The recession is finally over. Or, at least it’s beginning to feel that way. All of us in the architectural and building professions have been struggling for the last 8 years but 2014 seems to have been the turning point.
Environ completed more buildings in 2014 than in the previous 5 years. And they are of varying project types: student housing, government laboratories, restaurants, higher education facilities, institutional facilities, several commercial building renovations, a multitude of tenant improvements and several master plans. We were able to increase our design staff by 30% and expect to add more talent in 2015. A lot of our long time clients have also experienced a growth spurt and have expanded or moved into larger facilities to accommodate their needs.
We have a new mayor, and there’s definitely a new energy in the air. Change can be scary, however, and many of us proceed with caution. That said, I do see the potential for future integration of design disciplines, with more partnerships between construction and architecture forming, uniting to create a seamless experience for end users. This prospect is exciting and opens up opportunity to expand services into other areas like product design.
The movie “Back to The Future II” portrayed 2015 as having flying cars. We’re not quite there, but things are looking up. 2014 was good. Here’s to making 2015 great.
