Archinect - News

Montana makes history as the first U.S. state to approve 3D printed alternatives to concrete walls

2022-08-31T17:51:00-04:00

Montana has become the first state in the nation to adopt broad-ranging regulatory approval for the use of 3D printing in construction.

The state’s building code regulators recently voted to approve local contractor Tim Stark’s request to 3D print walls as an equal replacement for either CMUs or standard cored concrete blocks.

Stark was petitioning to use the special wall prototype developed by the Florida-based construction technology company Apis Cor and later tested at the University of Connecticut’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, resulting in a specification that was published by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) in 2019.

Stark seeks to incorporate 3D printing into multiple housing developments in the hopes of expediting the construction process while at the same time reducing overal...

Architecture Billings Index ends 2019 on a high note

2020-01-22T14:00:00-05:00

After a somewhat bumpy spring and summer, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) closed out the year on a positive note with three consecutive months of modest growth.

A strong winter

Architecture Billings Index Score for December: 52.5
Project inquiries index: 58.7
Design contracts index: 53.4

A new report from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) highlights that the ABI registered a score of 52.5 for the month of December, up from 51.9 in November and 52.0 in October. According to how the index is tabulated, any score above 50.0 indicates an increase in the demand for design services, while a score below 50 indicates a decline in demand. The three-month growth spurt follows contractions that took place over the summer, when the ABI scored 49.7 in September and 47.2 in August.

December's positive score was fueled by growth in both new project inquiries and design contract executions, which surged to show scores of 58.7 and 53.4, respectively. It appears that the mid-year slump w...

Architecture Billings Index is up for the month of October following rough summer

2019-11-22T12:52:00-05:00

According to a recently published report from the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) is showing signs of a rebound after showing consistently mixed results over recent months.

The ABI score for the month of October has risen to 52.0, up from 49.7 in September and 47.2 in August. According to how the index is tabulated, any score above 50.0 indicates an increase in the demand for design services.

October ABI highlights

Project inquiries index: 57.9
Design contracts index: 52.9
Regional averages: South (55.5); West (51.3); Midwest (49.9); Northeast (47.2)
Sector index breakdown: mixed practice (55.2); multi-family residential (54.0); institutional (49.9); commercial/industrial (49.3)

The modest rebound brings the majority of the ABI's catego...

Construction activity tumbles 11% in October

2019-11-18T18:56:00-05:00

According to a recently published report from Dodge Data & Analytics, a broadly based slowdown in the construction industry registered an 11% drop in construction starts for the month of October.

The report finds that the American economy generated $696.3 billion in construction spending in October, a sharp drop from the previous month's total that has rendered a 4% drop in construction activity overall when comparing the first 10 months of 2018 and 2019, respectively. Let's break down some of the figures in the report.

Rendering of the Consolidated Rent-A-Car Facilited at LAX designed by AC Martin. Image courtesy of Los Angeles World Airports.

Nonresidential Building Construction

Nonresidential building dropped 20% over the month of October, falling to $225.8 billion in total economic output.

According to the report, the relative decline is due, in part, to the fact that September saw "very strong" construction start numbers from a series of significant projects that began const...

September's Architecture Billings Index: Better than August, but that's not saying much

2019-10-24T13:24:00-04:00

A new report issued by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) shows that the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) moderated in September following relatively bleak August figures.

According to the new report "design activity shows signs of remaining sluggish at U.S. architecture firms," though there are some bright spots to report.

While the national ABI score—49.7—falls slightly below the 50.0 threshold that would signify growth in billings, the number of new project inquiries (59.0) and design contracts (54.4) executed by firms are both up sharply. Those scores bode well for future surveys, as inquiries may lead to more contracts being signed in the future. The latest figures show a rebound from the August score of 47.2, a recent low-water mark for billings. In July, the index stood at 50.1, a modest improvement from June's 49.1 figure.

The report's regional numbers paint a more nuanced picture, as well. As has often been the case over the last year, the South (52.3) and West (...

Demand for design services falls to lowest level in years

2019-09-18T13:45:00-04:00

According to a new report set to be released by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) measuring recent economic activity in the architecture sector, the demand for design services has fallen to a new low this summer.

The AIA's Architecture Billings Index for the month of August, for example, shows a "significant drop in architecture firm billings compared to the July score," according to AIA chief economist Kermit Baker. In a summary of the report, Baker writes,"“The sizeable drop in both design billings and new project activity, coming on the heels of six months of disappointing growth in billings, suggests that the design expansion that began in mid-2012 is beginning to face headwinds.”

The drop adds to recent softening in billings and new contracts figures for architecture firms. Until the latest batch of numbers, architecture billings and contracts had remained slightly positive for the year, with strong regional demand in the American south and west regions picking up sla...

Wages for architectural workers are up—That's the good news

2019-09-11T19:22:00-04:00

The latest compensation survey conducted by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has found that in recent years, as demand for design services has increased and unemployment has fallen to historic lows, average pay for architecture staff has increased by over $10,000.

The report credits a 40-percent increase in non-residential construction spending since 2017 with the gains, as well. This economic activity has helped boost pay for architectural workers at a rate 2.5-times the rate of wage growth for all other professional staff in the United States, according to an AIA press release.

That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that the last time this level of wage growth took place, in 1999 and again in 2008, was "either just prior to, or as the economy and the construction sectors were entering national economic downturns," the organization writes.

This AIA graph illustrates national architecture firm billings, design contracts, and inquiries between July 2018 – July 2019....

Landscape architecture firms report decline in billable hours and new gigs

2016-10-20T14:53:00-04:00

The latest survey from ASLA, the American Society of Landscape Architects, reveals that the 188 landscape architecture firms that responded to the survey are planning to hire fewer people and seem to have fewer stable billable hours than they did the previous quarter. Only 78.38 percent of surveyed firms reported stable billable hours for the third quarter of 2016, down from the previous quarter's 82.67 percent. Check out the full report here.

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Table-flipping 'Real Housewife' Teresa Giudice and the world of architectural billing

2016-01-05T18:45:00-05:00

An architect who is owed $13,000 by Teresa and Joe Giudice has spoken of his anger at the lavish display of wealth that welcomed the criminal Real Housewife of New Jersey home on the day she got out of prison [...] 'I did plans for modifications to that house and to an addition. I didn't do the final drawings that make it look like a miniature castle. I wouldn't want to put my name to that [...] 'I think our billing was about $13,000 and we've never received a penny of it.'

Denver officials grapple with DIA designs after Santiago Calatrava's exit

2011-09-26T17:35:00-04:00

A review of project invoices... shows $5.17 million in lump-sum payments for work done by Calatrava himself, mostly "visioning." There is little accounting of what Calatrava did and how much time he spent on it — which is not unusual with star architects but isn't always the case. The records provide other glimpses at the cost of doing business with someone of Calatrava's stature, including more than $640,000 spent on models and animation whose ownership is now in question.