For a market that receives little attention or fanfare, the U.S. reconstruction and renovation sector is the lifeblood for many of the nation’s architecture, engineering, and construction firms—large and small. From office fitouts to adaptive reuse to historic preservation to run-of-the-mill renovation work, more than $100 billion in construction spending flows into reconstruction projects each year.
For some perspective on the importance of this sector to the AEC market, we turn to the 2019 Giants 300 Report, BD+C’s annual ranking of the largest AEC firms in the country (BDCnetwork.com/Giants2019). Of the 486 companies that participated in the Giants report this year, 364 (74.9%) reported earning at least some design or construction revenue from reconstruction work in 2018. And more than a quarter (27.0%) of all reporting firms earned at least half of their total 2018 revenue from the reconstruction sector.
Then there are the specialists, like Clune Construction, Consigli Building Group, Hoffmann Architects, and Jensen Hughes, which garner three-quarters or more of their overall revenue from the reconstruction market (40 companies in all, or 8.2% of the Giants 300 reporting firms).
From a community impact perspective, few new construction sectors (outside of healthcare, perhaps) rival the reconstruction market, as evidenced by the 22 winning projects in our 36th annual Reconstruction Awards. When planned and executed properly, redevelopment projects not only save and reenergize dated or landmark structures, they can spark the revivification of entire neighborhoods and districts. Take, for example, the MGM Springfield development in Springfield, Mass. The city used this landmark casino project—it is the first full-service casino in Massachusetts—as a catalyst for a $960-million, 14-acre redevelopment in the heart of downtown. The project involved the restoration or reuse of several historic structures, including the relocation of the First Spiritualist Church and the adaptive reuse of the long-vacant State Armory building.
In Little Rock, Ark., an enterprising AE firm (Cromwell Architects Engineers) purchased the oldest remaining industrial building and turned it into The Paint Factory. The $7.9 million mixed-use redevelopment has been hugely successful since opening in March 2018, sparking some $75 million worth of new construction in the neighborhood.
There are numerous success stories among our 2019 Reconstruction Awards winners—from Linode’s new headquarters in a converted bank building in Philadelphia, to Springfield Technical Community College’s student services center in a military munitions manufacturing plant in Massachusetts. Check out these projects and more featued in the November 2019 issue of BD+C. Enjoy!
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| Oct 12, 2010
University of Toledo, Memorial Field House
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Memorial Field House, once the lovely Collegiate Gothic (ca. 1933) centerpiece (along with neighboring University Hall) of the University of Toledo campus, took its share of abuse after a new athletic arena made it redundant, in 1976. The ultimate insult occurred when the ROTC used it as a paintball venue.
| Oct 12, 2010
Owen Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Officials at Michigan State University’s East Lansing Campus were concerned that Owen Hall, a mid-20th-century residence facility, was no longer attracting much interest from its target audience, graduate and international students.
| Oct 12, 2010
Gartner Auditorium, Cleveland Museum of Art
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Gartner Auditorium was originally designed by Marcel Breuer and completed, in 1971, as part of his Education Wing at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Despite that lofty provenance, the Gartner was never a perfect music venue.
| Oct 12, 2010
Cell and Genome Sciences Building, Farmington, Conn.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Administrators at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington didn’t think much of the 1970s building they planned to turn into the school’s Cell and Genome Sciences Building. It’s not that the former toxicology research facility was in such terrible shape, but the 117,800-sf structure had almost no windows and its interior was dark and chopped up.
| Oct 12, 2010
The Watch Factory, Waltham, Mass.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards — Gold Award. When the Boston Watch Company opened its factory in 1854 on the banks of the Charles River in Waltham, Mass., the area was far enough away from the dust, dirt, and grime of Boston to safely assemble delicate watch parts.
| Oct 12, 2010
Cuyahoga County Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, Cleveland, Ohio
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Gold Award. The Cuyahoga County Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument was dedicated on the Fourth of July, 1894, to honor the memory of the more than 9,000 Cuyahoga County veterans of the Civil War.
| Oct 12, 2010
Building 13 Naval Station, Great Lakes, Ill.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Gold Award. Designed by Chicago architect Jarvis Hunt and constructed in 1903, Building 13 is one of 39 structures within the Great Lakes Historic District at Naval Station Great Lakes, Ill.
| Oct 12, 2010
Full Steam Ahead for Sustainable Power Plant
An innovative restoration turns a historic but inoperable coal-burning steam plant into a modern, energy-efficient marvel at Duke University.
| Oct 12, 2010
From ‘Plain Box’ to Community Asset
The Mid-Ohio Foodbank helps provide 55,000 meals a day to the hungry. Who would guess that it was once a nondescript mattress factory?
| Oct 8, 2010
Union Bank’S San Diego HQ awarded LEED Gold
Union Bank’s San Diego headquarters building located at 530 B Street has been awarded LEED Gold certification from the Green Building Certification Institute under the standards established by the U.S. Green Building Council. Gold status was awarded to six buildings across the United States in the most recent certification and Union Bank’s San Diego headquarters building is one of only two in California.
