Cambridge, Maryland (PRWEB) March 27, 2014

Cambridge Architectural, the worlds largest full-service provider of sustainable architectural mesh systems for building applications, is seeing an increase in college and university construction projects that incorporate stainless mesh as both a distinctive design element and a cost-effective solution for achieving energy savings.

Moreno Valley College The latest Cambridge campus project is the new Student Academic Services Building at Moreno Valley College in Moreno Valley, California. The school is part of the Riverside Community College District.

Three large Mid Balance mesh panels etched with MVC lettering were hung in January on a 35-foot glass curtain wall covering the exterior of the buildings 6,000 square-foot assembly area that provides a northern view of the surrounding San Bernardino Mountains. In addition to being a striking visual display, the stainless steel mesh panels act as a sustainable building faade, providing significant solar shading and daylighting benefits. Architects were DLR Group WWCOT and the general contractor was C.W. Driver. Columbia Steel installed the mesh.

2014 Cambridge Architectural Campus Projects Three additional Cambridge projects are under way on college and university campuses this year: Cecil Community College Engineering and Math Building, Elkton, Maryland; University of California Santa Barbara Davidson Library; and North Carolina A & T State University Student Health Center, Greensboro, North Carolina.

The renewed growth in campus construction reflects an anticipated rise in higher education enrollment as institutions of higher learning invest in facilities to attract students and remain competitive in the education marketplace.

The Projections of Education Statistics 2022 published in February 2014 by the National Center for Education Statistics predicts a 14 percent increase in full and part-time enrollment at post-secondary degree-granting institutions of higher learning between 2011 and 2022.

Concurrently, the College Planning & Management 2014 Construction Report, also released in February, tallies 2013 U.S. campus construction and retrofit spending at $10.9 billion, up 12.4 percent from 2012.

Students are gravitating toward college campuses where attention is paid to facility aesthetics, comfort and environmentally responsible green design, and thats good news for those of us in the metal mesh fabrication business, said Matt Aebischer, Managing Director, Cambridge Architectural. In an environment where universities are striving to communicate their identities and commitment to excellence, woven mesh can broaden an architects creative palate, while achieving functional objectives such as daylighting, solar shading, glare reduction and ventilation.

Other recently completed Cambridge Architectural college campus projects include:

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Renewed Growth In Campus Construction Opens Door for Projects Using Cambridge Architectural Metal Mesh

On Mar 7, 2014, we issued an updated research report on Apogee Enterprises, Inc. ( APOG ). The leader in technologies for design and development of value added glass products, services and systems reported an 18% increase in its third-quarter 2013 earnings to 33 cents per share. The improvement was particularly driven by improved mix and productivity in the Architectural Glass segment as well as increasing margins and good project execution.

For fiscal 2014, Apogee raised the lower end of its earnings guidance on the back of strong backlog at improving margins and project pipeline. Apogee now expects earnings in the band of 95 cents per share to $1.00 per share compared with the previous guidance of 93 cents per share to $1.00 per share. The company guides annual sales growth in the range of 10-11%.

Consolidated backlog at the end of the third quarter was $300 million. The company has maintained this level for six straight quarters. Approximately 45% of the backlog, or $136 million, is expected to be delivered in fiscal 2014, and the balance 55% or $164 million, in fiscal 2015. Apogee's backlog remains strong, which bodes well for its future performance.

Apogee targets $1 billion in revenues and 10% operating margins by fiscal 2016. Its focus on operational improvements, expansion in new geographies and markets, and new product launches will fuel revenue growth going forward.

Apogee remains focused on its strategy to expand its architectural framing systems segment through geographic expansion, new products and domestic acquisition. The company's acquisition of Custom Window Company, Inc., which makes aluminum window products, will enable it to better serve its customers in the Western U.S. and the historical renovation market nationwide.

Furthermore, the acquisition of Alumicor Limited, which finishes and fabricates aluminum frames for window, storefront, entrance and curtainwall products for the Canadian commercial construction industry, will help Apogee expand its presence in the Canadian non-residential market, and will also contribute to growth through new product introductions.

On the flipside, in the first three quarters of fiscal 2014, operating margins in the Architectural Framing Systems segment declined due to the lower sales in the window business because of an anticipated gap in the schedule for more complex projects, resulting in lower capacity utilization. Third-quarter capacity utilization across all architectural manufacturing businesses was 68% in the third quarter.

Low capacity utilization might continue to adversely impact the company's margins. If the company fails to achieve near-to-intermediate market share gains, it will be left with a large amount of idle capacity. This would negatively impact profitability and the return on invested capital (ROIC) for Architectural businesses.

Furthermore, macroeconomic conditions might be a headwind for Apogee's performance in fiscal 2014. Moderating global economic growth can limit Apogee's near-term revenue visibility.

Apogee currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

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Balanced Risk-Reward for Apogee - Analyst Blog

(PRWEB) March 12, 2014

HOA Management (.com) is proud to announce a new advertising partnership with The Falcon Group. The Falcon Group has a team of highly-skilled professionals, offers comprehensive civil, structural & MEP engineering as well as architectural and energy consulting services to multi-family residential, commercial and educational facilities.

The Falcon Group has partnered with HOA Management (.com) to advertise their services to community associations and property management companies regionally that are actively searching for architectural services. As a result of the new partnership, The Falcon Group will appear on the HOA Management (.com) vendor directory. To learn more about The Falcon Group, visitors to the directory can view their profile page on HOA Management (.com). This page allows users to contact The Falcon Group in a number of ways. These include a direct hyperlink to their website, a current phone number, and an email contact form.

The Falcon Groups depth of capability with existing multi-family and single-family developments provides them with a wealth of insight, and foresight, regarding potential construction problems and deficiencies. The Falcon Group is well equipped to support Community Associations at every phase of the transition. They evaluate virtually every facet of this crucial process, including building plan review and analysis, resident surveys, detailed interior and exterior inspections, and more. Each Reserve Funding Analysis The Falcon group performs is a customized study, prepared in coordination with their Reserve Specialist and client.They have many licensed Reserve Specialists on staff through CAI. The CAI's Reserve Specialist designation is awarded to experienced, qualified professionals who help condominium, cooperative and homeowner associations plan for the long-term repair and replacement of major components.

HOA Management (.com) is a leading HOA property management directory that uses targeted marketing strategies to reach out to community associations and offer them free access to its online directory. Association residents and board members are able to connect with professional management companies and service providers in their local area by searching on the HOA Management (.com) directory. To learn more about HOA Management (.com), visit http://www.hoamanagement.com or email sales(at)hoamanagement(dot)com.

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HOA Management (.com) Announces New Advertising Partnership with The Falcon Group

In the 100-plus years since founder Daniel W. Mead started the business, Mead & Hunt has grown substantially, even helping uild the Hoover Dam in 1928. Its now ranked as the largest Wisconsin-based engineering and architectural professional services firm in Wisconsin.

Mead was an internationally recognized hydrology and hydraulic engineering expert when he established his Chicago-based consulting firm in 1900. He moved to Madison in 1904 to an office on State Street. Henry Hunt, an electrical and civil engineer, became a partner in the firm in the early 1930s. Growth through this partnership allowed Mead & Hunt to diversify into other engineering and architecture areas.

The firms services expanded to meet the countrys changing social needs. Civil and highway engineering were added as interstate highway networks were created. Airport planning and design supported the military during the 1940s. After World War II, the firms services grew to include architectural, structural, mechanical and electrical engineering when new housing, commercial and industrial buildings were needed.

Mead & Hunt provides professional services in planning, design, engineering and architecture serving nationwide markets that include aviation, dams and hydropower, energy, food, industrial, military, municipal infrastructure, mines and bridges. The company also provides historic preservation services. The business is employee-owned, with about one-third of employees owning company stock.

Their clients include governments at all levels local, state and federal entities that include military, airports, highways and bridge authorities, power companies, irrigation districts, utilities and mines, food processors and others.

Rajan Sheth, 64, current CEO and chairman of the board, joined Mead & Hunt in 1977 as a structural engineer. Originally from India, Sheth came to Madison in 1970 to attend graduate school at UW-Madison. He was named CEO and chairman of the board in 1994. Under his leadership, Mead & Hunt has grown to more than 30 offices nationwide and from 100 to 500 employees. Last year, Mead & Hunt earned more than $80 million in revenue.

Next time you fly out of Dane County Regional Airport, you may wonder who designed most of the taxiways, runways and the terminal building. It was Mead & Hunt, explained Sheth.

Mead & Hunt also was the lead firm designing the reservoir after the dam collapsed on Lake Delton and flooding washed out the highway near the lake in June 2008.

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Longevity in Business: Firm's engineering expertise seen around U.S.

Friday, March 7, 10:11 AM EST

By Karen Brune Mathis, Managing Editor

Lifetime Achievement Award: Barry Allred, chairman and CEO, Elkins Constructors Inc. Allred has led the company since 1984 and has served as an officer or board member on many civic groups, professional associations and nonprofits.

Office project: ASD, for its design of the Dixon Hughes Goodman offices at 245 Riverside Ave. ASD is a design firm offering interiors, architectural and graphic design services to corporate, financial, restaurant and hospitality, retail, medical and institutional clients.

Historic rehabilitation project: Workscapes, for its renovation of Cushman & Wakefields Downtown offices at 121 W. Forsyth St.

Redevelopment project: Deerwood Distribution Center at 8500 Baycenter Road, owned by EastGroup Properties Inc.

Office lease/sale: Bob Retherford of Cushman & Wakefield for the AmeriHealth Caritas lease, a 70,000-square-foot lease at 8171 Baymeadows Way W.

Industrial lease/sale: Jacob Horsley and Tyler Newman of Cushman & Wakefield for Body Central Corp., a 407,000-square-foot lease in North Jacksonville.

Emerging professional: Christian Harden of NAI Hallmark Partners.

Office broker: Chuck Diebel with Colliers International, whose 2013 deals included leases exceeding $28 million.

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NAIOP gives Barry Allred lifetime award

Horsham, PA (PRWEB) March 05, 2014

Dan Kerr, president of Philadelphia-area mechanical construction, service, and energy services firm Burns Mechanical, is serving on the jury of the annual student architectural engineering competition held by the Architectural Engineering Institute (AEI) of ASCE, the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The AEI initiated the student competition specifically for accredited architectural engineering programs to showcase the value of collaboration, competition, and peer review, all of which are important in the development of designs in the professional world. A grant provided by the Charles Pankow Foundation has helped to make the competition possible.

Im very flattered to have the opportunity to rub elbows with future construction industry giants, said Kerr, a graduate of Penn States architectural engineering program.

Teams of students will present their work at the AEI National Student Conference later this month at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

The jury consists of the following professionals:

Structural: David W. Bernhardt, P.E.; Lindsay L. Hu, P.E., LEED AP Integration: Eric Cole, AIA, LEED AP; Charles DeLisio, AIA, P.E, LEED AP Mechanical: Dan Kerr, P.E.; Joseph Dilenno, P.E., LEED AP BD+C Construction: Gregory Dunkle, LEED AP, CCM; Shane A. Boyer

About Burns Mechanical

Burns Mechanical is a leading commercial mechanical contracting firm, serving the greater Philadelphia area providing construction and service for some of the region's most prestigious projects. Its target market of ongoing and completed contracting and service projects includes healthcare and pharmaceutical facilities, high-rise and high-end office complexes, data centers, manufacturing and research facilities, commercial marketplaces, and institutions.

Founded in 1998, Burns is a wholly-owned subsidiary of PPL Corporation. For more information, visit http://www.burnsmechanical.com or call 215-674-9000.

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Dan Kerr of Burns Mechanical Serving On Jury for Architectural Engineering Student Competition

Peterborough This Week

PETERBOROUGH -- Dr. Jenny Ingram still wants to see the former YMCA building in downtown Peterborough redeveloped, she's just not the right person for the job.

After spending seven years investigating the historic building's potential to house a mix of commercial and residential space with a group of like-minded individuals, she put it up for sale in January. While her dreams for the property haven't changed, she realized the group didn't have the right skill set to see the project through.

At the same time, she has more work-related responsibilities on her plate, she says.

"The biggest thing that's changed for me, is that the geriatrics services that I work in were not available then," she says. "Over the last seven years the Local Health Integrated Networks and government have invested heavily in community-based geriatric services, and they require my attention."

READ MORE: Owner put her 'heart and soul into vision for former YMCA building

Last summer and fall she says an outside group was interested in helping the team working on the building with the redevelopment. She says the team came close to settling on a plan to move forward, which included rebuilding a portion that didn't require maintaining heritage features. While she didn't get into detail, the outside group wasn't interested and she began talking with realtors in December.

Still, she says the building can support residential and commercial space. She hopes to see a developer take on the project and bring the building up to its full potential.

"It's important to the city and it's important to the community at large," she says.

The 107,600-square-foot building, located at George and Murray streets, is listed for $1,475,000. While she bought the building from the YMCA for $1, she says she's not looking to make any money from the sale.

Originally posted here:
Architectural landmark deserves responsible developer: Seller

Melbourne, Australia (PRWEB) March 04, 2014

The Architectural Services industry has endured a tough five years due to a prolonged downturn in the construction market. Over the period, the winding back of educational building investment and weak housing construction has led to subdued demand for industry services. Revenue is estimated to rise by an annualised 0.4% over the five years through 2013-14, corresponding with a slump in the value of total building construction. The key building markets for architectural services have displayed divergent trends over the past five years. In the non-residential building market, the value of institutional building has benefited from the injection of federal funding for school refurbishment under the Building the Education Revolution program. In contrast, the value of commercial and industrial building is expected to fall because of slower economic growth and the global financial crisis. Architects have faced subdued conditions in the new housing market, with the value of construction remaining flat over the past five years. Declining investment trends in the traditional single-unit housing market has offset growth in the townhouse and apartment design market. In 2013-14, the industry is forecast to generate revenue of $6.4 billion, rising 2.1% on the previous year. Rising housing investment is expected in the single and multi-unit sectors, due to record low interest rates and an expected recovery in economic growth.

The industry has been facing growing competition from vertically integrated firms in the building construction and engineering consultancy industries over the past five years. IBISWorld industry analyst Sebastian Chia states clients are growing towards more integrated service offerings, and architecture firms have to improve links with construction firms or even offer their own range of services to compete. This is difficult due to the nature of the industry, which has a fragmented structure with few large-scale national players and many small-scale firms that operate in narrow regional markets. These trends are forecast to grow over the next five years. According to Chia, despite growing competition, demand conditions are forecast to strengthen over the next five years due to improved investment in the commercial and residential building markets.

The Architectural Services industry has a low concentration of ownership. It has a fragmented structure with few large-scale national players, a larger number of state or regionally based firms (influenced by the requirement for individual state registration procedures), and many small-scale firms and sole practitioners operating in narrow regional markets. For more information, visit IBISWorlds Architectural Services report in Australia industry page.

Follow IBISWorld on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ibisworldau.

IBISWorld industry Report Key Topics

This industry includes establishments that mainly provide planning and design services of buildings and structures, or planning and designing land development. Industry activities may include design, construction procedures, zoning regulations, location and land use, building codes and building materials.

Industry Performance Executive Summary Key External Drivers Current Performance Industry Outlook Industry Life Cycle Products & Markets Supply Chain Products & Services Major Markets International Trade Business Locations Competitive Landscape Market Share Concentration Key Success Factors Cost Structure Benchmarks Basis of Competition Barriers to Entry Industry Globalisation Major Companies Operating Conditions Capital Intensity Technology & Systems Revenue Volatility Regulation & Policy Industry Assistance Key Statistics Industry Data Annual Change Key Ratios

About IBISWorld Inc.

Recognised as the nations most trusted independent source of industry and market research, IBISWorld offers a comprehensive database of unique information and analysis on every Australian industry. With an extensive online portfolio, valued for its depth and scope, the company equips clients with the insight necessary to make better business decisions. Headquartered in Melbourne, IBISWorld serves a range of business, professional service and government organisations through more than 10 locations worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.ibisworld.com.au or call (03) 9655 3886.

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Architectural Services in Australia Industry Market Research Report Now Updated by IBISWorld

After four months of decline, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) showed modest gains. The ABI score was 50.4 in January, up from 48.5 in December. This score reflects an increase in design services, as any score above 50 indicates an increase in billing.

There is enough optimism in the marketplace that business conditions should return to steady growth as the year progresses, AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker said in a statement. The suspension of the debt ceiling should ease some anxiety around projects for the federal government, at least for the time being. However, private sector spending should lead the construction upturn this year, which will depend more on employment growth and continued improvement in the overall economy."

The South brought in the highest regional score (53.5), followed by the West (51.1), Midwest (46.5), and Northeast (43.6). By sector, multi-family residential had the most growth at 51.8, followed by commercial/industrial at 50.9. The project inquires index was 58.5, down from a reading of 59.2 in December.

Originally posted here:
Architectural Billings Show Slight Uptick in January

Individuals and small businesses now have new, user-friendly ways to create websites that are ideal for today's go-go world of mobile devices.

Until recently, those who used do-it-yourself services to fashion websites had to navigate a tedious array of codes and steps. And with the rise of smartphones and tablets, Web creators sometimes had to create one version of a site for desktop applications and another version for mobile applications.

"More Web design services are using what we call responsive design principles," said Michael Tchong, founder of San Francisco-based Social Revolution, which tracks technology trends. This kind of design enables people to access a website with a minimum of scrolling, resizing and panning -- regardless of whether they use a desktop computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone.

Strikingly and WordPress, both based in San Francisco, and Squarespace, based in New York City, are among the companies that have embraced these new design techniques.

All three companies say their tools allow users to design websites within a few minutes -- and they don't have to know any code to do so.

"It can take hours to set up a website, but with our technology, it can be done in 10 minutes," said David Chen, chief executive officer of Strikingly. "The websites that people create through us are optimized for a mobile platform and for a desktop platform."

At the Strikingly site, users can choose from personal, business, or portfolio options. Then they can edit the templates, including the title, font and other elements. The site has prompts for creating links and new sections.

"We started this in college because we needed to build a website easily," Chen said. "We realized that consumers have trouble building their own websites. Nobody really understands how to do it. We wanted to democratize the whole process."

All three services allow users to just click away and build the lead page and inside pages as they wish, add images and create links. People can also insert buttons or locations for social networking efforts such as Twitter or Facebook.

"You don't have to know any code. You don't even have to know how to set up a site," said Raanan Bar-Cohen, senior vice president of commercial services for Automattic, the parent company of WordPress. "The beauty is the user doesn't have to think about all this stuff. It all happens behind the scenes."

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User-friendly ways to build mobile websites