尽管一年充满挑战，但整个地区的设计和工程公司都在反弹，自莱特衰退以来从未见过的工作水平。
美国建筑师研究所在四月份报道说，建筑帐单指数连续第三个月记录了其正面账单，新项目查询的得分分别分别为66.9和55.7（任何分数超过50分，都提高了帐单的增加）。
“This recent acceleration in the demand for design services demonstrates that both consumers and businesses are feeling much more confident about the economic outlook,” Kermit Baker, AIA chief economist, said in a statement.
贝克说，这种能源是由于对新的和改造的设施的压抑需求所激发的，几乎触及了行业的各个方面。同时，公司正在努力跟上对劳动力和材料的需求，并适应一种新的业务方式，这种业务并非如此。
|
Related Link |
乐观的前景
At the beginning of the pandemic, firms paused briefly to figure out how to reconfigure their workplaces. Most bounced back strong, with a combination of work from home and office, leaning into the virtual and remote environment, says Josh Gould, a senior vice president at Stantec.
“负担得起的市场利率住房部门并没有错过任何节奏，随着员工返回办公室，人们发现现在是时候升级为A或B类空间或缩小规模的好时机。租赁总是过期的。”他说。
古尔德说，包括这些实体开始获得刺激基金，包括GSA和国家公园的项目，包新利18备用网址括GSA和国家公园的项目，以及当地的民用和市政项目。
Designers also are seeing an uptick in sustainability consulting as corporations have begun to take environmental concerns much more seriously and are moving their facilities toward carbon-neutral and high-performance designs.
“We see signs of improvement in transportation, water and specific vertical building markets. We’re feeling pretty optimistic,” says Alan Eckman, vice president of business development for AECOM. “An incredible amount of discussion is happening about infrastructure at the national, state and local levels. Multiple bills in the Colorado legislature are aimed at transportation funding, and this is great news for road and bridge projects as well as for opportunities in the transit area.”
Mark Lichtwardt, senior vice president and general manager of Burns & McDonnell’s Denver office, says his firm is seeing tremendous growth in the foods manufacturing market—not just in the Mountain States but also across the country. And while data center projects were strong pre-pandemic, “that market literally exploded with everyone going home and becoming virtual,” he says, noting that the growth of remote work impacts water, power, fiberoptic design and other related markets as well.
Rachael Johnson, AIA Colorado president and an architect with SmithGroup, says health care work has come back twofold after being paused while hospitals focused on COVID-19. “Now they have money to spend and are more confident in their capital projects that were on hold while they dealt with the pandemic.
她说：“更高的埃德也没有消失。”“资本正在科罗拉多州流入，公司正在利用夏季上学的优势。”
EFFICIENCY:Burns＆McDonnell与Colo Castle Rock的Plum Creek水净化设施上的Garney Construction合作。
Image courtesy of Burns & McDonnell
Keeping Up With Demand
Housing and water projects are booming throughout the Mountain West, especially in Colorado, Utah and Idaho, with both sectors being driven by population growth, aging infrastructure and drought conditions.
“Salt Lake City currently has a shortage of 50,000 housing units,” says Phil Haderlie, AIA Utah president and a principal with VCBO Architecture. Haderlie speculates that as people spent the past year working from home, they also chose to leave more expensive parts of the country, creating the current housing scarcity and sky-high pricing.
But the building boom has resulted in a shortage of construction materials and rising costs that have made projects less feasible, and “it’s catching everyone off guard,” Johnson says.
结果，公司正在考虑如何调整其设计，例如，对材料选择和定价预测更加主动。“如果木材是10倍，我们该如何跟上日程安排，因为所有工厂在大流行期间都关闭了？”她说。“我们是其中的上游，我们的项目在下游；新利18备用网址我们被抓住了两者。供求不足。”
Materials aren’t the only scarce resource in this post-pandemic era. Firms are transitioning their people back into the office full time, and many are struggling to find architects qualified to do the work.
“我们度过了愉快的一年，但要吸引员工很困难，”蒙特比尔林斯的Electrical Consultants Inc.副总裁Larry Weis说。“我们确实进行太阳能开发，需要将人们带入现场来管理这些项目；新利18备用网址我们现在需要那种技能工艺，而且我们的才华非常短。在电气工程方面，保留工程师始终是一个挑战。”
总裁兼首席执行官蒂姆•一点儿J-U-B工程师,says that while the demand for work is increasing economy-wide, the supply of engineers and technical professionals is not keeping up. “In a booming economy, a lot of construction jobs are available for kids who might otherwise go to college for engineering or another technical degree,” he says. “The pandemic has exacerbated the issue, [with] many choosing to delay college, which may further worsen the labor supply going forward.”
新的常态
Aecom的Eckman说：“为了了解未来的劳动力，我们正在投资基于云的技术，并校准我们的房地产成本，以适应不想全职的员工。”
当社会距离成为常态时，设计公司转移到了虚拟的出价步行中，即使有20％-25％的公司员工重返办公室，燃烧和麦克唐纳的Lichtwardt认为将继续进行。
“大流行中的一个巨大的积极向上是我们的交流方式。我们的一些客户以前接受了技术，但是现在，即使不是每个人，现在都将转向基于云的格式。虽然最好的解决方案是面对面见面，但进行15分钟的视频电话将对我们的行业带来巨大好处。”他说。
Haener agrees. “COVID has accelerated the ability to communicate and work at a distance, and our plan is to embrace that when there is a true win-win with our employees, J-U-B and the client. Otherwise, we’re planning for folks to come back into the office because, especially for younger people, that camaraderie and teamwork is so important.”
Lichtwardt补充说：“我们真的不知道大流行中将发生什么新常态。”“人们会亲自偏僻吗？我们的客户将如何拥抱技术？我们正在尝试评估这一点，适应并保持在技术前进的最前沿。”
