What would you consider to be greatest invention ever?  Many would say the wheel, or fire, or electricity.  Others might argue for great medical cures that ended epidemics and diseases. All are valid answers but consider John Carlton’s belief that the world’s greatest invention is… the deadline……without...

Boomers – move over – you are about to be replaced.  By 2020, forty-six percent of the workforce will be the Millennial Generation.  This generation wants a different type of hotel than their parents and the hotel industry is listening to them.  Hotel designs are...

Harry Truman often said give me a one handed economist because they always seemed to be offering two opinions of the future.  January offers a great opportunity for economists to prognosticate on the future; however, there has been a common theme among the forecasts. We are...

Owners, Developers, Contractors, and Designers are all experiencing the current economic expansion. With project volume up, most parties are enjoying a profitable 2014; however, now is often when management makes the critical mistake that has a long term effect on the company. The key pitfalls...

When starting a construction program owners will take one or two completely different approaches to create the project budget.  Each approach has its hurdles and obstacles.  Without discipline the approach selected by the development team can have significant impact on the project costs. When a design...

In Jim Dornan’s book “It’s Simple, Not Obvious” he describes four (4) levels of leadership.  When comparing each level to a leadership style, it reveals the leader position as an individual.  Any leader can be an asset or a liability to an organization.  As a...

Unforeseen Consequences Our last newsletter spoke about the potential labor shortage and its impact to the construction industry.  Recently I heard a presentation that described the make-up of our future workforce and the challenges companies should expect along with the monetary impact. Many experts have spoken about...

Large development programs needed a method of cost control during the design process.  Often these programs are so complicated that tracking design changes becomes a laborious task and feedback on a series of changes can take days or weeks to develop. ASTM Standard E1804 was developed...

As Atlanta was constructing the Olympic venues, the impact on development was felt around the southeast region.  Design and Contraction firms focused on Atlanta for a part of the $1.5 Billion Olympic development program.  The labor force migrated to Atlanta and the competition for materials...