Driggs named to lead Heery International

Rich Driggs has been named President of Heery International, following Bill Heitz, who retired on July 1st after 34 years with the company. Driggs is only the fourth leader of Heery International since George Heery founded the firm in 1952.

In this role, Mr. Driggs is responsible for driving growth and overseeing the operations of the Atlanta-based company’s 22 offices around the country. He will report to Greg Kelly, COO of Parsons Brinckerhoff, Heery’s corporate parent company.

Mr. Driggs joined Heery in 2012 as the National Director of Construction Management. Prior to that, he was an Executive Vice President with Lend Lease Corporation, where his duties included Head of Integrated Solutions, and Head of Operations for the greater United States. In all, he spent 21 years with Lend Lease and its predecessor company Bovis Lend Lease. Mr. Driggs received his bachelor’s degree in construction management from Purdue University.

“We are delighted to have Rich take the helm at Heery International,” Mr. Kelly said. “Rich has a strong vision on the direction that Heery needs to go in order to successfully navigate the constantly evolving design, construction, and planning industry.”

Heery International is an architecture, interior design, engineering, program management and design-build firm with offices nationwide and is the US Buildings operating company of Parsons Brinckerhoff, one of the world’s leading professional services firms. (www.heery.com)

Across the country, multifamily rents have skyrocketed. Year-over-year rents are up by double digits in nine of the top 30 markets, while national YoY rent growth is up 6.3%. Emerging from the pandemic, a perfect storm of migration, enhanced government stimulus and a hot housing market, among other factors, has enabled this extremely strong growth.

AEC firm actions in light of Covid opening

AEC Business Innovation | Jul 11, 2021

Staffing, office changes at SCB, SmithGroup, RKTB, Ryan Cos., Jacobsen, Boldt, and Adolfson & Peterson

AEC firms take strategic action as construction picks up steam with Covid openings.

STEM High School Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) HorizonTV, LPA Architects

K-12 Schools | Jul 9, 2021

LPA Architects' STEM high school post-occupancy evaluation

LPA Architects conducted a post-occupancy evaluation, or POE, of the eSTEM Academy, a new high school specializing in health/medical and design/engineering Career Technical Education, in Eastvale, Calif. The POE helped LPA, the Riverside County Office of Education, and the Corona-Norco Unified School District gain a better understanding of which design innovations—such as movable walls, flex furniture, collaborative spaces, indoor-outdoor activity areas, and a student union—enhanced the education program, and how well students and teachers used these innovations.

Rider Levett Bucknall's Construction Cost Index rose again in the first quarter of 2021

Market Data | Jul 8, 2021

Encouraging construction cost trends are emerging

In its latest quarterly report, Rider Levett Bucknall states that contractors’ most critical choice will be selecting which building sectors to target.

Interior designer Creative License International fashioned this community room for P83, a 250-unit rental community in Peoria, Ariz. 2021 Multifamily Amenities study

Multifamily Housing | Jul 7, 2021

Make sure to get your multifamily amenities mix right

One of the hardest decisions multifamily developers and their design teams have to make is what mix of amenities they’re going to put into each project. A lot of squiggly factors go into that decision: the type of community, the geographic market, local recreation preferences, climate/weather conditions, physical parameters, and of course the budget. The permutations are mind-boggling.

Industrial Facilities | Jul 2, 2021

A new approach to cold storage buildings

Cameron Trefry and Kate Lyle of Ware Malcomb talk about their firm's cold storage building prototype that is serving a market that is rapidly expanding across the supply chain.