A Year for Ingenuity and Innovation

The true test for champion Building Team firms comes not in times of bull markets and plentiful investment capital, but when times are bad. That's the situation in which the commercial, institutional, and industrial building industry has been immersed — or should we say drowning? — for the last couple of years.

Fewer projects being undertaken in some sectors of the commercial and industrial markets means greater competition in stronger areas, such as healthcare and education — competition that sparks creativity and innovation. Architecture, engineering, and contracting firms are using their ingenuity to thrive in dynamic fashion.

Building Design & Construction's 27th Annual Design/Construct 300 survey of the largest CII firms in the U.S. reflects the keen abilities of these companies to read the shifts in the market and set an appropriate course of action to keep their heads above water in good times and bad.

By developing new business expertise, adding services, and forming alliances with other firms (even the competition), clever Building Teams are demonstrating that they can not only survive but even prosper under duress.