Construction Trends - Page 12 of 18 - Beyond the Build

Frozen in Time: Structural Analysis in a Historical Renovation

We recently started work on the renovation of a 100-year-old structure in the city as the Construction Manager for The Lyric Theatre, a project which has proved interesting for many reasons. One is the history lesson we are getting about construction practices in 1913. The foundations, rebar and structural steel have proven particularly interesting. We …

Construction Trends

Construction & Real Estate Seem to be Lowering the Handicap

Most years, things slow down around Christmas. Many people take time off to be with family, and the last two weeks of December are usually touch and go. Except this year. Five days before Christmas, we still have phones ringing, email notifications chiming and bids churning. From our boots on the ground perspective, it seems …

Construction Trends

Highways to Efficiency

Each quarter, I meet with a handful of real estate and construction executives to discuss what we’re seeing and the broader implications for the region. Our gathering this week included a visit with a DOT Director, John Cooper. A state’s DOT decisions are often the lynchpins in a development, so the trends are definitely worth …

Construction Trends

The Great Wall of Charlottesville: Our First Segmental Retaining Wall

We built our first segmental wall in Charlottesville, Virginia about 20 years ago. I was recently passing through there and saw that the wall is still standing, just as we built it in the early 90s. At the time, the locals called it “the Great Wall of Charlottesville.” It was pretty tall for that time–32 …

Construction Trends

The Origin of Construction Terms

The other day, I was thinking about how the web and technology have created new words in our everyday vocabulary. For instance how many times do you say “I’ll Google it?” Ten years ago, no one would have known what you where talking about. In the same vein, “just PDF it to me,” “tweet it,” …

Construction Trends

Soil Nails for Tough Sites

Someone once said to me, “Most of the good sites are taken.” While I’m not sure this is exactly true, the last few decades have given us new techniques for “challenging” soils, adding new tools to our toolbox. Previously un-developable sites can now be developed in a cost-effective manner. Over the last few years, we …

Construction Trends

Our Economic Life (A couple of simple approaches)

To me, newspaper coverage aside, the economic climate still boils down to what’s happening with the boots on the ground, to us. The big trends will be in the newspaper, and they are good national or global indicators. But this is really our neighborhood. Smaller companies make 99.7 percent of business transactions and 46 percent …

Construction Trends

Trends in Construction Costs

While our economy continues to move along, we are seeing pockets of great expansion. In other areas things are moving more slowly. In regards to the market cost, some of our customers have asked how we see things changing. I used to think that material prices were controlled mainly by supply and demand, but that …

Construction Trends

How Big is Your Lunch Table?

In the 1960s, the amount of office space allocated to an individual was a direct indicator of your status at a company. Bigger was better, with CEOS working in sprawling square footage, and folks lower on the totem pole being relegated to large “bullpens.” Furniture maker Herman Miller made a dent in this philosophy when …

Construction Trends

Downtown Cousins: Brownfields, Urban Redevelopment and Adaptive Reuse

Growing up, I often visited South Georgia, where my father told me what it was like in the early days of a cotton farmer. As I recall, they would plant the same crop annually, repeating year after year. There were lots of reasons for this of course–I am certainly not chucking spears at the farmers–but …

Construction Trends

ICSC Recap: Things Are Looking Up

This week, I attended 2013 RECon Las Vegas, or the “ICSC” as it is commonly called. It was an impactful 4 days, with 30,000 of my closest friends from around the country and beyond. Through listening, conversation and observing behavior, here are my quick take aways from this year’s event: In years past, the conference has …

Construction Trends

Construction Industry Update

Last week, I had breakfast with Ken Simonson, chief economist with the Associated General Contractors of America. While we see a good bit of positive news, it was interesting to listen to his national perspective, hearing the facts and the trends as he sees them. Construction spending totaled about $854 billion in 2012, a 10% …

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Frozen in Time: Structural Analysis in a Historical Renovation

Construction & Real Estate Seem to be Lowering the Handicap

Highways to Efficiency

The Great Wall of Charlottesville: Our First Segmental Retaining Wall

The Origin of Construction Terms

Soil Nails for Tough Sites

Our Economic Life (A couple of simple approaches)

Trends in Construction Costs

How Big is Your Lunch Table?

Downtown Cousins: Brownfields, Urban Redevelopment and Adaptive Reuse

ICSC Recap: Things Are Looking Up

Construction Industry Update