Attendees of the Society of American Military Engineers' annual agency briefing burst into applause last month upon hearing the news the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is moving to a platform-neutral approach to building information modeling software for its standardized building designs contracted through its Centers for Standardization. Rendering: Courtesy of STV Inc. Virtual model of Ft. Stewart, Ga., Army brigade building was used for structural erection. Their delight may be short-lived. The Corps' apparent reversal of a policy that mandated use of only Bentley Systems Inc. software for BIM project models has a few more twists. Each of the

UNDERWOOD Generational consultant Chuck Underwood a pioneering and longtime authority on generations, offers insights on the rising Millennial generation. Related Links: Millennials Bring New Attitudes Who Is a ‘Millennial’? Conrado Rodrigues Elizabeth McAndrew-Benavides Ellina Yin Jonathan Gaul Jonatan Schumacher Underwood is founder and principal of The Generational Imperative Inc., Miamisburg, Ohio, and author of the book The Generational Imperative, with over 24 years researching generational dynamics. This report is based on an extensive interview he granted ENR correspondent Judy Schriener in mid-February, 2011. ENR: What makes demographers start identifying groups of people born in certain years as a “Generation,” such

Generations are defined by the core values they carry for a lifetime, according to Chuck Underwood, founder and principal of Generational Imperative Inc., a Miamisburg, Ohio-based consultancy. The youngest people now flowing into the workforce are first-wave Millennials, aged 18 to 29 years old. Some demographers set the start of this generation slightly earlier, but there is broad agreement on who the Millennials are, what makes them tick and why managers and colleagues should care. Related Links: Millennials Bring New Attitudes The Millennials: Who They Are, And Why They Are A Force to be Reckoned With Conrado Rodrigues Elizabeth McAndrew-Benavides

Bright spots in the homebuilding industry are being embraced like a long-lost family pet by builders slogging through the seemingly endless recession. First cause for optimism is a resurgence in the 55-plus market, described as “the buzz of the show,” at a recent National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) event. Secondly, demand for multifamily housing is keeping many firms busy in anticipation of demand far outweighing supply in the next few years. And, the so-called Gen Y — some 80 million children of baby boomers — soon will flood both apartments and single-family homes, giving builders further hope for the

Experts agree it’s going to be a new world once the U.S. emerges from the current economic slump. But what will that look like? GSA's Les Shepherd: 'We do call references.' The past once was a good predictor of the future. No more. Patterns and preferences of all sorts are shifting in economics, housing, infrastructure, culture and demographics. The question when trying to predict the future is which of those patterns are “cyclical recessionary impacts” and which are “underlying seismic shifts” that will continue indefinitely, said James Chung, president of Reach Advisors, Slingerlands, N.Y. Chung and two panels, one featuring

Design and construction firms are waking up to the reality that one-way communication is losing ground to interactive websites and social media, such as LinkedIn and Facebook. Though these “meeting” sites are popular, a firm should neither put all its marketing eggs in one social-media basket nor dump traditional marketing tools; rather, experts say, social media should be considered as just another arrow in a firm’s quiver. “The question is, how do you re-engage the things you already know how to do with these new tool sets?” social media expert Chris Brogan asked some 700 attendees of Build Business, the

Construction industry firms and individuals who use social networking face confusion both about how to use the tools and how to measure success, according to research rolled out last month at the Society for Marketing Professional Services’ Build Business conference. Source: Society for Marketing Professional Services Foundation; based on Zoomerang® social networking survey of 576 members, conducted January 2009 Funded by SMPS Foundation, the open Internet-based survey was conducted between Jan. 30 and Feb. 15, netting 371 complete and 205 partial responses from SMPS members. Some respondents clearly confused electronic social networking with going to conferences or other offline networking

People age 55 and over, who as a group have taken the hardest hit to their net worth in the slumping economy, are waiting out the recession. When they return as homebuyers, they will not be looking for the same kind of house they would have been a year ago, say housing experts. The value of baby boomers’ homes currently is equivalent to 2003 prices. That has softened the formerly solid baby-boomer and senior market and has homebuilders scrambling to figure out what boomers and seniors will want and how to deliver it. That market’s numbers are significant: More than

The U.S. Air Force's Air Combat Command, the service's largest major command with more than $1.2 billion in construction and waste cleanup work it performs or manages, used to see 90% of its projects come in late. Now, using a motivational approach familiar to football fans, the command has turned its performance record around. Now 75% of ACC's projects over the last three years have come in ahead of schedule and 90% of ACC's current projects are ahead of an aggressively accelerated schedule. At the same time, project costs have dropped from 3.8% over budget four years ago to 0.3%