The U.S. is fighting to remain resilient during the coronavirus pandemic. Now, as policymakers consider the path to recovery, infrastructure investment is emerging as a powerful economic stimulus tool. What solutions are necessary to bolster an economic recovery?

As with all crises, we are likely to witness vast changes in the economic, political, social, environmental and technological landscape, which, in turn, will impact infrastructure requirements. The recovery will need solutions that support and build on one another. Changes may range from zoning policy and social programs to integrated infrastructure investments and sector-specific growth opportunities. Even as we consider the potential adjustments, the overarching importance lies in extending scarce resources so that all Chicagoans benefit from the investments. Identifying potential co-benefits of every solution will be critical, as will focusing on the city’s most vulnerable communities, and understanding the economic feasibility and fiscal impacts of proposed investments.

How can infrastructure drive economic recovery?

Infrastructure programs have a long history of creating sustainable jobs and transforming cities and states. Investing in infrastructure has the power to create opportunities for tomorrow by restoring businesses and consumer confidence, as well as adding more jobs. Nearly 75 miles of streets were built in Chicago in the 1930s as part of the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration program that put millions of Americans to work on infrastructure projects during the Great Depression. According to the American Public Transportation Association’s 2020 Economic Impact of Public Transportation Investment report, enhanced infrastructure investment that’s sustained over 20 years can have five times the total effect on the economy as the annual expenditure.

How can innovation help secure resources and address the climate emergency?

The dual demands of climate change and urbanization are putting urban infrastructure under severe pressure. Meeting these challenges will require traditionally risk-averse industries such as water, transport and commercial real estate to change their operations. As an example, the combination of stimulus-funded infrastructure and environmental factors — such as public desire to maintain the air quality benefits of lockdown — could lead to an acceleration of electric and autonomous vehicles on our roads.

Advanced technologies can also help make our urban centers more resilient. Buildings that use a combination of technology and electric grid improvements can play a critical role in tackling climate challenges while reducing costs and improving health in the form of indoor environment for owners and tenants.

How can ArchTam help Chicago maximize its post-pandemic economic recovery?

There’s a growing recognition that in measuring value, we’ve been overly focused on narrow economic measures instead of wider social benefits. As governments move toward broader measures of societal progress, the challenge for built-environment professionals is to identify how they can best use their expertise to holistically benefit communities.

One great example of using infrastructure benefits for economic and social benefits is Chicago’s resilient/sustainable commercial corridor revitalization and more specifically the need and demand for urban projects in communities to drive economic development.

At ArchTam, we want to bring together our resources to support communities’ needs. The best projects can and do have clear and multiple returns on investment with benefits from creating jobs to reducing neighborhood flooding and traffic accidents.

Our teams could also help the City to identify locations suited for manufacturing as part of industrial corridor revitalization efforts. Given the economic impacts of the coronavirus, these corridors generate additional opportunities for investment and development, and Chicago’s transportation network of railways, waterways and highways, would contribute to the success of the manufacturing facilities.

For many, the pandemic has completely changed work habits and rituals. How will these collective differences shape the office of the future?

Every organization must renew their focus on creating safe and healthy environments — both physically and mentally — while continuing to develop workplaces that inspire employees. We must rethink the traditional work environment as many have realized that they can work from any location. The tangible result will be a shift in design strategies, for example, altering workspace locations for increased distance between employees.

ArchTam is helping our clients to maximize their building technology, empowering leaders and enabling them to monitor and better control workspaces. These ongoing changes will require adjustments to understand what is optimal for each building, each office and in many cases, each workforce team.

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As we look to the future of our work, we are comforted to see that our vision for the firm’s digital transformation holds true. We will remain a talented, efficient and focused team — benefitting from our scale and the strength of our digital tools to deliver the best results in the industry. For example, virtual collaboration tools are table stakes in our industry and we have transitioned seamlessly to a remote work environment during the coronavirus pandemic.

Looking to the future of how we deliver work, some of our most important investments are in creating artificial intelligence and machine learning platforms to enable our teams to become even more capable and efficient. In today’s world, a secondary benefit is fast becoming apparent: Applying ArchTam’s digital tools allows more of our work to be delivered remotely, by a connected global workforce, than ever before — especially critical when our clients or the global environment demand it.

In our design business, we have developed a platform called ArchTam Learned Intelligence, or ALI. ALI is an artificial intelligence engine that is constantly learning from our engineering work. Whether it be a campus, a structure or a transportation network, ALI is capable of processing all the three-dimensional elements of each design. Over time, ALI is building an ever-growing library against which to check every future design that ArchTam creates. In close to real-time, ALI advises our designers in order to improve the quality of their modeling.

Tools like ALI present several benefits for our business. First, they improve the quality of our work by taking full advantage of our scale. It’s as if every ArchTam engineer is looking over the shoulder of our teams as they create a new design, ready to provide input and potentially catch errors and omissions before they happen. Second, they allow our organization to effectively collaborate remotely. ALI doesn’t depend on being co-located in the same ArchTam office. Tools like ALI allow our employees to work naturally at scale, involving the most capable people from our global footprint in our projects. Finally, they provide immense value to our clients. Imagine a world where any infrastructure owner could tap into our collective experience to review a design.

Another exciting innovation from ArchTam involves our field work. We believe that computer vision and artificial intelligence will revolutionize the way in which we collect data outside of our offices. We have created a platform that uses video and imagery collected in the field and applies artificial intelligence to find and assess infrastructure assets. Eventually, any decision that our engineer could make in the field — the condition of an overhead electric grid, the quality of a building facade, the suitability of roadway for autonomous vehicles — will be made by artificial intelligence. By training models using our skilled engineering workforce and fully leveraging our industry-leading scale, we will provide our clients even more efficient and effective infrastructure services. Today, putting less people in the field and collecting data in more efficient ways means less impact on our clients and the communities they serve.

Has our digital future changed? We don’t think so, but our journey is accelerating. At ArchTam, we continue to lead the industry in imagining what’s next. Visit our new Innovation + Digital microsite, where we share innovative solutions, products, thought leadership and success stories from across our global business.

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We asked our women employee network: What’s the best career decision you’ve ever made? From associate vice presidents to senior engineer consultants, here’s what they had to share.

 Ready for your next big career move? Browse our Careers site and sign up for our Talent Network to stay in the loop on new opportunities.

Amy Canfield – Associate Vice President, Transportation

I attribute a lot of my success to identifying mentors early on in my career. I’ve proactively sought out relationships with people in positions I aspire to and I’ve been fortunate to have several people take me under their wing. The advice, cautionary tales and relationships they helped me foster have shaped my career goals. I’ve surrounded myself with allies who truly care about me and support my ambitions — both professional and personal. I don’t work in fear and because of that, I’m happy, I take chances and I’m not afraid to dream big.

Dana Al-Qadi – Senior Engineering Consultant

The best career decision I ever made was realizing that careers are hardly ever built on a single decision. Careers are the culmination of all the times we decide to say “yes” — a tiny word that can lead to immense change. I have benefited from saying yes to working in new disciplines, investing in my own technical growth in emerging areas, prioritizing learning from our many experts and committing my time to mentorship and team growth. Even when opportunities do not immediately seem like they fit in the larger goals of your pre-planned career, they can still be incredibly valuable.

Maria Ivanova – Architect
The best career decision I’ve ever made was to join the graduate development program in Continental Europe. It introduced me to new people in various roles who had different expertise. I’ve learned that expanding my network is one of the most powerful development tools. Collaborating with and learning from others has helped me become more confident, both personally and professionally — I was able to settle in to a new role in Kazakhstan with ease. I am now a big advocate for the graduate development program and lead initiatives to bring more talent to the Eastern Europe region.

Amineh Ahmad – Senior Engineer, Project Controls

My career path with ArchTam started in 2015 as a graduate project controls engineer, where I supported design projects and had the opportunity to work with an amazing project manager who later became my mentor. The best career decision I’ve ever made was during my second year — I had a choice to continue on my current path or join the civil infrastructure end market. The idea of changing end markets was terrifying because it involved a transition from residential and healthcare to ports and bridges. I also had to consider the established relationship with my mentor. Ultimately, I decided to make the shift because of the new challenges that my new work profile and projects would bring. Making this change helped me gain confidence and increased my sense of accomplishment at work.

Bryony Martin – Regional Director and B+P UK&I Aviation Market Sector Leader

The best career decision I ever made was to get a mentor. My first mentor was a director working at ArchTam, but on a completely different team. Having someone to bounce ideas off of was hugely valuable; I was lucky that my mentor had faced many of the challenges that I was facing, was very successful in her career and was formidable in her approach to work. She challenged me to think differently about work and life! She has been one of the most influential and inspiring people in my career. Ever since building our relationship, I have been a huge advocate for the mentoring process, and I have learned to accept constructive feedback and use it to improve my skills and reflect on the impact I make.

Elke Watts – Operations Manager

The best career decision I’ve made has been to say “yes” to things outside my comfort zone. I joined ArchTam as an environmental scientist in 2014. After a few years managing projects and delivering technical work, I wanted to explore doing entirely different things. When opportunities to work on new projects within the business became available, I took the chance to branch out. The unknown can be perceived as risky, but by saying yes and opening myself up to new tasks, I secured an amazing job working with a team that I love. The ANZ Operational Services team has allowed me to work with a diverse group of people and on challenging projects — ultimately making me a very happy employee! Change is constant. Don’t be afraid of it. You don’t want to be the person whose heels are in the mud when the wagon starts pulling you in different directions.

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The City of Chicago is a good representation of what the Future Cities Collaborative calls an “outstanding example of a sustainability and livability transformation.” Being a native of Chicago, I was particularly excited to help provide the exchange participants with a local perspective on contextual knowledge needed for a successful exploration of the Windy City.

Prior to my 10 years at ArchTam, I served the City of Chicago in several capacities, starting as a project manager in the Department of Transportation. After several infrastructure projects, I was tapped to be First Deputy at the Department of Buildings. My last position with the city was commissioner of planning and development under the Daley administration, where I dealt directly with special services areas (SSA), tax increment financing (TIF) and other entitlement programs.

Today, Chicago is recognized as a leading global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network and the Global Cities Index. Chicago is an international hub for finance, commerce and industry, and is a world leader in innovation and technology. While our city’s preeminent position today is anchored by critical transportation infrastructure assets, we cannot forget that our city’s current modern capacity is entirely linked to a number of major infrastructure decisions over the past 120 years.

The exchange in Chicago started off with team introductions on Daley Plaza, followed quickly by our first interview at City Hall. Over the next four hours, our conversations with city staff examined city-led redevelopments and the financing and funding approaches used, including TIF and SSA. The discussion explored how the city funded maintenance and beautification work, auto and bike transit projects and economic developments through local tax initiatives, supported in part by enabling legislation.

ArchTam then led the group on a tour from City Hall through downtown Chicago, walking through numerous infill projects such as Block 37 and Millennium Park — an award-winning sustainable park that offers free cultural programs to those in the Chicago area.  Millennium Park is an example of how joint partnerships, additional commercial development and a new tax base can be leveraged to finance infrastructure. On the tour we held important discussions around tangible examples to aid the knowledge transfer to the Australian context.

We ended the day with two presentations, one on innovation and smart cities initiatives from the City of Chicago’s Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT), and the other from David Stone, who works in the ArchTam Chicago office and serves on the board of the Old Town SSA on the north side of Chicago.

The DoIT presentation summarized analytics tools used to evaluate an ever-growing amount of data the City of Chicago collects on a day-to-day basis. The presentation reinforced the many ways in which the city is using analytics to enhance service delivery and reduce costs. The SSA presentation focused on the framing and day-to-day realities of how an SSA functions by discussing issues such as the role of contracted services, governance and budgeting.

David’s presentation also placed the Wells Street SSA in context, framing the nature of commercial activity along with what is a vibrant commercial corridor today. The presentation focused on the importance of enabling legislation and creating programs that can allow for the creation of special benefit districts, such as SSA.

Denise Casalino (Denise.Casalino@archtam.com) is senior vice president, Chicago Metro area manager, in ArchTam’s Chicago office.

The post Funding Chicago’s urban infrastructure: AUS-US exchange appeared first on Blog.

This return trip, however, is really special. As ArchTam’s lead for the 2015 US-Australia City Exchange on Local Finance Mechanisms, I’m accompanying 20 city leaders from New South Wales, Australia, to examine innovative funding and financing mechanisms used by city counterparts in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Dallas, Chicago and New York.

The 10-day peer-to-peer exchange is presented by the Future Cities Collaborative, an initiative of the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, Australia, with the support of NSW Trade and Investment and ArchTam.

Having kicked off in Los Angeles, California, yesterday, my US counterparts and I are looking forward to hosting exchange delegates (including mayors, councillors and business leaders) in each city and providing introductions to local civic leaders and case study projects that demonstrate “best practice” funding and financing methods for infrastructure and urban renewal projects.

As a firm advocate for government reform and innovation in procurement practices for critically needed infrastructure, I’m really excited at the potential for knowledge sharing during the exchange, and for positive action in and around our cities after it.

When I introduced this year’s exchange delegates to US funding and financing mechanisms in April and May during the Mayors’ Forum – a central component of the Future Cities Program held during the lead up to the exchange – I could sense a real enthusiasm among Australian government leaders to be bold in meeting the country’s infrastructure backlog. We all recognise the need to leave a legacy, not a liability, for the future. Well planned and appropriately funded infrastructure will be an important part of that legacy.

The cornerstone of the Future Cities Collaborative – the Future Cities Program – is to support both regional and metropolitan city leaders from New South Wales and provide them with the knowledge, skills, and resources to build sustainable and liveable communities.

With what we’ve got planned over the coming 10 days or so, I think we’re in great shape and, following the City Exchange’s conclusion on 3 July in New York City, we look forward to the release of a 2015 City Exchange report featuring case studies and “lessons learned” to share with NSW state and local government partners, US host city sponsors, and other supporters.

Follow our journey as we make our way across the US. Daily posts and images will be uploaded to the Future Cities blog, while ArchTam’s respective city leads will be sharing their own thoughts throughout the week, right here on Connected Cities.

Joe Langley is a technical director, Infrastructure Advisory, for ArchTam, based in Sydney. His Value Capture Roadmap is being released by Consult Australia in July.

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As urbanization increases across the globe, with its associated increase in built space, density, infrastructure, technology, and associated economic development, not to mention a faster pace of life, the basic human need for leisure and cultural activities and places will continue to grow in importance.

An important portion of this will take traditional, if more modern and interesting forms, such as parks like the High Line in New York City and Millennium Park in Chicago, beautiful spaces that are destinations in their own right that provide visitors with the opportunity to stroll, relax, take in the view, watch other visitors, enjoy an event, and even exercise, all without requiring them to knowingly cross a barrier or gate, enter a building, or spend any money.

At the same time, we will continue to see growth in attendance at leisure and cultural venues that in some form or another more directly control access and that directly or indirectly require (or need) visitors to spend money. Some of these, such as observation decks, will be direct byproducts of urbanization, ease of access by urban visitors, and improvements in building technology, allowing visitors to have a higher and higher view of the city, which is both educational and entertaining, such as the One World Observatory on top of One World Trade Center in New York City, forecasted to draw 3.8 million visitors annually.  This will be just one of three observation experiences in New York City, and will add to the growing number of such experiences worldwide.

One World Observatory atop One World Trade Center. Image courtesy of The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Attendance is also expected to grow at major cultural institutions, such as museums and performing arts centers, as well at sports facilities, entertainment venues, and amusement parks and related facilities. While all of these have existed in various periods for significant periods of time (some longer than others), the quality of the experiences offered to visitors has increased over time at each. In addition, despite the continued improvement in technology in the home, which seemingly poses a threat to experiences in places outside the home, in fact we are social creatures and enjoy sharing experiences together, particularly ones that are in some way meaningful.

Mt. Vernon visitor center, Virginia. Copyright ArchTam photo by David Lloyd.

Evidence of this trend is given by the continued growth in attendance at the top 25 theme parks worldwide, which collectively had 206 million visitors in 2012, up from 188 million in 2007 prior to the Great Recession. Similarly, while global figures have just started to be tracked, attendance at the top 20 museums worldwide was 99 million in 2012 and is expected to continue to grow rapidly in the future, particularly due to the impact of the growth of museums in developing countries, such as China which intends to add 1,000 museums over the next decade.

More information about attendance trends at major theme parks, water parks, and museums worldwide can be found in the 2012 Theme Index and Museum Index prepared by the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) and ArchTam. Click here for the full report, from which the following figures have been reproduced.

Brian Sands (brian.sands@archtam.com) is a vice president with ArchTam’s Economics practice.

The post Need for public leisure places keeps rising appeared first on Blog.

As urbanization increases across the globe, with its associated increase in built space, density, infrastructure, technology, and associated economic development, not to mention a faster pace of life, the basic human need for leisure and cultural activities and places will continue to grow in importance.

An important portion of this will take traditional, if more modern and interesting forms, such as parks like the High Line in New York City and Millennium Park in Chicago, beautiful spaces that are destinations in their own right that provide visitors with the opportunity to stroll, relax, take in the view, watch other visitors, enjoy an event, and even exercise, all without requiring them to knowingly cross a barrier or gate, enter a building, or spend any money.

At the same time, we will continue to see growth in attendance at leisure and cultural venues that in some form or another more directly control access and that directly or indirectly require (or need) visitors to spend money. Some of these, such as observation decks, will be direct byproducts of urbanization, ease of access by urban visitors, and improvements in building technology, allowing visitors to have a higher and higher view of the city, which is both educational and entertaining, such as the One World Observatory on top of One World Trade Center in New York City, forecasted to draw 3.8 million visitors annually.  This will be just one of three observation experiences in New York City, and will add to the growing number of such experiences worldwide.

One World Observatory atop One World Trade Center. Image courtesy of The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Attendance is also expected to grow at major cultural institutions, such as museums and performing arts centers, as well at sports facilities, entertainment venues, and amusement parks and related facilities. While all of these have existed in various periods for significant periods of time (some longer than others), the quality of the experiences offered to visitors has increased over time at each. In addition, despite the continued improvement in technology in the home, which seemingly poses a threat to experiences in places outside the home, in fact we are social creatures and enjoy sharing experiences together, particularly ones that are in some way meaningful.

Mt. Vernon visitor center, Virginia. Copyright ArchTam photo by David Lloyd.

Evidence of this trend is given by the continued growth in attendance at the top 25 theme parks worldwide, which collectively had 206 million visitors in 2012, up from 188 million in 2007 prior to the Great Recession. Similarly, while global figures have just started to be tracked, attendance at the top 20 museums worldwide was 99 million in 2012 and is expected to continue to grow rapidly in the future, particularly due to the impact of the growth of museums in developing countries, such as China which intends to add 1,000 museums over the next decade.

More information about attendance trends at major theme parks, water parks, and museums worldwide can be found in the 2012 Theme Index and Museum Index prepared by the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) and ArchTam. Click here for the full report, from which the following figures have been reproduced.

Brian Sands (brian.sands@archtam.com) is a vice president with ArchTam’s Economics practice.

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