ConstructionForum 🕸

From Leader Publications:  De Soto city officials have agreed to sell 53.76 acres of undeveloped land along Vineland School Road to developer Platinum One Properties in De Soto for $592,000. The city purchased the land in 2017 for $280,000, with the intent to use it for park improvements. “We had a bid opening (April 11) […]

From St. Louis Magazine:  Rachel Witt has been thinking about the lighting along a six-block stretch of St. Louis for more than a decade. As the executive director of the South Grand Community Improvement District (SGCID), she’s focused on highlighting the businesses south of Tower Grove Park, first through the addition of LED rope lighting […]

From St. Louis Today:  Midtown’s Target is set to open this summer, according to the complex’s landlord. Located on Grand Boulevard between Gratiot and Papin streets, The Edwin, a $60 million mixed-use development that includes nearly 200 luxury apartments and a Target store, brings welcome relief to an area that is quickly developing but lacks […]

From St. Louis Business Journal:  A St. Louis-based homebuilder plans a new subdivision with nearly 40 houses next to one of St. Louis County’s largest parks. The new subdivision in Maryland Heights called Louiselle Park would consist of 39 houses, according to plans that builder McBride Homes filed with the city. The proposed location borders […]

by Tom Finan, Executive Director, Construction Forum Brandon Anderson, vice president of safety for Associated General Contractors of Missouri, displayed an image of an analog timer on the PowerPoint screens in the Median Ballroom at SIUE on Tuesday (May 6). He set the timer for a minute, then asked the audience to wait while it […]

Tarlton Corp., St. Louis’ largest women-owned general contracting and construction management firm, was named 2024 General Contractor of the Year by the American Subcontractors Association Midwest Council at the organization’s 31st Annual Awards Gala on April 20. The designation is voted on by members of the ASA Midwest Council. Pictured left to right are Tarlton […]

by Dr. John Gaal Editor’s Note: Each week, Dr. John Gaal, director of worker wellness for the Missouri Works Initiative, a non-profit workforce formed by the Missouri AFL-CIO, collects and comments on news and trends in workforce wellness and life balance. Construction Forum carries the Worker Wellness & Well-Being Blog as a regular feature. The […]

St. Louis-based architecture, planning, urban design and interiors firm Trivers has moved from its previous home on the 18th floor of the Broadway Tower to a new office on the ground floor of The Victor in Downtown West. “This is not just an opportunity for our space to better support our people and our work; […]

McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., one of the largest and most accomplished contractors nationwide for scientific and pharmaceutical research, recently celebrated the grand opening of the new Jeffrey T. Fort Neuroscience Research Building for Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Designed to accelerate research in areas that include Alzheimer’s disease and brain tumors, the […]

The Annual Quality Concrete Awards Dinner hosted by the Concrete Council of St. Louis took place on Thursday, April 11, 2024, at the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis, Missouri. The evening featured the presentation of two college scholarships and recognition of ten outstanding examples of quality concrete construction in which member firms of the […]

From Area Development:  The cement industry generates about eight percent of global carbon emissions every year. Cement is the binding agent in concrete. Although cement is only about 10 percent of concrete by volume, its production consumes a tremendous amount of thermal energy to break down limestone into lime, the key ingredient in cement, with […]

From Builder Online:  As associate dean of Construction Sciences and Building Technology at Dunwoody College of Technology, Heather Stafford Gay has personal experience as a woman in the construction industry beginning in her teen years. With personal perspective and professional experience to back it, Gay is passionate about recruiting women into the industry through educational […]

From Construction Next:  With the labor shortage no end in sight, construction companies need to put considerable thought and effort into hiring and retaining talent—especially from the younger generations. According to data from the Associated Builders and Contractors, the construction industry will need an estimated 501,000 additional workers on top of normal hiring in 2024 […]

From Work Design Magazine:  As workplace designers we are “agents of impact”—curators of space and corporate culture that have influence well beyond the office building itself. Understanding our role and best practices in this transformational time of collective action amidst a climate crisis are not only key to our success as designers, but also our responsibility […]

From Build Steel:  The development of two major building materials in the early 20th century — steel framing and gypsum panels — “marked a major departure from typical practices that dated back hundreds and thousands of years,” says Larry Williams, executive director of the Steel Framing Industry Association (SFIA), in a recent Walls & Ceilings […]

From Building Design + Construction:  In a world where technology’s rapid pace has reshaped how we live, work, and communicate, it should be no surprise that it’s also changing the PreK-12 education landscape. This digital transformation in education has brought about a new era of learning that extends beyond the traditional classroom setting. Technology integration […]

From Area Development:  Once again, the ability to source abundant skilled labor tops the charts as the most valuable asset to a community. Companies have struggled for five years or more to find solid, deep pools of talent to support their operations, and consultants really have to perform a lot of due diligence in this […]

From Construction Dive:  Nonresidential construction spending ticked up 0.2% in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.19 trillion, according to Associated Builders and Contractors’ analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. The rise in March signals a positive shift following two consecutive months of construction spending contraction at the beginning of 2024, according to […]

From NPR:  The Eads Bridge is an architectural masterpiece. Built over the Mississippi River to connect Missouri and Illinois, it boasts a list of “firsts”: It was the first bridge in St. Louis, the first to use steel and the first in the U.S. to use caissons for its piers. The iconic bridge turns 150 […]

From Construction Dive:  The number of construction job openings dropped by 39.9% from a month earlier to 274,000 on the last day of March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The data measures the number of open positions for which contractors are actively hiring. March 2023 also saw a low number of job openings […]