Mike Ritter, assistant director for wood products research at the USDA?s Forest Products Laboratory, told attendees at the SIPA conference that the Partnership for Advanced Technology in Housing (PATH) office, a friend of the SIP industry, was recently shut down. Launched in 1998 with the support of the National Association of Home Builders, PATH?s mission was to speed the spread of advanced residential technology. The remaining funding for this former public and private sector partnership was moved over to HUD. Is this due to no new ideas because PATH has been passing the buck on that subject? I have had the impression that with new idea development there, PATH accepts new ideas to maintain the impression that they have the right to exist.
lzarker
Posted - 5 July 2001 12:50
I believe you may have misunderstood what Mike Ritter said. HUD set up an office to coordinate PATH program activities but decided to bring coordination of the program back into the Office of Policy Development and Research which has had authority for program funding and direction all along. The PATH program is alive and well. PATH R&D; activities taking place under the leadership of NIST, the National Science Foundation, and HUD itself. PATH field evaluation and demonstration projects are taking place with builders in locations throughout the country. PATH outreach to the building industry is taking place through the ToolBase website (www.toolbase.org) and to consumers through the PATH web site which will be updated in the very near future. Over 100 firms participated over the past year in Technology Roadmapping for the PATH program. Those roadmaps are now available by calling the ToolBase Hotline at 1-800-898-2842. In short, the program is alive and well. The closing of the separate office in Washington has had a positive effect in allowing HUD to better coordinate program activities with the building industry.
dyoungkeit5
Posted - 5 July 2001 13:16
Thanks for the correction.
PATH is no longer the sponsor of the nation's durability conference in Madison in October.