Page 57 - BusinessWest August 22, 2022

Kerry Bartini says modern farmhouse designs are here to stay.
(Photo by Gavin Preuss)
“Second homeowners wanted new homes; we had families who had been here 30 years and wanted to renovate; a lot of locals were home- bound, who were working from home and had kids attending school from home, so they did a lot of renovations — not necessarily making the space bigger, though we had that, too, but adapt- ing the space to fit their new needs.”
Once the initial surge of that trend began to recede and inflation and supply-chain issues hit the construction world hard, one would expect architecture work to slow as well, but that hasn’t been the case, Bartini said.
“Business is still the same — we have tons and tons or work. We have a wait list: ‘yes, we can take on that job, but we can’t start for two or three months.’ But contractors are scheduling two years out, so people understand we’re really, really busy, and they’re trying to be patient.
“Even though building prices are volatile,” she added, “people are still moving toward spending more time at home. Even with the high prices, building is still moving forward, even if they have to cut a little bit of square footage in exchange for custom floors and windows, or make other changes to fit the budget.”
Curtis Edgin, a principal at Caolo & Bieniek
in Chicopee, said the scale of the firm’s projects — which include a wide range of commercial projects in addition to public work like schools, colleges, libraries, senior centers, public safety, and municipal buildings — may be a bit more modest right now, but the pipeline is still strong, in some cases buoyed by federal and state stimu- lus money to communities.
“We’re working with several school districts, some in relation to COVID money they received,
and are making improvements to facilities based on that,” he said. “We’re fairly diversified in our projects, which is good. We also have some pri- vate clients. Though, with interest rates going up now, we’ll see how that shakes out.”
Architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) executives are generally optimistic about where the market is headed as 2022 progresses. The Engineering News-Record’s Construction Industry Confidence Index, which measures AEC executive sentiment about the market outlook,
“The public schools now have
to think way ahead. They’re not planning for this summer; they’re planning for the following one. You can’t get the product this summer, so you have to push it off to the following year.”
held steady in the first quarter after rising slightly from the fourth quarter of 2021. In contrast, the index declined in the middle two quarters of 2021, so optimism is definitely up this year.
Meanwhile, the latest Construction Financial Management Assoc. Confindex is up more than 19% over last year. The federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act certainly gave it a boost, with states and communities receiving a new surge of funding to invest in infrastructure and
BUILD FOR THE FUTURE
West Boylston Senior Center
West Boylston, MA Photography by Chodos, Inc.
521 East Street, Chicopee, MA 01020 413.594.2800 cbaarchitects.net
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AUGUST 22, 2022 57