If ECS Southeast's 2021 performance is any indication, the “new normal” of the Southeast’s post-pandemic design and construction market will be a lot like the “old normal,” only busier. 

Southeast firms are positive about future opportunities, but fears over inflation and continuing supply-chain disruptions remain.

The 20 projects recognized in 2022 are the result of a nearly yearlong effort by ENR editors and roughly 100 construction industry members who judged contest entries at various stages.

Tasked with rebuilding a historic Tampa elementary school that was nearly destroyed in 2017 by the one-two punch of Hurricane Irma and ensuing fire, contractor JE Dunn Construction Co. and architect Fleishman Garcia began a painstaking effort to revive the early 1900s-era brick building into a modern facility. 

The construction of the $96-million, 115,000-sq-ft, LEED Gold-certified athletics and educational community college facility in Redwood, Calif., would test Blach Construction’s safety program in unique ways.

The joint-venture of Archer Western and Traylor Bros. is being challenged by the bay's geology as they construct the 3-mile-long bridge's substructure. 

For construction industry firms, 2021 must have seemed like a repeat of 2020, with ongoing pandemic-related impacts, such as supply-chain problems and workforce challenges.

From climate change to the industry’s mental health crisis to its need for diversity, equity and inclusion, the urgency for industry change was a dominant theme of a joint conference of the Construction Users Roundtable and the Construction Industry Institute Feb. 7-9 in Orlando.