.

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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 04/09/2026

As part of research into the elevator market, I am doing an elevator census! Next time you are in an elevator (any time, any place), could you take a photo of the nameplate (brand and capacity in lbs/kgs) and the buttons (to get number of floors), and then later, enter it here? bit.ly/elevatorcensus

bit.ly

Elevator Census

This form is to submit information on elevators people encounter to help with the Center for Building in North America's research work. Note: You can submit for elevators in any country, not just Nort...

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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 03/09/2026

If you live outside of the US and Canada and would like to help me with an elevator census I'm doing, please DM me – I want to send you something! Would just involve noting a few items about elevators you encounter in the wild.

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

“...the [NITA] board first will select one of its members to be chair...That leaves as the apparent front-runner Tom Kotarac, a current RTA board member who is the transit guru at the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago. He already chairs the NITA transition committee."

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

proprietary file formats are a parasite on society and should be illegal…the whole point of PDF files is that you can basically use anything to open them!!

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

lol of course they didn’t find any increases, they only looked at the residential code (SFH building code), which is the only model code that gives the homebuilder industry a 1/3 voting block papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The advantage for the US/Canada in adopting an int’l elevator standard over 40 years in the making, is that the Europeans have already been through the fight of getting it adopted across its 45+ countries, and they can tell you what stakeholders will say in opposition with remarkable prescience.

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

It is interesting there is no mention of reviewing the city’s const. codes. Seattle is one of the most prolific amenders of the model codes. That is a double-edged sword, sometimes it helps to foster development (e.g. single-stair) but it can often add costs as well (e.g. bsky.app/profile/chit...)

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

This is also true in building code reforms. Getting your city/state to allow 6-story single-stair bldgs is great on paper. But if its only possible with a 50%+ larger pressurized stairwell that likely no one will build, at that point are you really allowing single-stair buildings?

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Daniel Koslovsky @dtkoslovsky.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

A have a piece up today in A City That Works, introducing a series on where the Chicago building code is ripe for reform with an eye towards improving housing affordability.

substack.com

A plan to cut construction costs

Four changes to boost construction across Chicago

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Reading the ancient texts to reveal the secrets of the Swiss and rail electrification

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

I just saw someone leave their car unattended in the middle of Lake Shore Drive and then walk across the highway and over the barrier…wtf

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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 05/08/2026

Architects who design infill multifamily (outside of Chicago and NYC): does IBC Table 705.9 (“Maximim area of exterior wall openings based on fire separation distance and degree of opening protection”) ever require you to upgrade from a 13R to 13 sprinkler system for low-rise buildings?

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

UK is so NIMBY they’ve created a AI-supercharged objection software to flood local gov’ts with comments. "The ban on email submissions has had a particular impact on ObjectNow, a service which generates objection letters to planning applications with the help of AI."

theferret.scot

AI flooded the Scottish Government with wind farm objections. So they stopped accepting emails

The Scottish Government says the move was needed to tackle the "burden" caused by the growth in AI-assisted objections to energy projects. Critics say it is a way to mute public opposition.

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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 03/08/2026

We're working with @metroabundance.bsky.social to collect cost drivers in California building codes and standards above and beyond national model codes/standards. See here for more – please circulate among architects, engineers, etc. in the state! admin.centerforbuilding.org/wp-content/u...

admin.centerforbuilding.org

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Steven Lucy @slucy.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Rough estimate is that plumbing and electrical codes in Chicago that are not present in other large cities or even the inner prewar suburbs of Chicago have added about $50,000 - $75,000 to the commercial build-out costs for my bar.

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

“In the second category of reducing the cost of construction, we need to update our building code to make it cheaper to build while ensuring safety. Every building does not need copper pipes when PVC is much cheaper."

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Washington Building Official Association (WABO): We want to require that when elevators are installed in any multifamily housing (vs. current req. of 4+ story buildings), at least 1 must fit a stretcher. WA State Building Code council: Can you quantify the costs and benefits of this change? WABO:

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New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

This is just to say I have OCRed the text thet was in tne arch:ve and whicb yov were prabaldy seamhing for "breahtast" Fargme ms fheg mem debo:w5 sb ?mccf mmb 5c oc1b

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Jason Rabinowitz @airlineflyer.net · 23/07/2026

American transit agency officials taking advice from their international peers 🥹

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Blair Lorenzo / The Fox and the City @thefoxandthecity.com · 22/07/2026

Vital skill for navigating any policy spectrum: recognize the difference between those who criticize a project because they want it to be better, and those who criticize it because they want it to be destroyed.

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

"But expanding IMAX 70mm is a different challenge. IMAX says exhibitors aren’t building enough auditoriums capable of housing its towering 1.43:1 screens because of the high construction costs." If IMAX const. costs are high enough to prevent 70mm expansion, that’s an indictment of IMAX’s standards

variety.com

Why Aren’t There More Imax 70mm Screens for ‘The Odyssey’? ‘It’s Not Practical,’ Company Says

'The Odyssey' has spiked interest in IMAX70mm showings, but the company explains why building more is 'not practical.'

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

"The request for proposals comes as some of the CTA’s peer transit agencies have experimented with modernized fare gates designed to help deter fare evasion" "The CTA said it had been in touch with some other agencies about their efforts to improve their fare gates.”

chicagotribune.com

CTA looks for new gates to help deter fare evasion

The Chicago Transit Authority is seeking proposals for improved fare gate technology that could help deter fare evasion.

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William Skudlarek @willskud.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

RTA, on their own accord, asked engineering firm TYLin to review current service planning efforts by the service boards and recommend improvements to the process ahead of NITA. TYLin presented their unsurprising findings along with some basic recommendations to the board today:

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