Contractors continued to explore ways to expand their businesses, enhance collaboration, and boost productivity.
Many pros found answers in their embrace of technology. Skanska’s project planning team developed Skanska Metriks, which provides benchmarking data to help evaluate the parameters of a building’s systems relative to similar projects. PCL Construction partnered with Nureva to develop and launch Nureva Visual Planner, which enables teams to effectively visualize, coordinate, and plan project activities in person or remotely. Ryan Companies is using AI, specifically computer vision, to monitor projects by placing multiple cameras around jobsites to “see” what is going on.
At the start of 2020, Swinerton acquired two Boston Dynamics SPOT quadruped robots to use as tools for automating field data capture with attached lidar scanners, 360 cameras, and other payloads. Clancy & Theys implemented drone technology for marketing, preconstruction, and construction. Its latest drone approach captured the construction site prior to major concrete pours.
Throughout 2019, Arc Building Partners worked to integrate a management operating system (MOS) that allows the firm to incorporate tools, meetings, and behaviors used to manage teams and processes. Walbridge designed and built out virtual meeting rooms with large, collaborative technology walls to improve communication between program offices.
Contractors are more receptive than ever to ways that help get projects done faster. Level 10 is using SpeedCore on its new 200 Park Ave. project in downtown Sunnyvale, Calif., scheduled for completion in 2023. This is the first project in that state to use the new hybrid core system, a concrete-filled composite shear wall core that takes 40% less time to erect than a comparable cast-in-place reinforced concrete core.
Modular design and construction are also saving contractors time and money. Lendlease has been rolling out Wellness Pods, a patent-pending solution that the firm claims are the first fully functioning modular restrooms introduced to the industry. The pods are engineered to be hoisted vertically, so they can be deployed on high-rise projects.
M.C. Dean invested $25.1 million to expand its ModularMEP Manufacturing and Systems Integration Facility, which serves as the home for the firm’s product line of large-scale, fully-integrated, modularized power, electronic security, and telecom systems and rooms that are designed, engineered, integrated, tested, and pre-commissioned before being transported to project sites across the U.S.
Factory performed prefabrication in general is becoming integral to contractors’ estimating and delivery efficiencies. Balfour Beatty, in a joint venture with LF Driscoll, is part of an integrated project delivery (IPD) team building The Pavilion, a flagship hospital for Penn Medicine in Philadelphia scheduled to open next year. By standardizing the building’s structural floor plate and interior design early in the project, the team was able to prefabricate mechanical racks, bathroom pods, and zone valve boxes in a 60,000-sf offsite warehouse. CG Schmidt launched its own prefab center, housed within its existing yard operations. On a recent freestanding clinic project, prefabrication of the wood framing allowed for all walls and framework to be erected in two days.
While nonresidential construction currently consumes a sliver of mass timber produced, the use of these engineered wood components is growing for many different projects. In June 2019, HITT Contracting opened Co|Lab, an R&D facility in Falls Church, Va., the first commercial mass timber structure in that state. DPR Construction used cross-laminated timber panels in the construction and renovation of the firm’s new office space in Sacramento, Calif. And Nabholz Corporation finished construction of the University of Arkansas’ Adohi Residence Hall, the country’s first large-scale mass timber residential hall.
U.S. contractors become leaner machines
In 2019, nonresidential construction spending rose 2.8% to $782 billion, according to Census Bureau estimates. During that period, Summit Contracting Group broke ground on a dozen projects for repeat customers, including one whose contract value is the largest in the firm’s history: Novel Midtown, a mixed-use development in Tampa, Fla., showcasing 390 units in three buildings with 341,055 sf of livable space and 206,000 sf of retail.
Lean construction practices that minimize waste are catching on. More than 141 people enrolled in Gilbane’s Lean Practitioner program, a blended learning solution where the knowledge and experience of the participants work together to create a depth of expertise upon which they can build on. Sixty-two participants completed the program to become certified Gilbane Lean Practitioners.
To encourage Lean practices, Robins & Morton held their inaugural Building Forward Connect event in March 2019. The two-day event brought together more than 600 attendees.
ALSO SEE: 2020 GIANTS 400 Contractor Rankings
• Top 135 Contractors: Turner, Whiting-Turner, and STO Building Group head the rankings of the nation's largest general contractors, CM at risk firms, and design-builders for 2020. See the complete rankings.
• Top 85 Construction Management + Project Management Firms: Jacobs, CBRE, VCC, and JLL top the rankings of the nation's largest construction management (as agent) and program/project management firms for 2020. See the complete rankings.
For the full Giants 400 rankings and bonus categories, visit: BDCnetwork.com/Giants2020.
Pictured: Arlington (Va.) Public Schools Heights Building. Photo: Jim Tetro, courtesy Gilbane
VJS Construction Services practices Lean Schedule Management, which enables its team to focus on efficient workflow, eliminating waste and over burdening of resources by looking at the project as a whole versus as a sum of its components. On VJS’s recently completed Fairway Knoll project in Germantown, Wis., the Phase-1 turnover was completed five weeks earlier than scheduled.
On the M&A front, STO Building Group added two companies: BCCI Construction Company and Layton Construction. In September 2019, Cortland Build acquired Pure Multi-Family, a Canada-based REIT that owned and operated communities in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Phoenix.
To support its burgeoning client base in the U.K., Cumming added construction consulting teams in London, Edinburgh, Manchester, and Stoke-on-Trent. Burns & McDonnell, which hired nearly 1,400 people globally last year, launched its first new brand in the firm’s history with 1898 & Co., a future-focused consulting and technology solutions arm. And McCarthy Building Companies expanded its expertise with the launch of McCarthy Mapping, a specialized service that helps owners and project teams accurately locate buried utility lines and other underground hazards before they potentially impact construction projects.
Related Stories
MFPRO+ News | Aug 14, 2024
Report outlines how Atlanta can collaborate with private sector to spur more housing construction
A report by an Urban Land Institute’s Advisory Services panel, commissioned by the city’s housing authority, Atlanta Housing (AH), offered ways the city could collaborate with developers to spur more housing construction.
Adaptive Reuse | Aug 14, 2024
KPF unveils design for repositioning of Norman Foster’s 8 Canada Square tower in London
8 Canada Square, a Norman Foster-designed office building that’s currently the global headquarters of HSBC Holdings, will have large sections of its façade removed to create landscaped terraces. The project, designed by KPF, will be the world’s largest transformation of an office tower into a sustainable mixed-use building.
Sustainability | Aug 14, 2024
World’s first TRUE Zero Waste for Construction-certified public project delivered in Calif.
The Contra Costa County Administration Building in Martinez, Calif., is the world’s first public project to achieve the zero-waste-focused TRUE Gold certification for construction. The TRUE Certification for Construction program, administered by Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), recognizes projects that achieve exceptional levels of waste reduction, reuse, and recycling.
Modular Building | Aug 13, 2024
Strategies for attainable housing design with modular construction
Urban, market-rate housing that lower-income workers can actually afford is one of our country’s biggest needs. For multifamily designers, this challenge presents several opportunities for creating housing that workers can afford on their salaries.
Energy Efficiency | Aug 9, 2024
Artificial intelligence could help reduce energy consumption by as much as 40% by 2050
Artificial intelligence could help U.S. buildings to significantly reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, according to a paper by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Sponsored | Healthcare Facilities | Aug 8, 2024
U.S. healthcare building sector trends and innovations for 2024-2025
As new medicines, treatment regimens, and clinical protocols radically alter the medical world, facilities and building environments in which they take form are similarly evolving rapidly. Innovations and trends related to products, materials, assemblies, and building systems for the U.S. healthcare building sector have opened new avenues for better care delivery. Discussions with leading healthcare architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms and owners-operators offer insights into some of the most promising directions. This course is worth 1.0 AIA/HSW learning unit.
Data Centers | Aug 8, 2024
Global edge data center market to cross $300 billion by 2026, says JLL
Technological megatrends, including IoT and generative AI, will require computing power to be closer to data generation and consumption, fueling growth of edge IT infrastructure, according to a new JLL report.
K-12 Schools | Aug 8, 2024
New K-12 STEM center hosts robotics learning, competitions in Houston suburb
A new K-12 STEM Center in a Houston suburb is the venue for robotics learning and competitions along with education about other STEM subjects. An unused storage building was transformed into a lively space for students to immerse themselves in STEM subjects. Located in Texas City, the ISD Marathon STEM and Robotics Center is the first of its kind in the district.
Products and Materials | Aug 8, 2024
EPA issues $160 million in grants for clean manufacturing of steel, other construction materials
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will provide 38 grant recipients with nearly $160 million to support efforts to report and reduce climate pollution from the manufacturing of construction materials and products.
Green | Aug 7, 2024
Major cities worldwide set building performance standards
Cities around the world are setting building performance standards (BPS) as a key measure to cut emissions and meet climate targets, according to a report from JLL.