On a day in late January 2012, as members of Plymouth, Minn.-based Dominium Development gathered outside the 116-year-old brick and terra cotta Chemical Building, an empty St. Louis high-rise they were considering converting to housing, one of them eyed another empty, historic high-rise across the street, the gothic-styled Arcade Building, a 16-story brick and terra cotta clad structure built in 1913.
Rather than working from reams of paper, the Wisconsin Dept. of Transportation (WisDOT) opted to reconstruct the Zoo Interchange in downtown Milwaukee by working from gigabytes of 3D data—modeling virtually every aspect of the $1.7-billion project.
Long the laggard in the nation's economic recovery, the Midwest at long last has gained sufficient momentum to significantly buoy regional design and construction activity.
A 13-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 31 in the busy north side of Indianapolis has tested the rush-hour nerves of many Hoosier motorists, but they will soon find relief as crews finish upgrades intended to align the corridor with freeway standards and shave 30 minutes off the time required to drive from Carmel to South Bend, Ind.
In early March—amid subzero temperatures—project team members involved in environmental upgrades to a coal-fired generating plant in Michigan City, Ind., were waiting for the waters of Lake Michigan to warm up so they could resume barge shipments of preassembled components required to complete the dry flue-gas desulfurization of Northern Indiana Public Service Co.'s (NIPSCO) Unit 12.
Now that a small flotilla of barges has largely retreated, the main branch of the Chicago River no longer resembles a rush-hour jam on Lake Shore Drive.
Having long lagged other U.S. regions in economic recovery, the Midwest gained considerable momentum in 2014—welcome news to the region's construction industry.
The rehabilitation of historic Union Station's 9,500-sq-ft Grand Hall and Market called for restoration of cornices and terrazzo floors, the addition of a 90-ft bar, coffee shop and train display, and installation of a projection system to support one of North America's largest multimedia shows.
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