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From St. Louis Business Journal:  A new apartment complex has been approved for the former site of a family-owned garden shop. The Station, a 156-unit apartment complex, is to be developed at the former Jefferson County site of Bayer’s Nursery, the family-owned garden shop that closed both of its St. Louis-area locations in 2022 after […]

From St. Louis Post-Dispatch:  City leaders of this suburb, known for its big-box stores, retail plazas and busy commercial thoroughfares, are exploring whether they can create a walkable “town center” of new businesses and residences around its current city hall. Brentwood is asking developers to pitch ideas for the site in the heart of the […]

For the 22nd year, the IBEW/NECA Electrical Connection partnership again marshaled its workforce to make free home repairs and improvements for St. Louisans who are older adults, veterans and individuals with disabilities. It is all part of an enduring partnership with Rebuilding Together St. Louis. Skilled IBEW Local 1 electricians evaluated electrical infrastructure needs in […]

From First Alert4:  Editor’s Note: Ness Sandoval, a demographer and SLU professor has been studying the impact of international immigration in slowing the STL Region’s population drain. This video from KMOV expresses his views. This is a link to his PowerPoint presentation to The Mosaic Project on this topic. Watch video here.  

Editor’s Note: The video accompanying this article demonstrates the difference that a collaborative process made on an elementary school expansion project. Holland Construction Services has completed their addition and renovation of W.J. Zahnow Elementary in Waterloo, IL. Holland added 15,000 SF of space to the existing facility, which provides new staff offices and student spaces […]

Gray Design Group proudly announces the completion of BHMG Engineers’ new office in Collinsville, Illinois—a bold, forward-thinking workplace that reflects the firm’s continued growth and commitment to innovation, collaboration and community impact across the Saint Louis Metropolitan Region. The new 25,000-square-foot office is located within a recently developed, 75,000-square-foot office/distribution facility. Strategically located at Eastport […]

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 […]

At the end of the day, every construction estimator must look at themselves in the mirror. That was the take away from a panel assembled by the St. Louis Chapter, American Society of Professional Estimators for its monthly meeting on April 11. “St. Louis is a very small town: Word gets around very quickly about […]

Mia Rose Holdings, LLC’s Latitude 38 multifamily development – located off Meridian Road near Illinois 157 in the Village of Glen Carbon, IL — will be opening at the end of May. Midas Building Group, general contractor on the project,  hosted a topping out luncheon party last week for all the trades to thank them […]

The University of Missouri Board of Curators voted unanimously today (Thursday, April 17) to approve a new master’s degree program in geospatial engineering at Missouri S&T. “We appreciate the curators recognizing Missouri S&T’s wealth of expertise in this area and that we are well-positioned to launch this exciting new program,” says Dr. David Borrok, vice […]

From Builder:  Housing experts project home price growth will moderate over the next two years, according to the Q1 2025 Fannie Mae Home Price Expectations Survey. A panel of more than 100 experts forecast price growth of 3.4% in 2025 and 3.3% in 2026. The projections represent revisions from the fourth quarter survey when experts projected […]

From Multifamily Dive:  Within its first five years in operation, Madison, Wisconsin-based multifamily developer Neutral has planned more than 1,000 new units, raised over $100 million in development capital and set its sights on building the largest mass timber structures in the country — all while the CEO was in his early to mid-20s. Nate […]

From New Geography:  I went to St. Louis over the weekend, and I was reminded how much I love the way St. Louis neighborhoods look. The city has wonderful vernacular architecture that leads to beautiful neighborhoods at a human scale. That’s not true everywhere, since St. Louis has lost a lot of character through abandonment and […]

BioSpan Technologies, the Missouri-based leader in sustainable pavement preservation, today announced a strategic distribution partnership with Nu Way Concrete Forms, the prominent St. Louis-based supplier of construction equipment and materials. The new relationship expands access to BioSpan’s environmentally friendly products, including OptiSeal™ concrete pavement sealant, to major construction and infrastructure projects throughout the Midwest. “Our […]

From Construction Owners Club:  A new report from the Illinois Economic Policy Institute (ILEPI) finds that project labor agreements (PLAs) used in Illinois construction projects do not significantly increase construction costs — and in fact, may increase competition among bidders. Researchers analyzed more than 2,500 bids across 773 Illinois Capital Development Board building projects, valued […]

From The St. Louis Post Dispatch:  Mayor Cara Spencer began putting her stamp on the city’s high-profile economic development arm Thursday, replacing Neal Richardson with her chief of staff, Nancy Hawes, as chair of the organization’s board of directors. Even before she was sworn in, Spencer singled out the St. Louis Development Corp. as one […]

Editor’s Note: In April Construction Forum launched a Certified Survey Technician Apprenticeship which mirrors the kinds of positions discussed in this article.  From The Wall Street Journal:  Fatima el Idrissi makes $34 an hour in a New York City hospital lab, where she washes and sterilizes instruments used by surgeons. It’s double what she earned […]

From St. Louis Public Radio:  Plans to open the Gospel Music Hall of Fame on North Kingshighway are moving forward with a goal to expand the museum from one building into a plaza. Phase 1 will likely open in early 2026 in one of the buildings and include a few artifacts, renderings for the next few […]

From the University of Missouri:  The University of Missouri’s transformative initiative to build a new, state-of-the-art research reactor — NextGen MURR — is officially underway with the signing of the first agreement, announced today. Mizzou will partner with a consortium that includes Hyundai Engineering America, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), the Hyundai Engineering […]

by Tomislav Zigo, AIA Over the past decade, I have been listening to the need to innovate in the AEC/O industry. I have witnessed a decent number of organizations launching inward and occasionally outward-facing initiatives. Most of these initiatives were well-intended efforts placed toward moving away from the status quo plaguing our industry and recognizing […]