One of the big national AEC stories of 2007 was the number of top design firms acquired by larger companies last year. Sixteen firms “disappeared” from the ENR Top 500 Design Firms list due to acquisitions.

The trend to instantly create companies that can provide a full range of services — from planning and design through construction and even operations and maintenance — has been fueled by larger projects and clients who want single source delivery.

The U.S. dollar’s fall against foreign currencies is another factor that makes acquisition of U.S. firms by foreign companies look more enticing than ever. European companies can get 30% more for their money by using Euros in the U.S.

Still, there’s a lot to be said for the stability, integrity and commitment of firms owned by their founders, management teams or ESOPs (employee stock ownership plans). Among such successful companies in St. Louis are McCarthy, Walton Construction, Guarantee Electrical, Lawrence Group, Clayco, Kwame Building Group, Graybar Electric.

These companies and many others have found ways to provide the broad range of services owners want while still maintaining local ownership.

What other local AEC firms can you add to the list?

Nonresidential construction starts were down 13.1% in January as compared to January 2007, according to Reed Construction Data. Monthly starts have been slowing since October 2007 and were down down 8% from December 2007

In 2007, nonresidential starts were up 10.6% as compared to the 2006.

The slowdown in nonresidential construction starts is expected to continue into the summer and then recover enough to end 2008 at about the same level as 2007. Commercial building starts are expected to be impacted most by an abrupt slowdown in Gross Domestic Product in the first half of 2008, according to Reed.

Statistics show that the education and health care sectors are both weakening, while starts in public safety buildings and cultural/religious facilities have not declined. Construction starts for heavy/engineering projects were down 13% from last January.

Source: Reed Construction Data

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

The US Green Building Council - St. Louis Regional Chapter is accepting abstracts for presentations at their fifth annual “Greening the Heartland Conference,” which will be held in St. Louis June 22 to 24. They’re looking for submissions from the architecture, building and planning fields, corporate policy makers and facility/real estate managers, green innovators on school campuses, public officials, planners, lawmakers and others involved in sustainable programs and processes.

The deadline for submitting abstracts is this Friday, January 11, 2008. For details, visit www.greeningtheheartland2008.org or call 1-866-933-4GRN.

More than a third of the 200 construction project and program owners surveyed by the Construction Management Association of America said they have used Building Information Modeling (BIM) on one or more projects. BIM is being adopted at an accelerating rate, according to a survey published in Building Design + Construction.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) refers to the use of digital information on a building project, such as cost, schedule, fabrication, maintenance, energy, and 3-D models. BIM is used for design decision-making, production of high-quality construction documents, predicting performance, cost estimating, construction planning, and managing and operating the facility.

Source: Building Design + Construction

Nonresidential construction grew in November and accelerating hiring by architects and engineers suggests future growth, according to Ken Simonson, Chief Economist for The Associated General
Contractors of America (AGC). Simonson was quoted in the November 6 issue of Building Design & Construction News.

According to AGC, residential construction spending was down 16 percent from the year before while nonresidential was up almost 17 percent. That means that residential construction workers - as many as 400,000 of them - were doing nonresidential work.

Architectural and engineering employment rose 3.7 percent in the past 12 months, triple the growth in the overall economy, AGC reported.

Source: Building Design & Construction News