Design Firm Management & Administration Report
Design Firm Management & Administration Report is a monthly newsletter providing practical, hands-on, timely information to design firm managers and administrators about the marketing and management aspects of operating a firm. Typical how-to stories cover such topics as office and project management, financial benchmarks, staff recruitment and retention, information technology, successful proposal writing, and effective use of websites. Several times a year the editors conduct reader surveys on timely topics and share the findings with their readers.
June 2008 - Table of Contents
“Cost estimating is difficult at any time,” Noriko Miyakoda Hall, vice president and director of preconstruction services at Tishman Construction Corporation in Boston, told DFMAR. “But the slowdown makes our job more difficult. Owners can’t decide whether to go forward with projects. Many projects are on hold, except for gaming, which is still booming in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Connecticut, and internationally. But everything else is pretty slow. In Boston, commercial and residential are really slow.”
The best business development strategy is to promote the value your A/E firm brings to every client and every project, and it is absolutely essential in this unsteady economy. But how do you determine your firm’s value?
The A/E/C industry has been aware of the growing weakness in the residential sector for the past year. Now that the subprime mortgage crisis has spiraled into a general credit crisis, construction as a whole is affected.
It may have taken Dana Jay Hepler 25 years to find his true calling, but the labyrinthine twists and turns in his career helped him develop a 21st-century niche. Hepler’s blend of expertise in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning, which is called “new urbanism” or “critical regionalism,” puts him at the head of the pack leading in a new A/E/C direction.
The trend toward smaller increases in health insurance premiums continued in 2007, with only a 6.1 percent increase, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Employer Health Benefits Annual Survey (www.kff.org). That’s down from a double-digit high of 13.9 percent in 2003 and 11.2 percent in 2004. But, let’s face it, even 6.1 percent is not low enough.
Industrial Project Spending Grows & Community Development Surges, Construction Spending Declines
The April 11 issue of Industrial Info Resources reported that spending for industrial projects is up 21 percent through March of this year, though overall growth of planned industrial projects continues to decline. Nearly $347 billion in industrial projects have been started or are scheduled to start construction this year. Most industries are experiencing growth, but oil and gas production is leading the pack with…
PSMJ Project Management Bootcamp, Salt Lake City, June 5-6; Cincinnati, June 12-13; San Diego, June 19-20; Denver, June 26-27. Contact: PSMJ Resources, 800-537-7765; www.psmj.com
ACEC Seminars: Newest Tools and Techniques in Program/Project Management, Evanston, Ill., June 16-17; Business of Design Consulting, Washington, D.C., June 18-21; BIM: The Promise and the Reality for A/E/C Firms, Chicago, June 20; BIM: The Promise and the Reality for M/E/P Firms, Salt Lake City, June 20. Contact: ACEC, Washington, D.C.,…
Who Should Own U.S. Infrastructure? Managing Design: An Oxymoron? LEED in the Trenches: What Works, What Doesn’t Maximizing Information Technology Using Media Resources to Promote Your Firm Planning Now for the Next Downturn…
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