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by Dr. John Gaal Editor’s Note: Each week, Dr. John Gaal, director of worker wellness for the Missouri Works Initiative, a non-profit workforce formed by the Missouri AFL-CIO, collects and comments on news and trends in workforce wellness and life balance. Construction Forum carries the Worker Wellness & Well-Being Blog as a regular feature. The […]

by Tom Finan, Executive Director, Construction Forum The City of St. Louis needs our industry’s help! Let’s show the world what we’re made of by helping with tornado recovery. St. Louisans in general, the construction industry, and Mayor Cara Spencer’s administration in particular have been amazing in the last two days. Friday’s events were personal for […]

The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) and SIUE have teamed up to create scholarships for the Environmental Resource Training Center (ERTC) of SIUE. MSD is offering two academic scholarships to minority and female candidates. Scholarship application submissions must be received/postmarked by July 1, 2025. To obtain an application or additional information: https://msdprojectclear.org/about/diversity/programs-resources/siue-ertc-scholarships/ Email Employment@stlmsd.com […]

From KSDK:  A revitalization boom is underway for a section of downtown St. Louis. Late last year, Oliver Properties invested millions of dollars to transform the Six Cord building on 10th and Washington. That expansion is leading to more people moving downtown and new businesses setting up shop, including a new restaurant owner who is […]

From St. Louis Post-Dispatch:  St. Charles County officials say they have a plan to alleviate traffic congestion in the county’s “fastest growing area” along Highway N. Highway N has become a hotbed of new development here, with more than 1,700 homes under construction, planned or already built along the two-lane roadway, west of Lake Saint […]

IMPACT Strategies, Inc., is pleased to announce the completion of the new Averhealth Laboratory. The project, which began last fall, involved the renovation and expansion of their facility in Hazelwood, MO at 601 Lambert Point Drive located off Lindbergh between Hwy 270 & Hwy 70. With outgrowing their current space causing the need to expand, […]

From Urban Land:  The South Grand Community Improvement District in St. Louis is only six blocks long, but it has ties to the world. With more than 14 different countries represented among the local businesses, the corridor offers flavors, products, and experiences from across the globe in this dense, urban neighborhood. In the middle sits […]

From STL Partnership:  In 1995, Peter Tao and Helen Lee decided to begin their architecture and design company, Tao & Lee Associates, in St. Louis. At the time, they were overseas in London, living abroad, working for large corporate firms and starting their family. After some reflection, they made the choice to return home to […]

by Jared Boyd I recently finished (the book) Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, which makes the case for supply-side liberalism: essentially, how we can cut red tape and reshape government to address large-scale problems like housing and climate change. I agree with the book’s core argument: our government systems have become misaligned with […]

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) is holding its second annual Construction on the National Mall event taking place May 14-16 in Washington, D.C. The showcase brings the construction industry to the heart of the nation’s capital, offering a unique, interactive platform to highlight career pathways and critical workforce needs in the equipment sector.< The […]

icon Mechanical was awarded national recognition, placing third in the Specialty Company division (1 Million – 1.35 Million Work Hours) for Construction Safety Excellence by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). The AGC Construction Safety Excellence Awards (CSEA), sponsored by WTW | Willis and Starr Companies, is an elite safety excellence awards program. The […]

The Home Builders Association of St. Louis and Eastern Missouri reported a month-over-month rise in housing permits increase from February to March, but both single and multi-family are considerably below 2024 levels.  “From March 2024 to March 2025, single-family housing permits are 22% lower and multifamily housing permits are 61% lower, Jason Hughes, 2025 president […]

From St. Louis Business Journal:  Missouri legislators last week effectively killed a bill that would have given some $46 million to state construction projects in the St. Louis area Eleven projects in St. Louis and St. Louis County, including a nearly $16 million Missouri National Guard development at Jefferson Barracks, could be in jeopardy after […]

From HOK: Cities around the world continue to struggle with downtown office vacancies brought on by the pandemic and the shift to hybrid and remote work. This has been especially pronounced in San Francisco where the city’s tech-based economy made it easy for workers to shift from the corporate office to home office. To date, […]

From Equipment: World: A recent website poll from Equipment World found that a majority of contractors support President Donald Trump’s tariffs on China, which reached as high at 145%. Just over 65% of contractors said they supported the more than 100% tariffs on China; 30% were opposed, and 4.6% were unsure. The poll received 263 responses. The majority […]

Construction workers, firefighters, military personnel and doctors — these are the “toughest jobs in America,” according to a new survey. The poll included 2,000 Americans (1,000 of whom are trade workers), asking respondents what they believe the “toughest” jobs are and what comes to mind when they think of “tough jobs.” Police officers ranked No. 5, […]

Construction input prices decreased 0.1% in April compared to the previous month, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Producer Price Index data released today. Nonresidential construction input prices increased 0.2% for the month. Overall construction input prices are 0.1% higher than a year ago, while nonresidential construction […]

From St. Louis Business Journal: A proposed $325 million entertainment, restaurant and retail complex proposed along the Mississippi River in north St. Louis hasn’t advanced since being unveiled in 2022, with the developer saying this week it’s been unable to secure financing needed to begin the project. Nashville-based M2 Development Partners in September 2022 first shared […]

by Cade Long, assistant preconstruction engineer, Brinkmann Constructors Building Information Modeling (BIM) has transformed the construction industry by creating intelligent digital representations of buildings. Virtual design and construction (VDC) builds upon BIM by integrating these models with scheduling, cost estimation and project coordination to optimize design, engineering and operational workflows. Together, these technologies create a […]

From St. Louis/Southern Illinois Labor Tribune: Megan Price, executive director of the Missouri Works Initiative (MWI), has been honored by the Construction Forum with an Emerging Leader Award. Price received the prestigious award at the Forum’s 2025 Building Tomorrow Awards program May 7 at the LiUNA Event Center in Sunset Hills. The awards recognize those […]