Masonry Magazine December 2007 Page. 49
News
Nonresidential
Construction Job Growth
Offsets Slump
Nonresidential construction employment grew again in October, contradicting beliefs that the housing slump is dragging down all construction, according to Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). Simonson was commenting on the Nov. 2 payroll employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
"Although total construction employment fell by 5,000 in October, seasonally adjusted, and 106,000 or 1.4 percent compared to October 2006, all of those losses occurred in homebuilding," Simonson said. "The BLS numbers show that over the past 12 months, employment in the three nonresidential categories, nonresidential building, specialty trades, plus heavy and civil engineering, climbed by 42,000 or 1 percent. At the same time, employment in residential building and specialty trades dropped by 148,000 jobs or 4.4 percent.
Simonson said the estimate greatly understates the actual difference, because the Census Bureau figures for September show residential construction spending was down 16 percent from a year before and nonresidential was up almost 17 percent.
"It's likely that residential employment is actually down roughly 16 percent," he said. "That means about 400,000 'residential' specialty trade contractors are now doing nonresidential electrical, plumbing and other work. If these 400,000 workers were added to the nonresidential total, nonresidential would be up more than 10 percent to its payrolls, outpacing nearly every other industry. That's much closer to the 17 percent gain in nonresidential construction spending."
2007 Brick in
Architecture Awards
The Brick Industry Association (BIA) has announced the 2007 winners of its annual Brick in Architecture Awards. This program recognizes outstanding works of non-residential architecture completed since 2002, in which clay brick is prominently featured in construction.
Architects and designers employed by architectural, design-build or landscaping design firms licensed in the United States or Canada are invited to enter the competition by submitting a description, floor plan, and photography of a breakthrough project.
The six Best in Class winners include:
* Commercial: Archie Bray Foundation Resident Artist Studio, Helena, Mont.; Mosaic Architecture
* Educational: Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park, Baltimore; Ziger/Snead LLP
* Health Care: The Moakley Building at Boston Medical Center, Boston; Tsoi/Kobus & Associates Inc.
* House of Worship: Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church, Vienna, Va.; LeMay Erickson Architects
* Municipal/Government: Orland Park Public Library, Orland Park, III.; Lohan Anderson
* Paving & Landscape Architecture: Northeastern University, Boston; Pressley Associates Landscape Architects.
"The brick industry is pleased to acknowledge these exceptional examples of brick architecture," says Dick Jennison.
Students Enjoy Hands-on
Field Days
In education, it's a universal truth: Students love field trips. Give an architectural student enough bricks and mortar, and he could build almost anything. On Oct. 18, more than 150 Iowa State University architectural and engineering students got the opportunity to do that and more. They were part of the annual Student Field Days, sponsored by the Masonry Institute of Iowa.
Students toured the recently completed Lutheran Church of Hope on Jordan Creek Parkway and a work-in-progress, the Urbandale High School addition. Seeing how building materials are made is almost as important as viewing the finished products. Tours included Rhino Materials' concrete block plant in West Des Moines and the United Brick & Tile Co. brick plant in Adel, Iowa.
At the brick plant, students were given seemingly endless supplies of brick and mortar to construct a group project, planned earlier in class. Each group received suggestions from an MII member.
"Learning and reading about masonry is one thing," says Lindsay Ellingson, Student Field Day committee chair, "but real, 'hands-on' experience is hard to beat."
This is the 23rd year that the Institute has offered this field trip.