Welcome to High-Profile’s (HP) December Issue.
Michael Barnes, Publisher
HP’s Annual Green Supplement
We have lots of news inside, and we hope you enjoy the quick recap of groundbreakings reported to HP in 2018. The awards focus in this issue covers the latter half of 2018. Award winners for the first half of the year are reported in the July HP. If your new project was not included, or your award overlooked, please send details to [email protected].
This issue of HP includes our annual green supplement. It features news and commentary on Energy, LEED, and WELL for facilities. Our AEC industry is now at the forefront of providing solutions to reduce the energy our buildings require while planning how we can deal with the effects of global warming in our facilities and infrastructure.
Construction Prices on the Rise
Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) says tariffs and a tight labor market may push future bid prices higher. The price of new nonresidential buildings accelerated in October.
Association officials said that trade tensions and labor shortages are contributing to higher construction prices, making it harder for public officials to improve aging and over-burdened infrastructure.
“Contractors and subcontractors raised their bid prices in November to make up for past cost increases, but the cost of goods and services that they buy rose even faster,” said the association’s chief economist, Ken Simonson. “That makes further bid-price increases likely but also implies some contractors will just stop bidding on projects where costs are too unpredictable to ensure they can be built profitably.”
“It appears the tariffs imposed on steel, aluminum, and thousands of Chinese imports are starting to affect the cost of many items used in construction,” Simonson said. “As inventories of goods purchased before the tariffs took effect are depleted, contractors are likely to face even higher costs, which they will need to put into their bid prices if they hope to make any profit on future projects.”
MBC Scholarships
(l-r) Richard Lampman, director of project development for ASCON Construction and president of the MBC; Michele Bogdan, marketing director at Chapman Construction/Design and 20|30 Club past co-chair
Two Massachusetts Building Congress (MBC) scholarships were presented recently. The scholarships are sponsored by the 20|30 Club, the emerging leaders of the MBC, and all funds are raised by their events.
Brittany Boilard, project manager at Columbia Construction and 20|30 Club co-chair; Isaias Colombani, a civil engineering student at Western New England University and a project management intern for AECOM on the MGM Casino project in Springfield, one of this year’s scholarship recipients. Not in attendance was additional scholarship winner David Mullins, a graduate student at Northeastern University studying construction project management and currently a project manager at AECOM/Tishman.
Changes in 2019!
HP is pleased t
o announce that we’ll be rolling out some new offerings in 2019, such as FastFacts Friday in a video format, an HP podcast, HP video interviews, and more! We’d like to hear from you, our readers, on what changes you’d like to see with HP. Email [email protected] with your suggestions.
