Up North. Proposed bridge would link Ketchikan to sparsely populated Gravina Island in southeast Alaska. image courtesy of Gravina-Access Project At last. After nearly two years of delays and weeks of grueling Capitol Hill negotiations, a new, long-term transportation bill–the largest public works measure in U.S. history–is about to become law. On Aug. 10, President Bush is expected to travel to House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s Illinois district to sign the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, which guarantees $244 billion over five years. Big as SAFETEA- LU is, its passage was greeted more by sighs
Editor's note: The following story originally was part of a series and appeared in the October, 1999 issue of Architectural Record magazine. Kubany is a former staff member and Linn is currently deputy editor. Architects are looking for the holy grail, the secret of what to charge clients. Our profession's attitude toward fees has rendered this the single most confusing topic for architects, when making money should be a natural reward for hard work, ideas, talent, and knowledge. But to understand why architects have such a problematic attitude toward fees, we have to comprehend the problem. There are reasons why
Engineer and Cornell University Professor Paul G. Carr says civil engineers are getting stiffed. In the 33 years since the U.S. Justice Dept. first enforced antitrust laws against engineer and architect associations, the groups stopped updating fee guidance for members. As a result, practitioners found that "percentage of construction," a widely used fee determinant among many public sector owners and some private, hardly changed much in that time. From the Florida Dept. of General Services to the Kentucky Education Dept., many owners still are awarding fees based on the same percentages used in 1972. And that, say Carr and co-author
+ click to enlarge Visionary. Franceschini is executing Stantec’s ambitious growth plan but at his own pace. (Photo by John Ulan, Epic Photography Inc. ) FEATURE/COVER At recent investor analyst conferences to which Stantec Inc. officials have been invited–along with their competitors, publicly traded and better known U.S. engineers and contractors–CEO Tony Franceschini still finds himself seated in the back of the room. Even with years of consistent revenue growth, market expansion, profitability and stock price increase, Edmonton-based Stantec is still not perceived as a prime-time player in global design and investor circles. That is about to change. With Stantec’s
The worldwide market for construction design services has been buffeted over the past eight years by financial crises, terrorism, wars, SARS flu scares and regional recessions. Yet the market continues to show a broad-based resilience. While many international players in the market have been through the tumult and are proceeding cautiously, the worldwide demand for high-end architectural and engineering services shows no sign of abating. The complete 2005 Top 200 International Design Firms and the Top 150 Global Design Firms lists with revenue and market data is free to ENR subscribers but can also be purchased for only $35.00. Click
Relief. Cards will replace 220-page text for simple steel frame design, say steel spec writers. Until recently when he started running marathons, structural engineer Clifford W. Schwinger’s only true obsession was cracking the mysteries of the codes. Deciphering complexities and clarifying ambiguities in building design standards is not exactly Schwinger’s idea of a good use of time. But he does not expect his compulsion to subside until there is code reform. "You’re in big trouble if you design a new building structure and don’t meet the letter of the code," says Schwinger, quality assurance manager at Cagley Harman & Associates,
VanderWeele (Photo by ITT Industries, Inc.) A 15-year-old Portland, Ore., student may have found a solution to Bangladesh’s chronic arsenic problem with its drinking water. Kathryn VanderWeele, a freshman from Oregon Episcopal School, was recently named the U.S. winner of the Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP) for her study, "Removal of Arsenic from Drinking Water by Water Hyacinths," sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Clean Water Association. According to the World Health Organization, as many as 77 million of the people in Bangladesh are at risk from arsenic in drinking water. VanderWeele, who got interested in studying water quality issues after
Even as tuition skyrockets at many U.S. universities, enrollment is keeping pace, creating larger student bodies that are less inclined to accept cramped and aging dormitories. To accommodate and lure students with top-quality housing stock built faster and more economically, schools are embracing private developers as partners. Public universities facing cuts in state funding already are on the bandwagon, and private schools also are seeing more benefit in the privatization approach. California is a privatized housing hot spot. In the next five years alone, California colleges expect another 800,000 students. At the University of California campus in Irvine, American Campus
The complete 2005 Top 200 Environmental Firms list with revenue and market data is free to ENR subscribers but can also be purchased for only $14.95. Click here for more information. Want the entire 2005 Top 200 Environmental Firms list with enhanced market segment ranking tables and a special supplement showing subsidiaries? Click here for more information. Click here to view firm rankings Snapping a two-year revenue losing streak, ENR’s Top 200 environmental firms bounced back in 2004. The firms registered $33 billion of environmental work overall in the 10th annual survey, a 5% increase over 2003. Several firms predicted
Fuel Hogs. Earthmoving equipment burns more fuel than other machinery. (Photo courtesy of Illinois Dept. of Transportation) Energy markets showed early warning signs of inflation last October, when the price of crude oil reached more than $51 a barrel during regular trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Global price swings, blamed on labor unrest in some oil-producing nations, on top of tight supplies and high demand, sent nominal fuel prices soaring to their highest in history and their inflation-adjusted highest since the early 1980s. A relatively calm winter season—price-wise—followed by another record-setter in early April, has construction professionals on
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