Features

RSS

The entrepreneurial "enterprise within an enterprise" approach that Cary, N.C.-based Kimley-Horn first implemented more than 40 years ago is proving to be a perfect fit for today's business environment. Built around the idea of "practice builders"—specialists in various design disciplines who are given greater freedom to cultivate their own niche markets and service areas—the concept is contributing to the firm's growing share of the current market's crop of increasingly complex projects. It is winning over owners who demand a higher level of engagement and innovation from their design consultants. Related Links: Southeast Top Design Firms Ranking Southeast Design Firms Making

Southeast design firms are for the most part making gains in business activity as the region's construction economy continues to improve. But while most of the engineering and architectural firms that participated in ENR Southeast's annual Top Design Firms survey reported increased revenue for 2014, gains were often modest. Related Links: Engineering News Record Architectural Record For instance, the group's collective 2014 revenue total of $3.3 billion marked a 10% improvement over last year's survey total of $3 billion. However, much of that increase can be attributed to AECOM's inclusion of new revenue resulting from its 2014 acquisition of URS

Across the Southeast, specialty contractors are finding out that this construction recovery isn't arriving via a wave or even a slow upward curve. Instead, this post-recession rebound is coming together on a piece-by-piece basis, like a massive puzzle that's only now starting to reveal its overall picture. Photo courtesy Gate Precast Concrete Progress Gate Precast is providing a unique set of precast concrete panels to the Miami Science Museum project, which is being led by Skanska USA. Photo courtesy of NASA Up and Away? At Kennedy Space Center, Florida, NASA is renovating its Vehicle Assembly Building to accommodate the next

Just as repeat visitors to Central Florida's theme parks typically find new rides and attractions alongside old favorites, the region's contractors and subcontractors are finding the current uptick in activity similar, yet different from post-downturn periods of the past. Related Links: Southeast Specialty Firms Still Seeking Market Stability Southeast Top Specialty Contractors Ranking To be sure, the market's typically strong segments—multifamily apartments and condominiums, hospitality and health care—are once again leading the way, along with some government and sports initiatives.But it's how these projects are being executed that is defining this current construction environment. Most notably, say regional players, the

Three years ago, when Coastal Construction Group CEO and Chairman Tom Murphy Jr. predicted to ENR Southeast readers that an "unprecedented" building boom was coming to Miami, skeptics scoffed. "Everybody laughed," says Dan Whiteman, Coastal president. Related Links: 2014 Southeast Top Contractors Ranking 2011: Coastal Construction CEO Says Miami is Set to Boom Again Whiteman—who adds that Murphy "has a stronger sense of the market than any individual I have ever met"—is exaggerating slightly about the reaction. After all, contractors who know the well-connected Murphy would be reluctant to dismiss his insider perspective.Still, back then there was reason for skepticism,

Designing the 60,000-sq-ft Center for Emerging Technologies and a 1,200-space AutoPark Structure for the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) near Greenville, S.C., proved no easy drive through the park. Related Links: As Design Activity Picks Up, Industry Sentiment Follows ENR Southeast's Top Lists CU-ICAR, reflecting the changing nature of the Southeast design market, required exacting specifications within a limited budget. The center's design had to support academic research on a variety of advanced automotive technologies—which in turn support and influence powerhouses like BMW, whose nearby plant will soon produce nearly 500,000 vehicles a year."Our campus is unlike