Resources: Voice Your Opinion

How to prepare for—shhh!!!— the 'R' word - 4/1/2008
Construction jobs, mostly in housing, are down more than 330,000 since late 2006. U.S. home prices dropped 11.4% in January, the steepest decline in 20+ years. The Conference Board said consumer confidence fell to its lowest level in five years, to 64.5 in March, from 76.4 in February—the worst reading since the 61.

BD+C Hosts Industry Roundtable on Project Delivery Trends - 4/1/2008
Earlier this year, New Millennium Building Systems surveyed architects, engineers, contractors, building owners, and developers to determine which issues were top-of-mind going into 2008. To drill deeper into the statistical findings, Building Design+Construction invited 10 professionals representing all facets of the U.

Barry LePatner: 'Construction is a very dysfunctional industry' - 4/1/2008
Barry B. LePatner,Esq., Hon. AIA, is founder of LePatner & Associates LLP, a New York City law firm that represents owners, institutions, developers, and architects. Clients include Barnard College, Gehry Partners, Goldman Sachs, Millennium Partners, Starwood Lodging and Resorts, and WNET. He is the co-author of Structural and Foundation Failures (1982) and author of Broken Buildings, Buste...

Recruitment solution: Bring back retirees - 2/1/2008
The biggest obstacle to growth for most AEC firms today is a shortage of skilled professionals. “The workforce shortage in the AEC industry has no immediate end in sight … The issue is serious and one that firms cannot assume will correct itself over time.” That's from Kay C. Godwin and Karen W.

Cities should halt 'LEED creep' - 12/1/2006
A growing number of municipalities are engaging in the practice of “LEED creep.” It starts with governments requiring LEED certification for public buildings—perfectly OK, since they're being built with taxpayer dollars—but before long, private projects are also put under LEED mandate.

Bird Flu Pandemic: Have a Plan? - 8/1/2006
Sorry to ruin your day, but in addition to all the usual trivia you have to deal with on the job, there's this little matter of a possible bird flu pandemic to worry about. Does your firm have a “business continuation plan” in the works to deal with such a calamity? As of July 26, the World Health Organization reported 232 human cases of avian influenza from the A/H5N1 virus, with 1...

Eminent domain revisited - 1/4/2006 11:29:00 AM
The dust kicked up by the Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo vs. New London is spreading all around the country.

Scott Simpson: 'We're in the leadership business' - 9/1/2005
Scott Simpson, FAIA, is president and CEO of The Stubbins Associates, Cambridge, Mass. A registered architect in 19 states, he earned a BA in English at Yale and an MArch at Harvard and served on the national board of the AIA in 2002–3. He is co-author (with James P. Cramer) of How Firms Succeed: A Field Guide to Design Management, published by Greenway Communications and Östberg Lib...