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From St. Louis Business Journal:  It’s 2020, and like many others shut inside amid pandemic-related lockdowns, David Hoffmann is binge-watching “Yellowstone,” a neo-Western drama starring Kevin Costner that follows the conflicts along the shared borders of a family-owned cattle ranch, a Native American reservation, Yellowstone National Park and land developers. He thought to himself, “Where […]

From NPR:  Electricity production accounts for a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions across the U.S., according to the Environmental Protection Agency. To reach climate goals that number has to go down, and an update this year from Ameren Missouri details how the electric utility in the St. Louis region plans to transition away from power […]

From West NewsMagazine:  Progress 64 West will host its 35th Annual Excellence in Community Development Awards Banquet at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 2 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, 16625 Swingley Ridge Road in Chesterfield. For nearly 20 years, the civic organization has participated in and promoted projects aimed at advancing economic development along […]

Citizens for Modern Transit (CMT) today announced that Karen Troxell has joined the transit advocacy organization as Program and Membership Manager. In this capacity, she will be responsible for managing day-to-day programming and membership activities, overseeing social media channels and developing website content. Troxell brings experience in sustainability and advocating for public transit access. For […]

by Tom Finan, Executive Director, Construction Forum There was a time when giants walked the earth in our industry here. We are losing the last of them, one by one. But the footprints they left remain. Among those giants were Ollie Langhorst, the Carpenters Union leader who believed in and put the clout of his […]

During September’s focus on suicide prevention in the construction industry, Construction Forum videotaped an interview with Dr. John Gaal, director for the MO AFL-CIO’s Missouri Works Initiative’s Worker Wellness Program. What was to be a short video segment morphed into a 45-minute, wide-ranging discussion with Gaal. We decided to edit it into short segments for […]

From Bluebeam:  Site logistics planning in construction is a bare-bones process, incorporating the planning details required by the authorities—entrances, exits, tracks for the movement of materials—and little more. When your organization becomes more committed to in-depth site logistics, there’s an opportunity to make jobs run more smoothly. Seizing this untapped advantage is a way to […]

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 Illinois Business Journal:  Lewis and Clark Community College’s Godfrey Campus just became a little more accessible – thanks to the gift of several new picnic tables created by Building Futures YouthBuild AmeriCorps students. YouthBuild donated the handmade wheelchair-accessible picnic tables, as well as benches and a brand-new coffee cart for College for Life’s (CFL) […]

From Building Design + Construction: By Scott Martin Recently, I was asked to present to a group of aspiring engineers at the Florida A&M-Florida State University College of Engineering. Below is a summary of the presentation “Secrets of a Structural Engineer” that I gave to the students. More experienced engineers in the AEC industry may […]

From West Newsmagazine:  City staff in Chesterfield are looking to disband the Chesterfield Historic and Landmark Preservation Committee (CHLCP). In lieu of its current form, CHLPC would be disbanded, and its regulatory activities would be assumed by the Architectural Review Board (ARB) and Planning Commission. Other activities such as education and promotion would be taken […]

St. Louis Business Journal:  A city of St. Louis board is seeking proposals for retail at a long-vacant manufacturing site in the Mark Twain I-70 Industrial neighborhood. The Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority issued a request for proposals for 7800 Goodfellow Blvd., a 16.5-acre site it owns, saying that a “retail-anchored, multiple-use development” would be […]

From Facilities Net:  The term “regenerative building” is a little bit of a misnomer. Of course, the term doesn’t mean that buildings themselves – their walls, roofs, materials – regenerate. Rather, a regenerative building refers to one that is able to produce a positive outcome on its environment, whether that means helping regenerate an ecosystem, generating […]

From The Bluebeam Blog:  Drones – also known as unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs – vary in size and operability. Some are single-rotor machines, akin to a helicopter, but most are multi-rotor affairs, combining more than two rotors with fixed-pitch spinning blades, which generate lift. Multi-rotor drones often feature three, four, six or eight rotors; […]

From Webster-Kirkwood Times:  In an effort to establish a “unified campus,” St. Peter Catholic Church is speaking to Kirkwood city officials with an offer to swap properties. The proposal, a key component to the church’s master plan, requests that the city cede a section of West Jefferson Avenue to St. Peter. The avenue divides the […]

Dr. Dimitri Feys, an associate professor of civil engineering at Missouri S&T, has been named a Fellow of RILEM, the International Union of Laboratories and Experts in Construction Materials, Systems and Structures. He was presented with the honor during the 77th RILEM Annual Week last month in Vancouver, Canada. “I have been a member of RILEM since […]

On October 4 at The Sheldon Concert Hall Construction Forum presented a panel discussion exploring what it will take to create equitable development to revitalize the North Side. Panelists were Pastor Andre Alexander, president, Tabernacle Community Development Corporation; Matt Drinen, principal, Emerald Capital; Brian Phillips, executive director and assistant vice chancellor, Washington University Medical Center […]

From the Texas Standard and NPR: A handful of plumbers and construction workers are training as substitutes so they can relieve public school teachers when they head to the state Capitol to protest a bill that would create education savings accounts. As a plumber and an HVAC technician, Travis Cantwell said he’s used to unclogging […]

From Construction Dive:  Melvin Gravely is CEO of Cincinnati-based TriVersity Construction and author of “Dear White Friend: The Realities of Race, the Power of Relationships and Our Path to Equity.” Opinions are the author’s own. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s recent report on discrimination in construction exposed what many jobsite workers already know firsthand: Racism runs rampant […]

From Fast Company:  Labor shortages in the trades are a big problem, and it’s only getting worse. If you’ve tried to hire someone to do work in or on your home recently, you’ve likely experienced this firsthand—the U.S. construction industry alone is facing a shortage of more than 500,000 workers. This is likely just the […]