Even in the toughest economy the U.S. has seen in decades, leading design firm HNTB has managed to not only survive but flourish. Photo Courtesy Of HNTB About 77% of HNTB’s Midwestern work comes from transportation-related projects. Photo Courtesy Of HNTB Bridges remain a major focus for HNTB. The Bob Kerry Pedestrian Bridge is a 3,000-ft footbridge across the Missouri River linking Iowa and Nebraska. Related Links: Midwest's Top 80 Designers List Profile: Flad Architects Wisconsin firm grows revenue in tough times. In 2010, HNTB has repeated at No. 2 among Midwest Construction’s top design firms, with reported revenue of

It’s certainly not the “same old, same old” for Robert Peck, a two-time manager in the U.S. General Services Administration, one of the world’s biggest development databases. This time, new floodgates of revenue, labor and cheaper materials have converged to allow the massive updating and greening of an aging inventory of buildings. During the Clinton years, Peck oversaw public buildings for the GSA at a time when big government construction projects attracted little attention. High wage rates and material costs also made it tough to stretch an approximately $1-billion annual capital expenditures budget over hundreds of millions of square feet.

Matthew Chalifoux, principal with EYP Architecture & Engineering, based in Albany, N.Y., is hopeful that when the ongoing “greening” and fire safety project at the Birch Bayh Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in downtown Indianapolis is completed, “you won’t be able to tell what we’ve done.” The $69.3-million Birch Bayh Federal Building project, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is providing work for nearly two dozen companies. Much of the work is being performed behind the scenes. It’s a primarily behind-the-scenes project, which is why Chalifoux won’t mind if the general public doesn’t notice. The $69.3-million project, funded

Museum director Russell Panczenko says the new 86,000-sq-ft, three-story addition to the Chazen Museum of Art now being built at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wis., will be “a work of art in itself.” Its attention to detail includes a variety of exterior finishes that include copper and bronze cladding, limestone, curved concrete tiles, smooth and sandblasted concrete and two-story structural glass walls. The inside will have even more attention to detail in finishes. For example, copper used inside the lobby and visible through the glass curtain wall will be brought onsite to “weather” outdoors so it will match

The 50-story, 215 W. Washington Street residential building in downtown Chicago is the first new high-rise residential building constructed in Chicago’s Loop in 15 years. Its owner, Jupiter Realty LLC, Chicago, says the building completed in July is also the first newly constructed high-rise in the Loop expected to receive LEED certification. The 675,000-sq-ft building houses a mix of retail space, parking, apartments and tenant amenities. It also features a 23,000-sq-ft outdoor garden and swimming pool atop the roof over part of the 14th floor. The design and structural construction team for the design-bid-build project included architect Solomon Cordwell Buenz;

Weak private sector demand and diminished state and local construction budgets have shrunk construction employment in Illinois. The state’s construction jobs totaled 198,500 in June, down 19,100 or 8.8% from the June 2009 figure of 217,600. “Nationwide, we’ve seen unprecedented levels of unemployment in our industry,” says Al Leitschuh, president of the Builders Association, the Chicago-area chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America. “We’ve seen shades of improvement here and there, but the drop in employment didn’t happen in one day and it’s not going to improve that way, either. “In Illinois, in particular, they’re still building schools, hospitals

The Christman Co. of Lansing, Mich., has been instrumental in converting an idled historic power plant on the Grand River in downtown Lansing, Mich., into the new national headquarters of Accident Fund Insurance Co. of America. Photo courtesy of Accident Fund Insurance Co. & The Christman Co.; Ike Lea, photographer. Lattice-boom crawler cranes were used to lift steel components in and out of the existing building through two 20- by 25-ft hatches in the ninth-floor roof. Photo courtesy of Accident Fund Insurance Co. & The Christman Co.; Ike Lea, photographer. A barge-mounted crane lifts materials to the Accident Fund jobsite.

It’s time again for Midwest Construction to rank the region’s top specialty contractors who work in trades ranging from mechanical, plumbing, HVAC and electrical, to excavating, concrete work, fire protection, demolition and glazing. Related Links: 2010 Top Specialty Contractors List This year, we’ll lead off with an overview of current conditions in the industry and thoughts from some of the ranked companies about how they continue to deal with the economic downturn. Ed Sullivan, vice president and chief economist for the Skokie, Ill.-based Portland Cement Association, expects little overall improvement in the economy anytime soon. Sullivan, who correctly predicted in

Plans for building the $1.8-billion FutureGen clean-coal power plant and underground carbon-storage site near Mattoon, Ill., remain on hold while the U.S. Dept. of Energy and the FutureGen Industrial Alliance review the agreement covering its construction, financing and operation. The FutureGen Industrial Alliance�s coal-fired, 275-MW plant would capture nearly all the carbon dioxide it creates and store it permanently more than a mile deep in the earth. Related Links: Spotlight on Power Perfect Power System Proves Worth The DOE must approve the agreement before the FutureGen Industrial Alliance can build and operate the coal-fired, 275-MW plant, which would capture nearly

The new Perfect Power smart-grid electrical system that the Illinois Institute of Technology is installing on its Chicago campus could be the blueprint for a new microgrid power-distribution system that would revitalize the aging electrical grid in the U.S. Officials from the Galvin Electricity Initiative, which developed the Perfect Power concept, say the system going in at IIT is the country�s first Perfect Power system and one of just nine �renewable and distributed systems integration� prototypes funded by the U.S. Dept. of Energy. DOE is paying $7 million of the system�s $12-million cost. IIT is paying the other $5 million.