Chicago-based Pepper Construction was named the most innovative construction firm in the country for developing a virtual reality safety training program by leveraging tools and staffing resources that were already in place to create a “real life” safety learning environment. As a result, Pepper Construction was named as the grand prize winner of the AGC Innovation Awards, sponsored by Autodesk.
“In order to make construction projects great, firms must innovate,” said Bob Lanham, the association’s president and president of Williams Brothers Construction Co., Inc. in Houston, Texas. “These award winners have mixed hard work and ingenuity to strengthen their firms and produce outstanding results.”
Through collaboration between the safety and virtual technology department, the Pepper team developed a virtual training program by customizing it using their own statistics reinforced with industry data with an option to make changes as the data evolved. This process allowed the team to eliminate the need to hire a consultant or purchase new software minimizing financial investment. The team combined BIM models and point-cloud scans that were already in use in their programs with Unreal Engine, a creation engine used to build video games, to immerse employees within a replicated jobsite with real hazards in an authentic yet safe way.
In addition to Pepper Construction, Richardson, Texas-based Skiles Group received the second-place prize for development of their own app, Smart Safety, which provides field staff and project administrators with one-click access to site-specific emergency protocols and resources on all active jobsites. Dunkirk, Md.-based PATRIOT was awarded the third-place prize for creating individualized treatment units to support both the healthcare industry and patients suffering from COVID-19.
The association presented Pepper Construction with a $7,000 grand prize during its annual convention last month in Orlando. Lanham noted that the association created the AGC Innovation Awards to inspire members of the construction industry to craft innovative solutions to pressing industry challenges. Lanham added that the Innovation Award showcases free thinkers within the construction industry to provide solutions to construction challenges we face.
Click here if you would like to learn more about the Innovation Awards. Click here to view a collection of photographs for use by the media featuring diverse individuals in the construction workforce.
Related Stories
| Nov 16, 2010
Brazil Olympics spurring green construction
Brazil's green building industry will expand in the coming years, spurred by construction of low-impact venues being built for the 2016 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee requires arenas built for the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro meet international standards for low-carbon emissions and energy efficiency. This has boosted local interest in developing real estate with lower environmental impact than existing buildings. The timing couldn’t be better: the Brazilian government is just beginning its long-term infrastructure expansion program.
| Nov 16, 2010
Green building market grows 50% in two years; Green Outlook 2011 report
The U.S. green building market is up 50% from 2008 to 2010—from $42 billion to $55 billion-$71 billion, according to McGraw-Hill Construction's Green Outlook 2011: Green Trends Driving Growth report. Today, a third of all new nonresidential construction is green; in five years, nonresidential green building activity is expected to triple, representing $120 billion to $145 billion in new construction.
| Nov 16, 2010
Calculating office building performance? Yep, there’s an app for that
123 Zero build is a free tool for calculating the performance of a market-ready carbon-neutral office building design. The app estimates the discounted payback for constructing a zero emissions office building in any U.S. location, including the investment needed for photovoltaics to offset annual carbon emissions, payback calculations, estimated first costs for a highly energy efficient building, photovoltaic costs, discount rates, and user-specified fuel escalation rates.
| Nov 16, 2010
CityCenter’s new Harmon Hotel targeted for demolition
MGM Resorts officials want to demolish the unopened 27-story Harmon Hotel—one of the main components of its brand new $8.5 billion CityCenter development in Las Vegas. In 2008, inspectors found structural work on the Harmon didn’t match building plans submitted to the county, with construction issues focused on improperly placed steel reinforcing bar. In January 2009, MGM scrapped the building’s 200 condo units on the upper floors and stopped the tower at 27 stories, focusing on the Harmon having just 400 hotel rooms. With the Lord Norman Foster-designed building mired in litigation, construction has since been halted on the interior, and the blue-glass tower is essentially a 27-story empty shell.
| Nov 16, 2010
Where can your firm beat the recession? Try any of these 10 places
Wondering where condos and rental apartments will be needed? Where companies are looking to rent office space? Where people will need hotel rooms, retail stores, and restaurants? Newsweek compiled a list of the 10 American cities best situated for economic recovery. The cities fall into three basic groups: Texas, the New Silicon Valleys, and the Heartland Honeys. Welcome to the recovery.
| Nov 16, 2010
Landscape architecture challenges Andrés Duany’s Congress for New Urbanism
Andrés Duany, founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism, adopted the ideas, vision, and values of the early 20th Century landscape architects/planners John Nolen and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., to launch a movement that led to more than 300 new towns, regional plans, and community revitalization project commissions for his firm. However, now that there’s a societal buyer’s remorse about New Urbanism, Duany is coming up against a movement that sees landscape architecture—not architecture—as the design medium more capable of organizing the city and enhancing the urban experience.
| Nov 16, 2010
NFRC approves technical procedures for attachment product ratings
The NFRC Board of Directors has approved technical procedures for the development of U-factor, solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC), and visible transmittance (VT) ratings for co-planar interior and exterior attachment products. The new procedures, approved by unanimous voice vote last week at NFRC’s Fall Membership Meeting in San Francisco, will add co-planar attachments such as blinds and shades to the group’s existing portfolio of windows, doors, skylights, curtain walls, and window film.
| Nov 15, 2010
Gilbane to acquire W.G. Mills, Inc.
Rhode Island-based Gilbane Building Company announced plans to acquire W.G. Mills, Inc., a construction management firm with operations based in Florida. The acquisition will dramatically strengthen Gilbane’s position in Florida’s growing market and complement its already established presence in the southeast.
