The latest Architecture Billings Index released by the Washington-based American Institute of Architects shows new business prospects remaining historically strong at 57.1 as of last month.

The report, with any reading above 50 indicating an increase in a firm’s billings, represents an ongoing spring and summer buoyancy in the industry since the end of the Covid-19 lockdown.
 
In a statement, Kermit Baker, chief economist with the AIA, noted that “with the current pace of billings growth near the highest levels ever seen in the history of the index, we’re expecting a sharp upturn in nonresidential building activity later this year and into 2022.”

The same index for June of last year showed new billings at only 40.0.

The index reading indicates that billings have been particularly strong in the Midwest and West, at 62.0 and 59.7 respectively. Last year at this same time, billings for the two regions stood at 36.8.

Billings were marginally lower in the South in June at 57.3 and significantly lower in the Northeast at 53.2, compared to 12 months ago when the South stood at 35.9 and the Midwest recorded a 34.2 average.

The commercial and industrial sectors led the most recent numbers at 61.0, followed by multi-family residential at 57.9; and institutional billings at 57.3.
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As with the nation’s construction industry, however, architectural firms are reporting concerns regarding employee levels. “Nearly six in ten firms report that they are having problems filling open architectural staff positions,” noted Baker.

​By Garry Boulard

Years in the planning stage, the El Paso Zoo is on the verge of at last building a modern and comfortable penguin housing and exhibition space.

The project will include the building of chilled fresh water systems for the exhibition’s main pool, as well as a quarantine pool and holding pool.

Additional construction will center on the building of acrylic viewing panels and a rocking beach that will feature an underwater swim-through area, along with nesting boxes.

A life support building will house a filtration and ozone system, not to mention a chiller for the exhibition’s water.

Two years ago, zoo officials announced an effort to build a permanent $3.7 million home for a dozen or so Megellanic penguins from South America.

The penguins are part of a substantially larger population that has been adversely impacted by climate change and reduced natural habitat food supplies.
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A request for proposals for the project, published by the City of El Paso, has a submission deadline of August 18.

By Garry Boulard

In a move to alleviate continued homelessness in Denver, a move is underway to repurpose former hotels and motels into new shelter space.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock wants to see city voters this fall vote for a large bond proposal that would include funding for the reconversion projects.

Speaking at the opening of the city’s most recent motel repurposing, the Mayor remarked: “We plan to acquire and rehabilitate hotels and motels to help people stabilize, to help them exit homelessness and to help them enter housing.”

Hancock added that the city’s acquisition of hotel and motel properties for repurposing projects will result in “options for people in need much quicker than the traditional housing development.”

Funding for the project, if approved, will come out of a $450 million bond package that also includes money for a variety of other projects, including the possible construction of a new arena.

Of the total bond amount, some $47 million would target the motel and hotel repurposing initiative.

According to published reports, Denver’s homeless population has increased from just over 3,600 in 2016 to nearly 4,200 people today. Parts of the city, particularly in public parks, have become increasingly dotted with tent and tarp shelters.

Earlier this spring, the city purchased the former four-story Stay Inn Hotel at 12033 E. 38th Avenue with the goal of reconverting the property into homeless shelter space.
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A second factor driving Hancock’s initiative is the ongoing lack of low-income affordable housing in the city. According to a recent report published by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Denver ranks 42nd nationally in affordable housing options for those in lower income brackets.

By Garry Boulard

Two universities in Arizona and Colorado are among the 32 institutions of higher learning receiving Department of Energy funding for their work in helping manufacturers reduce their carbon emissions.

Tempe-based Arizona State University and the Colorado School of the Mines, located in the city of Golden, have established Industrial Assessment Centers which are designed to help lower energy costs for small and medium-sized manufacturers.

In addition, those centers are also tasked with the training of energy-efficiency student engineers.
 
In a statement, Jennifer Granholm, the Secretary of the Energy Department, said the Industrial Assessment Centers are particularly helping businesses in “disadvantaged and underrepresented communities” to “transition to a clean energy economy.”

The centers are particularly focusing on such matters as promoting resiliency planning, enhancing cybersecurity, and generally improving productivity.

Altogether, the Energy Department is awarding up to $60 million in new funding for the various centers.
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Launched in 1976, the Industrial Assessment Centers have to date conducted more than 19,000 worksite assessments, implementing in the process nearly $900 million in energy savings measures for small and medium-sized businesses.

​By Garry Boulard

Plans are now underway for the building of a 15,000 square-foot station that will belong to the Phoenix Fire Department.

Station Number 62 is slated to go up on a 3.5-acre site owned by the city to the rear of the Pecan Promenade Shopping Center at the corner of S. 99th Avenue and W. Lower Buckeye Road.

As planned, the square-shaped structure will house some 16 dorms, along with a kitchen, day room, and dining and exercise space, among other features.

The project will additionally see the construction of four apparatus bays, and outdoor landscaping, security lighting, and irrigation space work.

According to city records, the architectural design of the new station, along with the landscaping, will be done in such a way as to “match and blend with the surrounding community.”

It is expected that the design and construction of the new station will cost around $6.2 million.

The Phoenix Fire Department has been gradually trying to build new stations or upgrade outdated existing stations, some of which are more than 40 years old.
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Fire Department officials say the new station work is not only in response to annual facility maintenance and restoration expenses near the $4 million mark, but also the city’s nearly 20% increase in population during the last decade. 

By Garry Boulard

​Work could begin later this year on a project that will see the repairing and upgrading of a popular public 5-lane swimming pool in Farmington.

The Lions Pool is located at 405 N. Wall Avenue and has served the swimming needs of local residents since the mid-1950s.

In recent years the pool has been largely used for senior therapy classes.

City officials have long discussed the need to deal with a number of the pool’s structural issues and have now posted a request for proposals pertaining to work that will include removing and replacing its 2,700 square foot decking.

The project will additionally include removing and replacing the pool’s tile and plaster finish.

Work bringing the facility up to date is expected to be done in two phases. According to published reports, the first phase work is expected to cost as much as $170,000.

A second phase that will deal with an upgrading of the pool’s architectural, electrical, and mechanical systems will have a price tag of anywhere from $108,000 to $130,000.

The first phase work will additionally include the removal or replacement of all the depth markers inside the pool itself, as well as the depth and diving markers on the pool’s deck.

The Lions Pool was the first public pool built in Farmington when it opened and was originally intended as an outdoor pool. An enclosure with a roof was added in the early 1980s converting the facility into an indoor pool.

By Garry Boulard

An environmental impact statement has been released looking at the possible construction of a new highway that would connect Nogales, Arizona to the Nevada border.

The project has been long in the talking and planning stage and is regarded as part of a significantly larger trade route that would run from Mexico up into Canada.

As proposed, a new Interstate 11 route, while breaking off from Interstate 10 in the busy west Phoenix area, would primarily be built on mostly vacant desert land and would provide access to the Ryan Airfield, located 14 miles to the southwest of downtown Tucson.

Generally, the new highway would follow Arizona State Route 189 and Interstate 19 from Nogales to Tucson, and run parallel with Interstate 10 from Tucson to Phoenix, and US Route 93 from Wickenburg to the Nevada state line.

The Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement, published by the Arizona Department of Transportation, reports that those vacant areas have “no direct impacts to residential or community facility lands.”

Like many big highway projects, the new Interstate 11 has been touted for years, dating at least to the mid-1990s.

Because the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act in 2015 identified the proposed Interstate 11 as a “high-priority” project, that means it could be eligible for future federal funding.
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A final version of the environmental study is expected to be completed by the end of this year, while public comment on the document is being accepted until August 15.

​By Garry Boulard

Despite the decline of Covid-19 and gradual reopening of the nation’s economy, construction employment as of early this summer had still not returned to the levels seen before the outbreak of the pandemic.

According to a new analysis published by the Washington-based Associated General Contractors, construction employment in June remained below where it stood in February of last year in some 39 states.

The analysis shows Arizona with 174,200 construction jobs early this summer, compared to 176,300 in the month before the pandemic.

Colorado’s June construction numbers stood at 172,400, while in February 2020 it had more than 179,000.

New Mexico, meanwhile, with 52,000 pre-pandemic construction jobs was at 48,700 in the early weeks of this summer.

Two states in the West saw the most impressive job gains, with Idaho as of last month at 59,400 over the 55,000 it had in February of 2020; while booming Utah is now up to an all-time high of 121,200 construction jobs, over the 114,200 it had early last year.

The states with the biggest pro and post-pandemic construction job gaps were Wyoming, which previously had 22,900 jobs and as of June was at 19,400; and Louisiana, with 137,000 jobs in early 2020, and 116,500 in June.

In a statement, Ken Simonson, chief economist with the Associated General Contractors, remarked that the nation’s construction industry remains a “long way from full recovery in most states, in spite of a hot homebuilding market in many states.”
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Simonson attributed the job lag to “soaring material costs, long production times for key items, and delayed deliveries,” which he said have been causing “owners to postpone projects.”

By Garry Boulard

Denver could see the construction of a 10,000-seat arena, if city voters are willing to support a bond for its funding.

Mayor Michael Hancock has said that he would like to see the new facility built on the campus of the National Western Center.

The Mayor said the new facility could be used for any number of purposes, including concerts and traveling shows.

“Building a new state-of-the-art arena, and the new events it will attract, will create year-around jobs and provide funding for community programs and projects important to the well-being of the surrounding neighborhoods,” Hancock said.

He likened the new arena to the McNichols Sports Arena and the Coliseum and said it would fill a gap that currently exists in the city in terms of stadium offerings.

The 16,000-seat McNichols arena, located at 1635 Bryant Street, was built in 1975, but demolished in 2000 in order to make way for parking space at the nearby Empower Field at Mile High.

The indoor Denver Coliseum, with a seating capacity of just over 10,000, was completed in 1951. Located at 4500 Humboldt Street, the facility is said to be in need of an upgrading.

Funding for the arena is being packaged into a $450 million bond proposal. That proposal must first win the approval of the Denver City Council, before appearing on the November ballot.
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City officials have long talked of building a new arena at the National Western Center site, although the project was not listed among those that have already secured funding for that campus.

​By Garry Boulard

Plans are still very much in the formative stage for the construction of a new and extensive kitchen facility that will be a part of a busy El Paso food bank.

Located in a one-story building at 9541 Plaza Circle, the El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank is the only such operating food bank in El Paso and is also a part of Feeding America, the largest hunger relief network in the country.

It is thought that it will cost at least $1.5 million to build the kitchen.

But according to various reports, while federal funding has been secured by the City of El Paso for the project, it has not yet been directly awarded to the food bank.

Earlier this year it was reported that the funding was being held up due to a federal requirement stipulating that the food bank’s records must be digitized.

Since then officials with both the food bank and the City of El Paso have been working to resolve the issue.

For all of that, a schedule for when work will begin on the new kitchen has yet to be announced.
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Last year the group provided food to more than 60,000 families.

​By Garry Boulard