The $20-million Arizona State University Downtown Phoenix Campus Sun Devil Fitness Complex—which connects to an existing YMCA facility—features weight and fitness rooms, multipurpose activity rooms, a gymnasium, elevated jogging track, lab/classroom spaces, locker rooms and support spaces.

Despite ongoing optimism for the Southwest construction market, 2014 hasn't become the boom year that most firms were anticipating. Related Links: Engineering News Record Architectural Record Last year's ENR Southwest Specialty Contractors ranking revealed that eight of the top 10 firms reported higher revenue in 2012. In the current survey, based on 2013 revenue, only five of the top 10 firms showed an increase.But the revenue of those top 10 firms rose to $1.8 billion in 2013 from $925 million in 2012.Specialty contractor of the year Helix Electric of Las Vegas is one of the firms that grew, posting revenue

A little more than 10 years ago, Phoenix lost out to neighboring Glendale as the  site for a football-only stadium for the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals. Shortly after that, the idea of putting a biomedical campus in downtown Phoenix was born. Phoenix partnered primarily with the University of Arizona, along with several private and nonprofit medical groups, to develop the Phoenix Biomedical Campus, or PBC. By late 2012, four projects and 640,000 sq ft of the campus had been built, including the Translational Genomics Institute, the University of Arizona Medical School and the 268,000-sq-ft Health Sciences Education Building.Next up for Phoenix

The $54-million College Avenue Commons project on the campus of Arizona State University is in many respects a typical university project. The 130,000-sq-ft steel building, located on College Avenue between 6th and 7th streets in Tempe, connects the city and the university. It has a bookstore and a team shop and provides students with a place to meet and serves as a venue for hosting community meetings. Related Links: Engineering News Record Architectural Record But what is unusual is that the building also happens to be a giant teaching tool for students at the university's Del E. Webb School of

Sunbaked Southern Nevada sees a scant 4 in. of rain annually. When a downpour occurs, however, it can be violent, abrupt and torrential. Often, the result is flash-flooding that particularly impacts low-lying northeast Las Vegas, where heavy rains routinely cause water damage to homes, businesses and properties. In 2011, the Federal Emergency Management Agency added 1,700 structures to the area's high-risk flood zone, making insurance premiums nearly five times pricier. Related Links: Engineering News Record Architectural Record "It meant we needed to meet a 100-year storm event. And we had never looked at the existing channel's capacity or flow rate,"

Over the last several years, construction firms performing work throughout the Southwest have been hoping that activity would pick up. For the most part, it has. In fact, six of the top 10 and five of the top seven firms responding to ENR Southwest's annual survey of general contractors reported an increase in revenue during 2013 compared with the prior year. Related Links: Engineering News Record Architectural Record But more than six years since the downturn hit the U.S., it is becoming clear to many construction executives that "recovery" doesn't necessarily mean a return to levels seen in 2006. Industry

The results are in for ENR Southwest's design firm survey, and according to both the collected data and industry executives, a slow, steady recovery continues to unfold in the marketplace. Related Links: ENR Southwest Overall Top Design Firms 2014 ENR Southwest Top Design Firms 2014 By Market Sector "I'm seeing cautious optimism and steady momentum, although there is some concern about the slowdown in new and used home sales," says Doug Plasencia, vice president of Michael Baker Corp.'s Phoenix office. "However, we're still seeing a continuous stream of design-build opportunities coming from the federal sector."Overall, the 75 firms that participated

Equipment supplier and Caterpillar dealer Empire Southwest is known throughout the region as a supplier of heavy machinery for innovative and unique projects. Last year, the firm began work on their own unique project: a component rebuild facility in Mesa, Ariz., that uses a robust structural foundation to support heavy-duty lifting. Related Links: Heavy Duty Playground Opens in Las Vegas Nevada Tower Design Banks On Potential Expansion In mid-2013, Empire Southwest and general contractor Porter Brothers Construction of Gilbert, Ariz., broke ground on the 90,000-sq-ft facility as an addition to Empire Southwest's Mesa campus. The new building will house the

The first week of April, Phoenix Motor Company opened the final half of its Mercedes-Benz of Scottsdale facility, 4725 N. Scottsdale Road, in the city’s burgeoning post-recession midtown. On 5.12 infill acres at Highland Avenue, the $30-million adaptive-reuse project has recycled a 1983-vintage three-story office building and adjacent parking structure, Highland Park, into a contemporary green-intensive campus employing 100 sales, service and administrative staff.The dealership comprises a majority of the original 92,500-sq-ft building, its adjacent 64,000-sq-ft two-level parking structure, and adds 20,000 sq ft of floor-to-ceiling glazed showroom space and climate-controlled interior service-drive area.The initial western half of the steel-and-concrete