Fall 2012: From the Editor

Words: Bronzella Cleveland

The hiatus is over

by Cory Sekine-Pettite

Cory Sekine-Pettite, editor
Cory Sekine-Pettite, editor

To make comments
or suggestions,
send e-mail to cory@lionhrtpub.com.

Welcome to the first issue of the NEW Masonry Design! Earlier this year, as the economy continued to improve (however slightly) and the construction industry began its own recovery, the staff at Lionheart Publishing decided the time was right to bring back Masonry Design – this time as a quarterly digital magazine. As you have told us in the past, “The industry needs this publication.” We couldn’t agree more. Our three-year hiatus is over.

We began our revival with a brand new website, which launched this past summer (www.masonrydesignmagazine.com). There you can find up-to-date industry news, as well as our entire article archive from past printed issues of Masonry Design. Additionally, we are launching a monthly e-newsletter that will offer timely news and event information to satiate the hunger pangs you’ll feel between issues of the magazine. Sign up from our home page.

If you’re new to our publication or just need a reminder: Our goal with Masonry Design is to educate and inform architects, engineers and specifiers about the vital role that masonry plays in the U.S. construction market, as well as to promote masonry and masonry systems in building design (commercial, residential, institutional and educational), interior design and hardscaping applications. With each issue, readers will become better informed of the design trends, latest materials and newest technologies that will aid them in creating better masonry projects.

We’re re-launching Masonry Design as a digital quarterly, but in conducting our own research and speaking with you, we know that there are enough issues, concerns and educational needs to fill a monthly magazine – this is our aspiration for the near future. In the meantime, I’m excited to hear from each and every one of you. Let me know what areas of masonry design and construction you would like to see us cover, or contact me if there is a particular matter for which you have a need to discuss, investigate or even vent. I value your opinions and truly want to hear your views. After all, to be useful to (and successful in) any industry, a magazine requires the participation of its audience and the ancillary industries that serve that audience.

To start our conversation, I’d like to tell you a little bit about myself. I’ve been a professional writer and editor for nearly 17 years, with most of those years spent working with business-to-business magazines focused on the construction industry. I’ve edited publications covering civil engineering, structural engineering, and bridge design and engineering. And for more than six years, I have worked for Lionheart Publishing and its construction industry magazines, including Masonry. The design and construction industry is of keen interest to me, and I hope that I have learned enough these many years to provide you with edifying and intriguing content – the things you really want and need to know about the materials trends and technologies affecting your work with brick, block and stone designs.

highlights coming in Winter ‘12

Green Building
Air & Vapor Barriers
Profile: Western Facades

Save

Chairman’s Message: SELF TALK
July 2025

My wife, Sheryl, listens to podcasts often. Sometimes she uses earbuds but also listens through her cellphone speaker as she does countless other things around the house. As a result, very often I have no choice but to listen to the podcasts along with he

Outreach Outlook: Momentum in Motion
July 2025

As we move into the heart of summer, the masonry industry continues to thrive—fueled by innovation, partnership, and a growing commitment to excellence in education and workforce advancement. June has been a remarkable month, marked by events that not onl

Building More: Slow, Fast, or Consistent. What is Tempo?
July 2025

It was a drizzly midweek day when I rolled up to the project we were working on just outside of town. The foreman paced the scaffolding, rain hood half-zipped, barking at two laborers who were sprinting bricks like they were late for a flight. Forty feet

Marvelous Masonry: Belém Tower
July 2025

The Belém Tower in Lisbon, Portugal, stands as a testament to stone construction's enduring artistry and technical prowess. Erected between 1514 and 1519, this iconic structure served as a defensive bastion at the mouth of the Tagus River and as a ceremon