Dave Dwars of the Lawrence Group was quoted in a Midwest Construction cover story on redevelopment of downtown St. Louis this month.

According to the article, 69 buildings have been restored downtown since 1999, totaling $1.3 billion in development.

An example is the Lawrence Group’s $125 million Park Pacific Building. Renovation of the 22-story, 470-sq-ft former Missouri Pacific/Union Pacific building, originally constructed in 1928, will include 108 condos, 50 apartments, 51,000 sq ft of office space and another 10,000 sq ft of space for street-level retail.

Another $1 billion in projects is in the pipeline with 26 buildings being restored or under development.

Other facts:

• 10,000 people live downtown of which 5,000 are new, according to the Downtown St. Louis Partnership.
• About 1,200 additional residents are expected to move in over the next three years.
• 2,700 new housing units opened downtown in the past two years.
• Downtown currently has more than 7,400 rental and sale units.

Architectural billings showed a healthy score in December, according to the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) reported by the American Institute of Architects this week. The index shows a nine to twelve month lag time between architectural billings and construction spending, so it’s a good outlook indicator for construction.
The December ABI was up a fraction to 55.4, from 55.3 in November, marking the 34th straight month with a positive score. That’s the longest run in the history of the survey, which began in 1995.

Source: Building Design+Construction 

Ebersoldt + Underwood Architects and WDM Architects have formed a joint venture to design the $150 million redevelopment of the Lemp Brewery complex in St. Louis. The 14-acre property presently includes 29 brick buildings built between 1864 and 1919, which would be redeveloped into 400 residential apartments and approximately 75,000 square feet of retail. The developer is Kansas City, Mo.-based Garrison Development. Construction is expected to begin in May and be completed in phases over the next four years.

Source: REBusines Online

Paric Corp. has broken ground on a $23.5 million hotel in the Delmar Loop neighborhood of St. Louis. The Moonrise Hotel will be a seven-story, 124-room boutique hotel featuring an upscale restaurant and bar, two meeting rooms and a rooftop patio. The developer is the Loop’s very own Joe Edwards and ACI Boland is project architect. St. Louis-based Lodging Hospitality Management will operate the hotel upon completion in February 2009.

Source: REBusiness Online 

Construction is complete on the $8 million Saint Louis University Simon Recreation Center. The Lawrence Group provided  architectural and interior design and Alberici Constructors of St. Louis was the general contractor.

Phase II of the two-phase project completed in January 2008 includes a 9,638-square-feet expansion of the entrance on the upper level of the Simon Recreation Center. The new space features an open floor plan, a new entry reception area, a circular welcoming desk, a renovated lobby, all natural materials, a 35 feet tall water feature built into a maple wall glass mezzanine and a 4,990-square-foot glass mezzanine.

The Phase I 41,800-square-foot expansion of a parking garage into an exercise facility was completed in January 2007 with 200+ new workout machines, a juice bar and lounge, full wellness suite, additional locker rooms, a boulder wall and a gaming area. Several new multi-purpose rooms feature Pilates, yoga, spinning, aerobics and other fitness classes.

Today I made a presentation on Web 2.0 for Marketing & PR at the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS). Their members wanted to know how Web 2.0 (”second generation” Web) tools like blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds, social networking, wikis and widgets can be used by architects, engineers and construction firms to communicate with clients and prospects in today’s brave new marketplace.

My key messages are this:

• The “window” through which PR people have traditionally “pushed” releases continues to narrow, as print publications struggle with ad revenues and cut back on editorial pages.
• More and more business people are getting their news online in a “pull” fashion, using Web 2.0 technologies to select exactly the kind of news and information they want to receive.
• Journalists are high on the list of “consumers” getting their news and information online.
• As communicators we need to be in that arena, participating if not leading the way.

The best way to enter the Web 2.0 world is to start using the technologies. In fact, you most likely already are using them. UTube, Flicker, your Yahoo My Page, Wikipedia, Amazon, news or sports feeds on your Web browser, and any Web site you visit that has up-to-the-minute headlines or visitor comment options is powered by Web 2.0 technology.

I encourage communicators to use the technology. Create your own blog (takes less than 10 minutes with no cost at www.blogger.com). Blog about your kids or your cat if you’re not ready to do a business blog, but jump in and learn the technology.

Subscribe to blogs - my AEC industry blog here at www.aecstlouis.com offers a Blogroll, with links to other industry blogs.

Listen to podcasts. You don’t need an IPod or MP3 player; you can listen to them right on your desktop computer. McGraw Hill offers podcasts with interviews of construction industry leaders at ConstructionCast.

Learn how to subscribe to RSS feeds through your favorite browser. Most offer instructions and make it simple to add RSS feeds to your Favorites bookmarks bar. Once you’ve subscribed, it’s easy to view news headlines and link to articles that interest you. Here is the RSS instruction page for Internet Explorer.

The innovative Media Center that my PR firm Synergy Group has created for all of our clients uses RSS technologies powered by a proprietary Web 2.0 software program that we’ve developed. I invite you to explore how we offer our clients’ messages and materials to media and consumers, 24/7.

Here are some other resources I mentioned in the presentation:

Podcast Alley - top 25 business podcasts

PR and AEC Blogs - a list of several good ones

Guide to Corporate Blogging - rules of the road for corporate bloggers