6 must reads for the AEC industry today: August 26, 2020

1. Bringing Work-From-Home To The Office — Landlords Aim To Add Peace, Privacy And Green Space (Bisnow) - August 18
"Companies trying to create the future of office space have their hands tied until a coronavirus vaccine is found and a better view of what the world looks like post-pandemic emerges."

2. JPMorgan Chase reportedly had talks about putting banks inside USPS locations (New York Post) - August 19
"USPS officials are considering a pilot program that would allow Dimon’s JPMorgan Chase to lease space at post offices for ATMs and provide other financial services at locations across the country."

3. Big-Box Retailers’ Profits Surge as Pandemic Marches On (New York Times) - August 19
"Walmart and Target reported record sales in the second quarter, driven by the convenience of one-stop shopping and their e-commerce operations."

4. Covid-19 Pounds New York Real Estate Worse Than 9/11, Financial Crash (WSJ) - August 20
"The city’s high-end market was dealt an unprecedented blow by the coronavirus lockdown. Can it ever fully recover?"

5. NMHC Rent Payment Tracker Finds 90 Percent of Apartment Households Paid Rent as of August 20 (National Multifamily Housing Council) - August 20
"This is a 2.1-percentage point, or 237,056 -household decrease from the share who paid rent through August 20, 2019 and compares to 91.3 percent that had paid by July 20, 2020. These data encompass a wide variety of market-rate rental properties across the United States, which can vary by size, type and average rental price."

6. Green Shoots Appearing In Medical Office After Months-Long Deep Freeze (Bisnow) - August 20
"Medical office tenants went into a deep freeze along with everybody else starting in March, hunkering down as the coronavirus pandemic made it impossible to see patients. Making decisions on whether to sign new leases and expand wasn’t practical."

Walsh Construction, one of the largest contractors in the city of Chicago and in the United States, is leading the temporary conversion of a portion of the McCormick Place Convention Center into an Alternate Care Facility (ACF) for novel coronavirus patients. Construction on the first 500 beds was completed on April 3.

U of Chicago Medicine workers with face shields produced by bKL architects.

Coronavirus | Apr 4, 2020

COVID-19: Architecture firms churn out protective face shields using their 3D printers

Architecture firms from coast to coast have suddenly turned into manufacturing centers for the production of protective face shields and face masks for use by healthcare workers fighting the COVID-10 pandemic.