6 must reads for the AEC industry today: May 11, 2020

1. Nashville's newest residential tower will rise 416 feet (BD+C)
"A new residential tower, dubbed Alcove, set to rise at 900 Church Street in Nashville will be the first residential building adjacent to the 17-acre Nashville Yards development."

2. Data centers as a service: The next big opportunity for design teams (VIATechnik blog)
"As data centers compete to process more data with lower latency, the AEC industry is ideally positioned to develop design standards that ensure long-term flexibility."

3. OZ Architecture releases insight report on future of senior living design (OZ Architecture)
"In recent years, many older adult communities have shifted away from the healthcare-oriented design of skilled nursing and hospitals in favor of spaces that provide a greater sense of community and emotional well-being. However, new design challenges have arrived as highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, showing that older adult populations can be highly susceptible to disease and infection spread in common living communities."

4. Construction industry loses 975,000 jobs in April as new association survey shows deteriorating demand for construction projects (AGC)
"The economist said the loss of 975,000 construction jobs from March to April constituted nearly 13% of the industry’s employment and was, by far, the worst one-month decline ever. He added that unemployment among workers with recent construction experience soared by 1.1 million from a year earlier, to 1,531,000, while the unemployment rate in construction jumped from 4.7% in April 2019 to 16.6%."

5. While Luxury Buyers Chase ‘COVID Discount,' Developers Insist Prices Can't Go Any Lower (Bisnow)
"Developers in New York City with pricey luxury apartments to sell were facing an uphill battle in 2020, faced with a supply glut and waning demand. The hill has only gotten steeper the last two months."

6. ‘This Is The Moment’: Tenant Advocates Look To Use Economic Pain To Make Gains (Bisnow)
"While a feared collapse — or a mass strike — in residential rent and mortgage payments didn't materialize this month, housing activists plan to keep the pressure on all levels of government to cancel monthly housing payments until the pandemic has subsided."

The Architectural Billings Index measures the general sentiment of U.S. architecture firms about the health of the construction market by measuring 1) design billings and 2) design contracts. Any score above 50 means that, among the architecture firms surveyed, more firms than not reported seeing increases in design work vs. the previous month.