Architect Alexander Gorlin has been possessed with model mania for 45 years. Beginning at age seven, he would wile away the hours by filling the floor of his parents' living room with model cities, complete with Matchbox cars and miniature people. Much has changed since Gorlin was a youngster. He has his own architectural practice in New York City, with projects that run the gamut from upscale houses to housing for the poor. But one thing remains the same—Gorlin's model mania. There are models everywhere in his design studio. Iterations of buildings, punctuated by King Kong and other toy figurines,
BE&K Grantham (right) doesn’t compromise. Eddie Grantham’s success is measured by what doesn’t happen, hour after hour, day after day. At 90,000 labor hours and counting without a recordable injury on a Texas petrochemical jobsite that stews in risk, Grantham, site safety manager, is certainly considered successful. Grantham, who works for BE&K Inc., Birmingham, on the $100-million project, is quick to credit the safety commitments of the workers and also of project owner BP Alternative Energy. “Safety is an attitude issue,” he says. The key is in getting workers to believe that they can be safe, “day in and day
Neenan Company Recycling: Employees at Neenan display tiny trash cans. Construction industry companies of all sizes are turning shades of green, implementing internal sustainability practices that range from recycling paper to building LEED-platinum headquarters buildings. They are driven by an assortment of ethical, economic and marketing factors, but whatever their reasons, the shift is resulting in a change in construction's workplace environment and attitudes. "It's the right thing to do," is the most widely heard explanation for the shift to green. Others say they are "walking the walk" or "practicing what we preach" to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability. But
Angelle Bergeron/ENR Link, left, unveils the risk analysis tools in New Orleans with top officials at hand. Planners and citizens of New Orleans now have a powerful new tool to guide their reconstruction decisions, a flood-risk analysis system developed by scientists working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The system has evolved from a growing understanding of hurricanes and the performance of storm defenses engineered to resist them. And while its first application is to hurricane floods in New Orleans, officials say it could be applied to improving the performance of natural-hazard defenses anywhere. “This is a prototype risk
Photo: C. H. Nickerson In both the private and public sectors, sustainability and attention to resource cleanup, protection and reuse are the trends of the day. The Top 200 Environmental Firms have been engaged in all sectors of the green marketplace for years, even decades. Now, they are reaping new rewards from this growing cachet of environmental correctness. Infrastructure spending, buoyant economies and the firms’ own push for size and payback are combining to generate another year of solid results for the Top 200. But some executives worry about signs of trouble that could stunt firm growth a little, or
Guy Lawrence/ENR AECOM CEO John M. Dionisio says that nothing changes now that AECOMs successful IPO is completed. As most employee investors now know, one lesson of the Enron debacle in 2001 was never to keep too much of your own money tied up in your company’s stock. Last month, on May 10, hundreds of employees of AECOM Technology Corp. sold off $223 million worth of stock, after commissions and discounts for underwriters, during the company’s initial public offering. More significantly, thousands of other employee-shareholders held on to a far greater portion of AECOM stock, worth more than $1 billion.
HNTB Inc. Rising costs and market volatility are shooting holes in highway construction budgets this spring, forcing contractors to find innovative ways of dodging bullets as they head into summer with many projects in full swing. Steady demand for highway construction is helping to ease contractors’ market anxieties and many say they can afford to carefully pick and choose projects. “There is so much work going around and not enough contractors to do it,” says Frank Carlile, managing principal at Fort Worth-based Carter & Burgess Inc. “There is not so much competition for work right now, but materials is another
Magnus Stark/LAUSD Los Angeles school costs have reached up to $480 per sq ft. Soaring building materials prices and limited contractor availability have caused a minimum $1.6-billion shortfall for the Los Angeles Unified School District’s construction and renovation program. “We’ve seen a 200% increase in bid prices over the last five years,” says Guy Mehula, the district’s chief facilities executive. “Construction costs have gone from $150 per square foot to between $450 to $480 per square foot since 2002.” The $19.3-billion, 10-year school construction program, the nation’s largest, calls for 145 new schools, 59 additions, 30 early education centers and
After suffering through three years of strong price escalation, contractors appeared to be getting a break in 2007. Construction inflation tracked by the industry’s major general purpose cost indexes, which measure labor and materials costs, eased from 6% a year ago to 4% this quarter. Indexes measuring selling costs saw average annual escalation fall from 10% in the second quarter of last year to 8%. Such relief may be short lived as estimators say they are bracing for another round of material price escalation. After easing from record levels, steel prices are starting to rebound again, says Karl Almstead, who
Tudor Van Hampton/ENR More workers are using hoists for speed and safety. Temporary rack-and-pinion elevators that move trades up and down are getting high on the list of the most sought-after equipment in an era of booming vertical construction. Plus, an aging workforce needing faster access is pushing costs of replacement and repair to new heights. Prices for permanent elevator equipment are escalating in tandem. Demand has placed a huge pinch in the private nonresidential building sector, which as of April has grown nearly 16% over last year, according to the U.S. Dept. of Commerce. Firms that rent hoists are
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