Long the laggard in the nation's economic recovery, the Midwest at long last has gained sufficient momentum to significantly buoy regional design and construction activity.
Architect-engineer CannonDesign doesn't simply serve markets, it burrows into them with a fervor and fluidity that blurs lines among its operations in Chicago, St. Louis and more than a dozen other locations.
Some 150 tradesmen have converged on a "postage stamp-size site" in Anchorage to construct what its owner promises will be one of the most energy-efficient thermal generation powerplants in the world.
An engineer who as a college student left a major mark on masonry codes, a project manager overseeing work on CD5 Niqliq Channel Bridge in the North Slope of Alaska and a sustainability expert specializing in mixed-use and retail projects both domestically and abroad are among the rising stars selected as ENR Northwest's Top Young Construction Industry Professionals.
Jon Magnusson, senior principal with Seattle-based engineer Magnusson Klemencic Associates (MKA) and son of a civil engineer, recalls visiting the construction firm where his father worked and eyeing a 50-lb box of nails, whereupon the 8-year-old inquired if he could pocket a handful of them.
While some parts of the Pacific Northwest are undergoing a boom of a magnitude rarely seen in the region, others may be heading for a bust of similar proportions.
In early March—amid subzero temperatures—project team members involved in environmental upgrades to a coal-fired generating plant in Michigan City, Ind., were waiting for the waters of Lake Michigan to warm up so they could resume barge shipments of preassembled components required to complete the dry flue-gas desulfurization of Northern Indiana Public Service Co.'s (NIPSCO) Unit 12.
