OWP/P Architects Merge with Cannon Design of New York

May 6th 2009

The deal would make it the nation’s 11th largest architectural firm

One of Chicago’s largest architectural and engineering firms, OWP/P, is merging with Cannon Design, an even larger design firm based in upstate New York, the firms will announce Thursday. Terms of the deal, a complex cash and stock transaction, were not disclosed.

The new firm, which largely will operate under the Cannon brand, will be one of the nation’s largest. Its combined 2007 revenues of $158.3 million would make it the nation’s 11th biggest architectural firm, according to a survey that the trade journal Architectural Record published last year.

John Syvertsen, OWP/P’s president, acknowledged that the recent construction downturn has forced his firm, like many in Chicago, to lay off architects. But he denied that the merger is recession-related and said it would not lead to a fresh round of layoffs in the Chicago office.

"We started our conversations when the stock market was at 13,000," he said in a telephone interview. "For us, it means we will be part of a national and international network of offices. Basically, our platform will expand."

Meanwhile, the deal gives Cannon, which has a small office in Chicago, a much larger presence in one of the nation’s top markets.

Headed by co-chairman and CEO Gary Miller, Cannon Design, with 800 architects and staff, has offices in several U.S. and Canadian cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Toronto. Like OWP/P, it has a health-care specialty.

OWP/P has offices in Chicago and Phoenix.

OWP/P, which specializes in elementary schools, colleges and universities, health-care and commercial work, ranked 52nd in the Architectural Record survey, with $52.9 million in revenue. Cannon, based in Grand Island, N.Y., near Buffalo, ranked 19th, with $95.4 million.

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Green Construction Jobs are in the LEED for Chicago

February 21st 2009

The average LEED project size is approximately 150,000 square feet (reflecting the generally large, commercial or public sector nature of LEED projects to date). The USGBC also states an average project cost per square foot of approximately $250. This yields an average total project cost of almost $38 million per project. With nearly 1,700 LEED-certified projects in 2006, the total green building market - as seen through the LEED lens - approaches $65 billion. Of course, the USGBC figures capture total construction expenses, including much more than just building materials, let alone the fundamental product categories that are the main focus of this report.


 

A general rule of thumb that can be applied to commercial construction projects is that materials make up approximately 45% of total project costs. If we then assume that at least one third of those materials went to satisfy LEED credits or were otherwise green, then just over 15% of total project expenses were for green materials. That translates to Construction Project Managera LEED centric green materials market of approximately $10 billion. Increasing that number by 50% to account for non-LEED green material sales brings us to a grand total figure of $15 billion for 2006 - roughly on par with competing estimates and representing a reasonable green materials universe for the $2.2 billion subset of green materials addressed in this report.

Virtually every component currently used in commercial or residential construction could be replaced with a substitute that is relatively green compared to the existing technology.

Whether the green product exceeds its predecessor in energy efficiency, recycled content, recycle ability, health benefit or any other criteria, the fact of the matter is that the green market is theoretically almost the same size as the existing, non-green market.

While that process has certainly begun across a range of materials and technologies, construction jobs in Chicago we can’t touch on all of them in a single report and instead will focus on several of the major categories of building components where the sheer volume and value of materials demand attention. Each of the product segments listed below represents a target for green alternatives because each represents a significant source of existing revenue for building material vendors, green or otherwise.

By focusing on these major categories, we gain insight into the movement of other, complementary product categories that will generally track and trend along with the leading product segments.

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Author: Dennis Brian Smith

Free LEED AP exam resources. Special offer for 12 full length practice exams. For new construction NC v2.2 based on LEED New Construction v2.2 Reference Guide Third Edition published by (USGBC). http://www.leedappractice.com

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