The First Facility Management Blog

The Horizon Awards Voting Academy released the final nominees vying for top honors at the 2005 Horizon Awards for Sports Business, the nation’s only national recognition forum celebrating excellence in sports business.

“This was another very strong year for submissions,” says Dave St. Peter, president of the Minnesota Twins and Voting Academy member. “I don’t envy our position. Selecting overall winners will be very difficult. There’s a lot of cutting-edge work being done, and I think this nominee list is a great example.”

Best New Sports Facility Nominees
The best sports-use facility that showcased significant progress in design, development, construction and use of technology.
* Vaughn Towers at NC State University
* Wells Fargo Arena - Iowa
* Pizza Hut Park - Frisco, Texas

Final nominees were chosen by the Voting Academy from hundreds of entrees and will now be voted on to see who will establish themselves as a leader in their field at the Horizon Awards Nov. 2 in Atlanta.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) officially introduced the Architecture Billings Index (ABI), based on the results of a monthly “Work-on-the-Boards” survey of U.S. architecture firms. Accounting for 8% of Gross Domestic Product, construction activity typically follows billings for architectural services by approximately six months.

Billings at architecture firms in September made their largest monthly gain since 1998, generating a score of 60.5 on the ABI (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings at architecture firms), following a score of 55.9 in August. Recent increases in design activity expect to translate into similar increases in construction activity in early 2006. Inquiries for new design projects scored 62.5, indicating more expected future growth in design activity, however the pace for project inquires in September slowed somewhat compared to July and August levels.

Highlights from the September ABI:
*Architecture firms in all regions reported improvement in business conditions, with firms in the South reporting the strongest improvement;
* Increases in selected construction commodities and problems with availability of building materials has caused inflation to become a key concern; and
* Construction outlook for 2006 positive based on favorable economic conditions (low interest rates, moderate overall inflation).

“The findings in the Architecture Billings Index should be encouraging for the nonresidential construction industry and those business sectors affected by it,” says AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “The positive outlook should be tempered, however, because of the effect that rising energy prices, increased costs for building materials, and the possibility of rising interest rates will have on the overall economy in the months to come.”

The Architecture Billings Index is produced by the AIA Economics & Market Research Group. The findings amount to a leading economic indicator that provides an approximately six month glimpse into the future of nonresidential construction activity. The indexes contained in the full report are derived from a monthly survey sent to a panel of AIA member-owned firms. Participants are asked whether their billings increased, decreased, or stayed the same in the month that just ended. According to the proportion of respondents choosing each option, a score is generated, which represents an index value for each month.

The U.S Green Building Council (USGBC), together with the Enterprise Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, the Trust for Public Land and others have announced initiatives and ideas designed to assist in the rebuilding efforts of the Gulf Coast communities ravaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The immediate opportunity that presents itself is during the Council’s annual 2005 Greenbuild Conference & Expo, which will be held in Atlanta on November 9-11, 2005.

Greenbuild attendees, many of whom represent chapters and other USGBC organization members, have expressed an interest in helping with rebuilding in the aftermath of the hurricane. Charrettes with Gulf Coast experts and government leaders and mini-charrettes on specific topics with regional experts have been organized. “Scholarships” have been arranged for 30 Gulf Coast community leaders to come and be a part of the proceedings.

The Greenbuild panel sessions will focus on embedding sustainable strategies in the rebuilding effort and will culminate in a documentation work session on Friday, November 11, 2005 that will compile all the ideas generated in order to produce a workable document to guide the reconstruction efforts quickly.

The series of design workshops related to the hurricane reconstruction efforts will include:
* Work with the Enterprise Foundation to customize their Green Communities program to better fit the needs of the Gulf Coast. This will be done in partnership with Community Development Corporation representatives from the region, and will help guide the placement of Enterprise Foundation funds;
* A partnership with the Trust for Public Land to continue their efforts on master planning of a mile long park on largely industrial land in New Orleans. This ‘Greenprint” process includes local citizen groups, the city, the Army Corps of Engineers, and others. This effort will involve the design of parks, infrastructure, ecological restoration areas, affordable housing and civic buildings;
* Work with the Congress for New Urbanism to incorporate green building and infrastructure measures into the documents that will come out of the charrettes that they are currently holding in Mississippi;
* Work with a school district on the redesign of a destroyed K-12 school, to apply green building strategies that create a healthier learning environment.