Jim Kollaer's blog

According to an Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) press release, “Construction employment declines in 164 out of 337 metro areas between August 2011 & 2012 as ‘fiscal cliff’ dampens demand for projects.”

The press release which was posted following the publication of the job numbers revealed in October stated that the market was also stagnant in another 43 metropolitan areas.  This comes in light of the addition of 5,000 jobs in the construction industry between August and September.

Residential and some commercial work has bolstered the job numbers in the private sector, but the lack of work in the public sector and the looming uncertainty about the economy and the elections has again shelved a number of projects. [node:read-more:link]

Facebook might be having a drop in its stock offering after the initial public offering this year, but it has not slowed in its need for a new headquarters building, and it has hired one of the most “out of the box” designers in the world to design the new facility.

Archdaily’s Karissa Rosenfield reports that Mark Zuckerberg and Frank Gehry have been working on a new headquarters facility named Facebook West, and it will be located just across the highway from Facebook East in Menlo Park, California.

According to the article, the facility will be one large room of about 10 acres and it will contain every amenity that the Facebook generation expects as a work environment:

“When Facebook employees need a break, they can retreat to outdoor-terraced cafes for some sushi and barbecue, play arcade games in the lounge with their co-workers, or escape up a ‘twisting wooden stair’ to the lush roof garden.”

Construction on the quarter-mile long workspace and the amenities around it will begin in the spring of 2013. [node:read-more:link]

According to ArchDaily, an architectural publication, a new 96-story building designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill, LLP (SOM) broke ground this year.  Designed by the same firm that created the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the CTF Tianjin Tower in China will be the 14^th tallest in a long string of tall buildings to be completed worldwide by 2020.

The tower’s structure will contain eight sloping columns designed to stabilize the supertall building during earthquakes.  Several multi-story wind vents and the aerodynamic outer shape of the building will help it remain steady against high wind speeds.  ArchDaily quotes SOM Structural and Civil Engineering Partner William Baker:

“The single most important structural parameter of a tall building is the architecture.  The CTF Tianjin Tower will be significantly quieter, with less movement than other tall buildings. We tested 18 schemes in the wind tunnel before finalizing the design.” [node:read-more:link]

When materials and labor make up the bulk of your construction costs, and you receive a letter from your manufacturers and suppliers explaining that a major increase is on the way, you are likely to take a deep breath before you decide what to do about it.  (You should probably take a deep one now before reading the rest of this story)

After you read the letter and the anger fades, questions emerge.  Are they serious?  Will it stick?  Are all of the suppliers following suit?  Then you have to look at what you will do, and you will ask more questions including: will you pass 100% of the costs to your clients and customers, will you pass on part of it to them, or will you decide that it is wise to absorb all of those costs?  You will also likely look at a number of factors like whether the changes apply to everyone in the industry or just one segment like residential or commercial. [node:read-more:link]

Seven protesters, members of the Tar Sands Blockade group, were arrested in Livingston, Texas recently after 4 of their members chained themselves to a construction truck being used on the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline.  The pipeline will extend from the tar sands of northern Canada to the Texas Gulf coast refineries.

As reported by Brian Merchant, a contributing writer to the TreeHugger website, the group of protesters are just plain folks who are afraid that the construction of the pipeline by TransCanada will destroy neighborhoods and communities by using eminent domain to take over right of way along the 3,000 mile route of the pipeline.

The protestor’s website tells their story with updates including photos and videos.

The Fort Worth Weekly spells out the taking of a 50-foot swath through the Red d’Arc Ranch, [node:read-more:link]

As you can imagine, the movement of hundreds of oil field workers and construction equipment into the Shale areas of west and south Texas is causing real pain for construction workers hired to build new hotels and apartments in cities like Midland.

CBS affiliate KOSA Channel 7 in Midland reports on one site where the construction workers were brought in from El Paso to build a new hotel.  As of the time of the report, the workers had not been paid and were forced to live in shipping containers without facilities.  Rudy Vegas, one of the workers, talks about living inside a storage unit:

“This is about it right here for 9 guys.  We have 1 bathroom for 40 people and it's not even a real bathroom, we had to build it.  I came over here to make money, not to dig a hole.” [node:read-more:link]

Fredericksburg, Texas is the home to the National Museum of the Pacific War.  I visited there over Labor Day with my Marine friend and architect and was amazed with the history lesson presented in the exhibits and relics from the Pacific Theater of World War II.  Much of the lessons presented there have been lost in the rhetoric of politics in the country and around the world, but the role of the construction industry and factory workers who supplied the armies, navies and air forces of that war are almost unbelievable.  There are examples like the Japanese minisub that was retrieved from Pearl Harbor, tanks, and artillery that were built by the thousands and shipped around the world.  There are planes like the B-25 that were created and built by welders, sheet metal workers, and electricians in a time frame that would make most of us shake our heads.

Not only did the construction workers build them, they maintained them and salvaged the parts to keep them moving and flying.   [node:read-more:link]

Great editorial in the Cedar Rapids Gazette offering a tip of the hat on Labor Day to the hundreds of thousands of construction workers who have built this country and those who have given their lives creating the world we live in.  Written by Greg Spenner, the president and CEO of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Iowa, this Letter to the Editor reminds us to be grateful to the craft professionals who “work hard to build for the future”.

Spencer states that 86% of the construction workforce are in “merit shop” organizations – that is no unions – but most of them work side by side with union workers in the trades, licensed tradesmen and fellow construction workers. [node:read-more:link]

FMI (consultants and investment bankers for the engineering and construction industry) has released the results of their 3rd quarter survey alerting us to watch out for the rebound and recovery.  The Nonresidential Construction Index (NRCI) dropped five points down to 54.8 (below the 2010 level of 58.1), but it still remains in positive territory above the 50 mark which is considered the tipping point for the industry.

The report outlook tags the overall economy as down, the economy where the respondents do business as down, the expected backlog up to 9 months for the first time since 2010, and the cost of labor and materials lower for the next quarter.

There are a couple of points that struck a chord with me.  First, on financing, the report states that:

“Panelists are seeing much less use of bank loans for construction and increasing use of contractors participating as project partners and owner/developer self-funded projects. [node:read-more:link]

I was in one of my client’s offices the other day when a set of bid documents arrived.  It was a large project and there were two sets of documents.  It reminded me of the first time we sent bid documents to Saudi Arabia loaded on a 747.  We required a front-end loader to get a set off of the plane, and it took large trucks to handle the drawings for the contractors who were bidding the project.

A couple of years later, we sent the drawings by satellite and the team downloaded and printed them in-country.  That was 40 years ago and in most places in this country, we still print and deliver bid sets to offices of our clients.  Some of us still like to lay the sheets out on a 6 foot or 8 foot long table so that we can browse through them and make our red marks prior to preparing our bids.

Welcome to the 21st century where technology is being embraced and, on some projects, that technology is required to comply with the complexity of the project as well as the LEAN requirements of the owner and contractor. [node:read-more:link]