6 must reads for the AEC industry today: September 17, 2020

1. New Foster + Partners-designed hospital begins construction in Cairo (BD+C)
"The 300-bed hospital has views of the Pyramids of Giza and is set within a verdant landscape with a lake and seeks to optimize the overall patient experience and decrease recovery times."

2. A new interprofessional hub opens on U. Minnesota’s campus (BD+C)
"The 202,000-sf Education Center is positioned to be one of the more comprehensive interprofessional facilities in the country. The project entailed six stories of new construction, and four stories of renovation of an adjacent building. The two structures are connected by portals on four floors."

3. Heat pumps are the future for hot water (BD+C)
"Heat pump water heaters (HPWHs) have been sold in the U.S. for over 40 years, but have struggled to penetrate the market. This has left the construction industry with few case studies, best practices, and expert practitioners."

4. 8 (more) noteworthy multifamily projects to debut in 2020 (BD+C)
"An office-to-apartment conversion in Clearwater, Fla., and a modular affordable housing community in Portland, Ore., highlight the latest multifamily developments to open this year."

5. Amazon, big-box chains, 3PLs among the most rapidly expanding industrial tenants (National Real Estate Investor)
"With e-commerce sales booming, these companies are leasing up new distribution and fulfillment facilities."

6. Pendulum swinging back away from open offices due to pandemic (Bisnow)
"The coronavirus pandemic scrambled all expectations about the office market. Many corporate leaders say the work-from-home model has been quite successful, and plan to let a portion of their workforce continue at home even after the pandemic subsides. But many also say mentoring new recruits and building a healthy corporate culture can’t be done on Zoom calls. That means even though no one knows how much space companies will need in 2021, landlords, brokers and property managers still need to find safe ways for their clients and tenants to return."

The Architectural Billings Index measures the general sentiment of U.S. architecture firms about the health of the construction market by measuring 1) design billings and 2) design contracts. Any score above 50 means that, among the architecture firms surveyed, more firms than not reported seeing increases in design work vs. the previous month.