AEC Execs Talk Challenges, Trends, Artificial Intelligence
Any listing of the coolest jobs on the planet would have to include healthy representation from the architecture, engineering and construction industries. Cool, though, rarely translates to easy.
The AEC industries have experienced a wild ride the last few years with the COVID-19 pandemic, stressed supply chains, spiking materials costs and a shortage of workers.
Arkansas Money & Politics spoke about lingering challenges, new trends, the rise of artificial intelligence in their industries and more with a few representatives of AEC in Arkansas — Kate East of AMR in Little Rock, Russ Fason of WER Architects in Little Rock and Dan Fowler of Cromwell Architects Engineers in Little Rock.
We are excited to share Russ’ Q&A with you all:
Q. Have things begun to settle down in relation to materials costs and availability?
A. Just in the last six months, we’ve started to see costs flatten out. Unfortunately, they won’t ever go back down, but at least they aren’t going up month over month, making it slightly easier to budget. There are still some long-lead-time items, mostly electrical switch gear, transformers and generators, but overall, lead times have improved greatly.
Q. In which sector are you seeing the biggest demand?
A. We are still seeing demand across the board. We have a wide range of educational, retail, medical and civic works in progress. What we are not seeing as much of is new office space, and that is a direct correlation to the large stock of empty office space nationwide after the pandemic and a shift in the way businesses work. We are doing quite a bit of tenant improvements to existing office space.
Q. What are the main issues faced by architects today?
A. Maybe the most interesting issue is the one of artificial intelligence and its role in architecture. It will take a long time to integrate AI fully into what we do, and it will never replace what we do as designers, but AI will undoubtedly be part of the way we work, hopefully to do some of the mundane tasks and allow us more time in our day for actual design. If you aren’t thinking about how AI is going to impact what you do now, then you’re behind the curve.
Q. Has the architecture industry in Arkansas experienced any staffing issues?
A. Attracting talent is a constant issue. We find it somewhat easier in our northwest Arkansas office with the [University of Arkansas] architecture school being located there. Bringing talent to central Arkansas can be challenging. Architecture, at least the way we practice it, is such a collaborative process, we don’t have the luxury of outsourcing our work like other industries do to remote workers. My goal as CEO is to make sure we have a culture that our employees feel valued in as part of the WER team, one that keeps up with the changing priorities of the incoming workforce. We want our employees to be happy and relay to their peers what it’s like to work with WER because we are always on the lookout for talented designers.
Q. What, if any, new design trends are you seeing?
A. Not necessarily new, but flexibility and adaptability are even more prevalent across all sectors. Offices are providing flexibility in the types of spaces they give their employees to work in, schools are providing flexibility to address the various ways that students learn and that teachers can adapt their spaces to suit. There is less emphasis on “green building” because at this point, it’s a given that we are selecting materials and systems that are good for the environment. Now there’s more of a shift to examine and plan for the well-being of the people that use our buildings.
Q. WER handles a wide range of projects, from Razorback baseball’s impressive Hunt Center to the historic Lakeport Plantation. What’s your favorite type of project?
A. We are generalists, meaning we work on a wide range of project types. This is really a necessity when working in a state our size, and we’ve made the conscious decision over our 46-year history to focus our work within the state. Our favorite projects are ones that enrich the communities that we live, work and play in alongside our clients. We have experts in all sectors and it’s not uncommon for someone in our office to be documenting a historic property and designing a new university building. I come from a family of educators, and most of the work I’ve done over the last 20 years is in educational buildings because I feel the most connected to that. We have others who love medical work, office work or civic projects. We have some true crime fans that are loving working on the new Arkansas State Crime Lab at the moment. We never design the same thing twice, so whatever project might be next is probably our favorite.