ConstructionForum 🕸

From St. Louis Post-Dispatch:  Local apartment developer Lux Living has sold its row of vacant South Kingshighway houses after a yearlong struggle with the city over the site’s future. Property records show a limited liability company called DAZII LLC, led by Derek Zimmermann, bought the seven buildings in the 1000 block of Kingshighway on Wednesday […]

From Bluebeam:  If you’ve ever gotten lost somewhere, chances are you’ll have whipped out your smartphone, checked where you are and, using an app such as Google Maps, worked out how to get to where you need to be. The ability to navigate your way to that make-or-break gathering at La Maison de Boeuf will […]

From Construction Dive:  In February, JE Dunn, a Kansas City, Missouri-based construction firm, broke ground on a 677-foot-tall office tower in downtown Omaha, Nebraska. The $600 million project, which will be the new corporate headquarters for insurance company Mutual of Omaha, includes 800,000 square feet of office, meeting and amenity space. Once complete, the skyscraper […]

Area Development:  It has been a continuous refrain since the pandemic upended many understandings about how the American economy is supposed to work: Across widely varying fields of work, there just aren’t enough people to fill all the available jobs. The reality, though, is that while the pandemic may have exacerbated the problem and called […]

From Gensler:  It is clear that our cities’ downtowns are suffering. As we emerged from the pandemic, the common assumption was that once we could safely return to the office, the problems associated with limited office occupancy would be solved. That has not proved to be the case. Office work has shifted, and business and […]

From Construction Business Owner:  Millions of miles of pavements are placed or rehabilitated across the globe every year. Nearly 2.8 million lane-miles of pavement are in the U.S. and are a focus in the effort to lower U.S. greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), according to a February 2023 study from the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub). […]

From ENR:  The U.S. Dept. of Transportation has opened the competition for $1.5 billion in federal funds in its latest round of Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity, or RAISE, surface transportation grants. In its Nov. 30 announcement, DOT said it would accept applications for the funding through Feb. 28 and added that it […]

Mental health, substance mis-use, and suicide are three leading issues threatening the safety of of workers in the construction industry. Dr. John Gaal is director for the MO AFL-CIO’s Missouri Works Initiative’s Worker Wellness Program. A far-ranging video with Dr. Gaal was edited by the Construction Forum team into short segments for use on the […]

From Construction Dive:  A team of researchers at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver demonstrated how its collection of robots could work autonomously on an actual jobsite, per a UBC news release, a preview that one professor called a glimpse into the future. The team at UBC’s Smart Structures Lab showed the tech off at […]

Bags and boxes of winter coats for children were delivered to the Hazelwood School District on Nov. 28, 2023 by the IBEW Electrical Workers Minority Caucus’ (EWMC) for its annual coat drive. In all, 200 coats were delivered to the school, part of more than 600 coats given away regionwide this year in the 19th […]

The National Bio & Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan, Kansas, earned top recognition in the 2023 Best Projects program, sponsored by ENR Midwest, the regional edition of national construction publication Engineering News-Record (ENR). Constructed by a McCarthy Mortenson Joint Venture team, this 48-acre science campus is adjacent to Kansas State University and will replace the […]

Tarlton, St. Louis’ largest women-owned general contracting and construction management firm, has promoted Nick Eshelman to senior project manager. Eshelman, who has 13 years of experience in the construction industry, joined Tarlton in early 2014 as a project engineer. He was promoted to senior project engineer in 2018 and project manager in 2019. During his […]

From St. Louis Business Journal:  Wealth in St. Louis continues to push farther west in the region, highlighting ZIP codes of “concentrated emerging wealth.” According to one local sociologist, the trend is likely to continue in years to come. Of the 25 wealthiest ZIP codes by 2021 household income, based on the latest data available from […]

From Gensler:  Gen Z will account for one-third of the workforce by 2025 and is on track to be the most diverse generation in U.S. history by 2024. This generation is clearly poised to have a major impact on the workplace, and employers are paying attention. According to Deloitte’s Gen Z Research, younger generations prioritize working for […]

From St. Louis Post-Dispatch:  A long-running effort to launch a gambling casino near the Lake of the Ozarks in mid-Missouri moved another step forward Tuesday. The Missouri Secretary of State’s office signed off on language for a proposed ballot initiative asking voters if they want to amend the state Constitution to allow for a 14th […]

From Ladue News:  St. Louis is not lacking in incredible architecture, and that trait undoubtedly extends to our many bridges crisscrossing the Mississippi River. Without these structures, communities on both sides of the river might not have access to hospitals and schools – nor would they be able to move goods and services safely from […]

From Leader Publications:  The Jefferson County Council has approved a number of amendments to the county’s building codes. Dennis Kehm Jr., the deputy director of the Department of County Services and Code Enforcement, told council members that most of the changes will streamline the operations of the department. “We want to decrease the amount of […]

From Bloomberg:  The Summerdale apartments used to look a lot like many other housing complexes in low-income parts of US cities. It’s a compound of low-slung suburban-style buildings built in two phases starting in the early 1970s, located near Interstate 75 in Atlanta’s Glenrose Heights neighborhood When developer Marjy Stagmeier’s firm, TriStar Real Estate Investments, […]

From St. Louis Post-Dispatch:  Preservationists are renewing criticism of St. Louis University’s plan to tear down 130-year-old buildings after the city of St. Louis issued the private college a demolition permit. SLU has until Dec. 13 to raze the vacant properties before the permit, valued at $10,000, expires. The university has said it bought the […]

From RiverBender:  Americans love their national parks. According to the National Park Service, about 312 million people visited national parks in 2022, a 5% increase from 2021. National parks bring in billions of dollars of economic activity to regions across the country for small and large cities alike. Today, during the Alton Riverfront Commission Meeting, […]