The New York regional construction market’s dark journey since late 2008 has had its few bright spots – K-12 schools, higher education, massive ongoing transportation jobs – but few seemed as brilliant as healthcare. The vital signs were strong, with big projects churning along and expectations that the demographics of aging Baby Boomers and a growing population would keep the market humming. But beneath the veneer of vigor, multiple maladies have set upon the healthcare market, altering its short-term prospects and clouding its long-term outlook. And it all happened quickly, with economic pressures and the healthcare reform debate colliding, says

Related Links: Top Green Contractors Ranking Top Green Design Firms Ranking Just the Basics Tall Order Sustainable Justice Years after “green” became a buzz word for engineers, architects and builders, we’re still seeing advancements and breakthroughs on projects and programs across the region. It’s hard to find an affordable housing project that has not “gone green.” It’s even harder to find a public job that is not adhering to some sustainability standard. The pages that follow rank the region’s leading green design and construction firms while profiling some of the more innovative sustainability programs going on in the Tri-State region.

Related Links: Back to "Serious But Stable" Plenty of industry associations have spent their time in the past two years lamenting the sad state of affairs in the construction world, but the New York Building Congress didn’t start up its new healthcare committee this year with hand-wringing in mind. The new panel has already hosted four events with prominent speakers outlining the outlook for the healthcare market and providing a forum for discussing future trends, says Andrew Holwack, vice president at NYBC and the committee’s staff liaison. He says the group hasn’t ventured in the policy arena yet. “We’re serving

Funding sources and government programs are moving towards requiring green certification or mandating sustainable features for affordable housing grants. Developers are gaining a deeper understanding of how to build cost-effective, green affordable housing and why building green makes sense. “In a few years to say green affordable housing might almost become redundant,” says Bill Stein, principle, Dattner Architects, New York. “It’s become fairly mainstream at this point and required in whatever different way by just about every housing and funding agency,” says Chris Cirillo, vice president, The Richmond Group, Greenwich, Conn.“Tenants expect to see it, developers expect to do it

A year ago, signs of the construction market’s collapse were as clear as a crisp autumn day – backlogs were drying up, revenues were swept away, sputtering projects went dormant, and new work was nowhere on the bare landscape. And in the midst of that chill in November 2009, Structure Tone, a New York contractor with a $3 billion book, jumped on an acquisition of L.F. Driscoll, a Philadelphia market leader with $650 million in work. Most market observers say the construction sector’s swoon actually opened a prime season of mergers and acquisitions, a time for strong firms to not

Aiming to grow to meet an increasing demand for higher education, New York City’s major universities are investing in substantial upgrades to their campuses. “It’s a strong segment in the New York construction market,” says Richard Anderson, president of the New York Building Congress in Manhattan. “Institutional coupled with infrastructure is sustaining the industry at this point.” New York University, Columbia University and the City University of New York have multiple projects in the works. In addition, Weill Cornell Medical College broke ground in May on its $650 million, 18-story Medical Research Building; Mount Sinai School of Medicine began constructing

Lower Manhattan Starbucks would be the last place one would expect to find the man New York City prosecutors tried to portray as “Wild Bill Rapetti.” Photo:AP Rapetti on the media spectacle that surrounded his “perp walk” shortly after turning himself in to authorities: “It was disgusting.” Photo Courtesy Of The Rapetti Family Rapetti on his acquittal: “I feel like the Verizon commercial. ‘Do you hear me now?’” Rapetti, the master rigger who was recently acquitted on manslaughter charges stemming from the deadly collapse of a 200-ft tower crane in Manhattan in 2008, was called “reckless” by the prosecution and

“It’s not for girls.” Photo Courtesy Of Lenore Janis In the 1970s Janis lobbied then-Gov. Mario Cuomo [receiving an award from Janis above] to set a goal of 5% participation for female contractors on all state-funded projects. That’s how Lenore Janis describes the reaction to her childhood interest in the family business. As the association Janis founded – the Professional Women in Construction – celebrates its 30th anniversary this year she’s been able to reflect upon and enjoy just how much progress she and other women have made in an industry that once rejected them. Janis loves to talk about

The tri-state area’s designers were on the front lines of a construction market choking on its excesses in 2008. Today, even if temporarily, most of the rampage seems to be over, but there is little cause for excessive optimism: colleagues across the three states remain unemployed, projects are stalled, and there are few indicators that the federal or state governments will come to the rescue to the extent they did in previous downturns. Among those still standing, there’s a growing consensus that business as usual is over, and the industry as a whole will need to reinvent itself to stay

Robert Harvey, it seems, is always directing traffic. Harvey, and the organization he leads, the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center, coordinates every move that is made on every job site in Lower Manhattan. More specifically, the LMCCC oversees every project valued above $25 million south of Canal Street from the Hudson River to the East River. All told the agency is managing about 55 million sq ft of commercial and residential construction, as well as a complete road and infrastructure improvement program. He has a direct line to the governor of New York, the mayor of New York City and