40 & Under

Utah’s A/E/C Industry Flush with Young Talent.  UC&Dcatches up with five still-rising stars in our annual feature of young, talented leaders
working in design and economic development.

Utah’s A/E/C industry continues to churn out dozens of young, talented professionals and it’s always a privilege for us at UC&D to publish an annual section spotlighting these rising stars. This year we’re profiling five individuals with diverse backgrounds, each of whom fills a significant role for their respective firms.


Our list includes:

— Theresa Foxley, President/CEO of EDCUtah, a Salt Lake-based organization dedicated to helping communities with economic growth and job expansion.

— Eric Dunn, Director of Business Development for West Valley City-based CMT Technical Services, a nearly 20-year-old firm renowned for its materials testing and special inspection services.

— Preston Croxford, Principal Architect for Archiplex Group, who took over the eight-person firm in May when company founder Ralph Stanislaw semi-retired. 

— Ryan Cathey, President/CEO of Salt Lake-based Talisman Civil Consultants, a full-service civil engineering and land surveying firm that was founded in 2016.

— Eman Siddiqui, an Architect with Salt Lake-based GSBS Architects and currently President and Founder of the Utah Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), which formed in July.


Theresa Foxley, 39

President/CEO

EDCUtah

Foxley Relishing Her Role at EDCU Utah 

A lawyer by trade, Theresa Foxley has carved out a significant role over the past five-plus years boosting Utah’s economy as President/CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah (EDCUtah). It’s a job she feels tailor-made for, and she is thoroughly enjoying her position in the community. 

“This job is awesome!” she exclaimed. “Every day there is so much variety—we get to learn so much about so many different things, work with different communities and employers, and we feel like we make a difference. The impact we can have is what motivates our team.”

A Utah native and graduate of Highland High, Foxley, who turns 40 in November, earned a Bachelor of Political Economy from Utah State University in 2004 and a J.D. from the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law in 2008. 
She practiced law for Ballard Spahr for six years before spending a year at the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development working with Spencer P. Eccles. 

“It turned out, I really loved that organization,” she said. “I loved the focus and attention on job creation and small business support. It was really eye-opening that there was an organization in the state that focused on cluster, sector, and developing the economy of the state. 

In March 2017 she was selected to lead EDCUtah, building a tight culture among the staff’s 16 employees, which are currently monitoring 130 projects ranging in degrees of interaction.

“I love the opportunity to work with this amazing team,” said Foxley. “We’re as busy as we’ve ever been in the five years I’ve been here. We have some projects we have a light touch on and other projects we’re carrying a lot of water for—our roles vary from project to project.”

Of the current project list, 70 of those projects—more than half—are tied to the industrial sector, a market she believes is still ripe for further growth, given a 2% vacancy rate. Many of those projects are for manufacturing companies, and they typically offer unique challenges. 

“These projects are more highly automated than they were two years ago,” she said. “We have a higher due diligence from our clients—the demands of these projects on our team are higher. We rely on our partners to help us with this project load.” 

Automation in some sectors of the country can be viewed as a threat to employment. In a bustling state like Utah where employment is under 3%, it helps alleviate the growing demand for labor.  

“Companies are designing automation into their facilities for a couple of reasons—productivity and labor,” she said. “In a growing market like ours, automation is less scary; we’re not reducing the net number of jobs.”

Automation also makes sense in more rural Utah communities not connected to the Wasatch Front. These communities “draw from an even smaller labor pool, so an automated facility is a great match,” said Foxley. “I think we will continue to see an emphasis on manufacturing, and we’ll see an uptick in other industry sectors that have been soft for us. She mentioned information technology and financial services markets as probable drivers of future construction and job growth throughout this decade. 

“We’re running a full slate of projects while sharpening our vision of success, and how we build a program to achieve it,” said Foxley. “We’re taking the opportunity to do some strategic planning for the organization and set a vision for the next 8–10 years—the 2030 horizon.”

While the general economic outlook for Utah in 2023 is positive for the A/E/C industry, Foxley said that recent significant hikes in inflation and interest rates (hovering at 7% end of October) could negatively impact overall building activity. 

“Economic uncertainty is back as part of our lexicon,” she said. “Covid introduced first fear, then uncertainty, and then we surged out of that. We’re keeping an eye on the state of global affairs and the domestic market and how that is impacting our pipeline.”

She believes local developers and investors will remain “bullish” in Utah’s real estate development market and will use this time "as a way to gain market share” despite rising interest rates. 

“That’s scary high for our generation,” she mused. “Those rates are making developers go back to their pro formas and look to get projects to pencil through value engineering.”

Foxley was also ecstatic over recent news of Morgan Stanley’s expansion of 800 jobs in Silicon Slopes. “They’re doubling down on their presence in this market,” said Foxley. “Those are good, high-paying jobs in a sector we’re trying to attract to our state.”

Eric Dunn, 38

Director of Business Development

CMT Technical Services

Dunn Blazing a New Trail 


After more than eight years helping grow his father’s structural engineering business, Salt Lake-based Dunn Associates, Eric Dunn pivoted at the beginning of 2022 into a new role as Director of Business Development for West Valley City-based CMT Technical Services. 


The firm, nearly 20 years old, boasts a presence in 17 cities spanning 5 states and is looking at continued future growth. CMT offers clients an array of civil-based services but is known primarily for its materials testing, QA/QC, and special inspection services. The company also provides geotech, environmental and civil engineering, and construction staking, among other services.


Dunn, 38, was brought aboard to oversee business development company-wide, a challenge he’s readily accepted despite the daunting workload. 


“I’m soaking it all in—it’s a firehose of information,” said Dunn. “What was really enticing coming here is that I didn’t burn a single name in my Rolodex; it didn’t disrupt relationships I have in the industry. There are some changes in relationships, but minor. I can now help the same clients—I like to call them my friends—in a dozen different ways. Instead of doing just one thing, on that same building, we can provide a handful of services. We are a multi-service firm covering the due diligence phase for an owner, construction staking for the contractor and the QA/QC again for the owner. We make sure [a project] is built the way they say it’s supposed to be built.”


Dunn has been around the A/E/C industry his entire life. Ron Dunn, Eric’s father, established Dunn Associates in 1995, and it has evolved into one of Utah’s top structural engineering firms. While three of Ron’s five boys pursued engineering degrees (and four of them currently work at Dunn Associates), Dunn took a different route and earned a Construction Management degree from Brigham Young University in 2008. He had initially enrolled at Westminster College (now University) in Salt Lake—he played on the golf team his freshman year—but quickly realized he wasn’t quite good enough to make a living on the links and switched gears. 


Upon graduation, he spent three years at SME Steel/Onyx Construction in West Jordan and three and a half years at Sandy-based Layton Construction as a Project Engineer and Assistant Project Manager. He decided to pursue the business development route and joined the family business in June 2013. This decision was key to his personal and career growth, as it gave him the opportunity to network with top executives throughout the industry. His family’s good name helped, but ultimately Dunn thrived because of his tenacity and gregarious personality. 


“It opened doors and afforded me an opportunity to earn a seat at the table. I had total support and freedom to pursue projects as I saw fit,” he said. “Having the last name Dunn got my phone calls answered—it carried a bit of weight. I secured some big jobs off cold calls.” 


He credits Ron for teaching him “the power of networking and relationships.” 


He admits that his passion and prowess for golf have also played a prominent role in his ability to network and learn about new projects on the horizon. Golf, he said, is far superior to lunch or other networking events, in terms of getting to know people beyond superficial levels. 


When you go golfing with a current or prospective client, “you spend six hours hip-to-hip; you get to know them—their life, their family, vacation plans. It’s harder to build a relationship in a crowded restaurant.” 



“People is what I do,” said Dunn. “When all things are equal, relationships trump everything else. It’s almost cliché, but treat people well, be a decent human being, and you’re in good shape.”


Eman Siddiqui, 34

Architect, GSBS Architects

President and Founder, NOMA Utah

Standing Up and Standing Out


If you’re looking for the voice of equitable architecture, look no further than Eman Siddiqui. A powerhouse architect at GSBS Architects, she has put in the personal equity to go all-in on the profession.


Siddiqui was born in Karachi, Pakistan, and looked out to the Arabian Sea from the 12th largest city in the world, home to nearly 15 million people. When time came for university studies, she booted up the family computer and applied to study overseas at the University of Kansas, a location close to where some of her family was living already. A college visit later solidified it. “I fell in love with the town,” she said of the basketball-crazed Lawrence, Kansas. “I felt at home there.”


When she immigrated to the U.S. at 18, she didn’t know anyone at the university, but “I got involved in student affairs,” she said. Siddiqui worked as a leader in student orientations as she began her architectural studies, merging her love of design with her love of people. She felt it was a big benefit to her work in the university arena and as an architect.


“I worked with deans, parents, students, and chairs of programs across the university,” she recounted of her presentations, where she learned how to effectively communicate to groups as big as 100 people. “[Working in student affairs] was the most fun […] and those connections were very meaningful to me. […] They were excited to have me as an architectural student.”


From her home in Karachi to working in Kansas City, she has loved the energy in big groups of people. “I love being in a crowd,” she said. “I love presenting. […] I feel like I’m at my best and happiest in front of people.”


She spoke of one of her first projects, designing a football stadium for Colorado State University and then going to the first game after the project finished. 


“Seeing something I worked on full of thousands of people …” She paused. “It was a big deal for the school, for the community.”  And for her. 


“That architecture brings people together. As someone new to the profession, it got me so excited for what I was doing,” she said. “I’m designing these spaces for everyone. That’s the real meaning of what I do.”


She’s come up since those early days working in Kansas City after graduating with her Master of Architecture in 2014. She looks back fondly on the stadium project as well as others like designing suites at Churchill Downs, the site of the Kentucky Derby. Amidst all of these projects, the welcoming element of hospitality has stood out to her—specifically a hospitality to the end users of a project.


“There is a huge hospitality component because you are designing for the spectator’s or patron’s experience,” she said of projects like Teton Village in Wyoming and Big Sky in Montana that she has worked on since moving to the Beehive State in 2018. 


One specific project helped her to see how inclusive design is where true equity can take place. “For the Teton Village project, we worked with an accessibility consultant who helped us look beyond code minimums,” she began. “I traveled with my parents this summer and became very aware of how, even when we meet code, sometimes our designs still create hardships for older people, for example."


Even though there is a disconnect, Siddiqui said, it is a solvable one. In order to speak to clients from different realms and various walks of life, she encouraged architecture students to get involved on campus outside of architecture school. “This will polish your interpersonal skills and teach you to understand and connect with clients who come from all walks of life.” 


This attitude of welcoming and communicating with diversity has pushed Siddiqui into leadership roles within architecture, principally as the President of the Utah chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA)—an organization that seeks justice and equity in architecture. She is one of founders of the local chapter and was the driving force bringing the organization to the state.


This lack of diversity of not just race or gender in architecture, but perspective, is something that Siddiqui has seen since her university days in Kansas. “Our architecture history book had maybe two or three pages to showcase the architecture of Asia and Africa,” she said. “There were four women we learned about [in school]; two of them were almost exclusively talked about in conjunction with their male partners.”


Changing the status quo is a huge passion for Siddiqui. In a presentation during the September AIA Utah Conference, she and her NOMA colleagues outlined what helps minority architects to thrive. Ideas included paid parental leave, flexible days off to observe other holidays, increased pay transparency, and clear career trajectories and benchmarks for advancement. 


Siddiqui said that there needs to be “intentionality and consciousness” in both feelings and actions from leaders and companies to help architects like her to succeed in the Beehive State and beyond. It is a challenge, she said, but progress is being made. 


“Diversity is not just about having more black or brown people in the office,” said Siddiqui. She explained how healthy diversity that comes from people of different backgrounds, ages, abilities, cultural identities, and more helps to bring in the benefits of true diversity.


It can be a battle to belong in architecture, she explained, and sometimes that battle is internal. She remembered a time when she was nominated for a leadership award. “I remember telling them, ‘Maybe we wait until next year when I have more to show for it.’” As soon as those words left her mouth, she realized she didn’t need to wait until she had done “enough” to “merit” an award—she was worthy of that recognition now.


“I’ve worked so hard for this,” she stated. No need to listen to the messaging that many, especially minorities, tend to hear—it needs to be perfect. It may take time to build up the sense of belonging, that she and others from different backgrounds deserve to be at the table based on merit, but to Siddiqui, it’s worth the effort. Listening to her speak to the positive effects of diversity and the awesome benefits of architecture, Siddiqui is at the forefront, challenging the industry to reach its full potential.


Preston Croxford, 40

Principal Architect

Archiplex Group

Croxford Carrying on 

Legacy of Archiplex Group


“It’s kind of been a banner year for me,” said Preston Croxford when asked to sum up 2022 thus far. He was referring primarily to hitting the magic 40-years-old mark on April 23, and then a week later assuming the role of leader for now Bountiful-based Archiplex Group. He took over the reins of the nearly 19-year-old firm from company founder Ralph Stanislaw, who moved into a part-time role as a consultant.


He also admitted to being more than a little bit out of his comfort zone as he leads an eight-person architectural firm into 2023 as its lone licensed architect.


“It’s terrifying,” he laughed. “I’m really trying to learn on the fly, as it were. Ralph was a good mentor in terms of the architectural piece of it, so I feel confident in that. But he never really let me peek behind the curtain on how to run the business, so he’s been clueing me in on some things.”


Croxford was born in Kansas City, but his parents—Utah natives—moved back to the Beehive State when he was six months old, after his father finished a three-year residency as an anesthesiologist at a KC hospital. 


He grew up in Layton, attended Davis High and graduated in 2000, but wasn’t enamored with his experience in high school and didn’t know what he was going to do for work. He started dating his wife, Breck, after high school, and they tied the knot in 2002, prompting Croxford to get serious about figuring out a career.


“I didn’t want to go to college and floated around a couple of years. Like a lot of guys, we don’t [consider] the long game, we just play in the moment,” he said. “It takes somebody behind us to kick you in the butt, knock some sense into you. Thankfully my wife did that.”


He told Breck he wanted to be an architect despite being intimidated by the amount of schooling it required. He had taken drafting courses and worked in construction during high school, but said “it was evident I wasn’t cut out for the construction life. I was always into art, so architecture made total sense. Once I made a decision, it was a clear path.”


Croxford attended Salt Lake Community College and the University of Utah, ultimately earning a Master of Architecture from the U’s School of Architecture in 2009. He was hired by Stanislaw on a part-time basis in college, which turned into a full-time gig even though Utah was in the midst of the Great Recession. 


“He offered me a job, and I kept showing up,” said Croxford. “Other people came and went, so I was the obvious choice to be the heir because I stuck around long enough.”


He credits Stanislaw for his calm demeanor, his genuine passion for architecture, and his desire to put forth maximum effort in his designs. Croxford said that, while the firm has always been relatively small and doesn’t necessarily get to design the sexiest, highest profile projects, Stanislaw had a knack for pouring his soul into a project regardless of what it was. 


“Ralph’s a patient guy—he never seemed stressed out, never raised his voice, never got upset. He’s just level-headed,” he said. “He’s not a cheerleader type of guy, and that fits my personality. He’s not the guy to pat you on the back all the time, but I knew that he appreciated what I did because he gave me so many opportunities to learn and valued what I brought to the table.” 


He added, “what I continue to love about Ralph is he gives every project equal value. Even the simplest, most utilitarian project, you would think it’s the most high-profile, important project we have in the office” with the way he approached it. “He passed that trait to me.”


He gave an example of a recently designed Port of Entry project, essentially a weigh station for diesel trucks. “It’s not a glamorous project, but it’s a necessary piece of the built environment. I take pride in the fact that we’re doing projects like that. They are essential for the function of the community.” 


Stanislaw, 68, said he knew a long time ago that Croxford had the chops for carrying on the legacy of Archiplex Group. 

“He’s got an innate curiosity—you can’t teach that—so he’s always looking at things he reads or discovers and shares those with me,” said Stanislaw. “He’s got a lot of creative energy, and he’s a people person and gets along with everyone.”


Beyond being a “terrific person,” Stanislaw said Croxford is also an excellent architect who will no doubt learn the business side of architecture in time. “He’s certainly got the intelligence to pick that up. Certain people have an interest in learning things—he’s got that. That’s important in architecture because it’s always a developing art. It’s evolving all the time. An important part to being a good architect is having that interest.”


Besides Croxford, Archiplex Group includes a business manager, three part-time drafters, an architect who is tracking for licensure, and his “right-hand man,” Rob Childs, a veteran architect with 30+ years of experience who is his main go-to guy for advice, particularly with code-related questions. 



Croxford has also enjoyed the diverse projects that Archiplex Group has designed in its history. He takes extreme pride in two projects the firm designed for the Associated General Contractors of Utah—its $3.7-million, 9,000-SF corporate headquarters in West Valley City (opened November 2009), and its new $5-million, 16,000-SF training center (opened November 2021).


Ryan Cathey, 40

President

Talisman Civil Consultants

Civil Leader, Civil Talisman


There was always an expectation for Ryan Cathey to enter the world of architecture, engineering, and construction, even if the end result is different from the trajectory he was on after graduating from high school.


“I left high school thinking I was going to be an architect, especially since my frontal lobe was fully developed,” he joked. He hails from Montana and considers himself a bit of a traitor for attending Montana State University in Bozeman even though he was born in Missoula, home of the University of Montana. After being accepted into architecture school at Montana State and interning at a local firm, “I hated every minute of it.”


But it was a good experience that has helped him move into his current role as President of Salt Lake-based Talisman Civil Consultants, the civil engineering firm he helped found in 2016.


“Looking back, I was probably at the wrong firm,” he said of his time in architecture. “And I’m not the artist I would need to be to succeed as an architect.” What stood out during that time was that “the people making all the decisions were engineers.”


After switching to civil engineering, he completed an internship with Nolte and Associates before earning a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from Montana State in 2006. Bachelor’s degree in hand, Cathey drove a Uhaul from Bozeman down south to the Beehive State, not to be hindered by a winter snow storm intent on making him reconsider, “January 2, 2007, I started my career,” he said of his professional return to Nolte and Associates. 


Things initially looked good at the firm, but the forces of the Great Recession inevitably bore down, forcing massive layoffs that took the employee count from around 70 to 10 which coincided with a buyout and rebrand.


“It was like Survivor,” he said. “People were getting voted off the island left and right.”


As one of the few who kept his job, he used his “opportunistic” nature to try and step up to lead. “I told them I wanted to lead the office, even if I didn’t have the experience,” he said. “But it became clear early on that goals didn’t match up.”


What wasn’t lining up was “culture, priorities, kind of work, purpose of work—all of the above,” said Cathey. He wanted something better, a company where they would invest in themselves, in technology, and in clientele to build an organization that embraced the future.


So he and some of his teammates from the previous firm left in December 2016 and formed Talisman Civil Consultants. With Cathey at the helm, the company has looked to be a leader in the civil engineering field and embrace that future with emerging technologies, a flexible work environment, and an enviable work culture.


The word “talisman,” Cathey said, means a closely held symbol. He referenced the Christian cross as one example, which symbolizes everything important and valued in the religion to those who wear it. Talisman is looking to have the same effect on the A/E/C industry and the civil engineering field.


The idea for the name partly came from Cathey’s time running a billiards hall in Bozeman. 


“Talisman was a brand of pool cue tips that we used. […] It just stuck with me,” he said. "It was one of the best brands.”


He said that the word has been ever-present, a reminder to “be the talisman for civil engineering,” he said. Cathey wants the company to be a symbol of quality, teamwork, enrichment, integrity—the leader in the industry that exemplifies these traits.


“These ideals are used throughout my life to help me make decisions, provide direction, and provide leadership,” he said.


For Cathey, the last six years have been filled with excitement—both the good and stressful kind. He’s watched employees excel to new heights, he’s seen how mentorship has paid off, and he’s seeing the success of something he helped build. 


“We have people who started as interns who earned their PE and are now running projects,” Cathey said. “It’s so cool to be a part of that growth.”


Even as founder and president, “I didn’t want it to be about me,” he said. Coming from his previous company as the only PE, he had to wear every hat and be the funnel that all work went through. “It’s the reason we are called Talisman and not Ryan Cathey Engineers.”


Regardless of the company name, he’s more worried about leading it. He remains passionate about helping his team move forward in their lives and empowering them to disengage from any stereotype about engineering—to embrace the genuine. “I hope my staff realize how much I care about them individually,” he said. “I foster an environment where people can say what’s real and be authentic.”


It is a driving force of Talisman company culture, he said, where people show up authentically, “where a balanced life comes above all, and the office is a place where kids, dogs, and extended family are welcome,” he said. That environment perfectly dovetails with challenging civil engineering projects and a search for the best solutions in civil engineering.


But that search for the best solutions in a culture of authenticity means egos need to be checked at the door. “The space to be wrong is so important in this industry. To throw out a suggestion and be wrong, to recognize that something needs changing,” Cathey said. “It’s critical.”


With 30 team members including seven professional engineers, Cathey has found that giving more people a piece of the responsibility pie, with room to expand their skills, allows them to excel. Work for the team is wrapped up in resort projects at Canyons, Powder Mountain, and Snowbasin, right of way and infrastructure projects at the University of Utah, housing at SLCC’s Taylorsville campus, and more. 


Amidst all of this work, managing the growth is the big push for him over the next five years. “We need to [grow] in a way that preserves, engrains, and showcases our culture from day one,” he said. “We want to grow to keep up with our clients and provide new opportunities for our people.”

Utahraptor State Park

By Taylor Larsen • June 30, 2025
Not often does an opportunity come around to build a new state park. But the project team jumped at the chance and helped bring amenities to the off-roading wilderness around Moab to deliver the new Utahraptor State Park. The unique project received design collaboration from Johansen & Tuttle Engineering, GSBS Architects, Horrocks, and Spectrum Engineers. Hogan & Associates Construction led construction efforts to bring in site infrastructure, utilities, and vertical construction to build new recreation opportunities for Moab’s tourism hotbed. The project’s remote location made this a major challenge. Still, best-in-class coordination helped to mitigate labor concerns and site issues to build a fitting tribute to the area’s history as Utahraptor State Park prepares for its first summer tourist season in 2025. Designing a Fitting Park for the Area The park was created in 2021 via legislative action (H.B. 257), while the infrastructure and more began construction in 2023. The site is historic in two senses. It is home to ancient history, with fossil sites of the Utahraptor found throughout the area—fossils first discovered outside the Dalton Wells Quarry by paleontologist “Dinosaur Jim” Jensen in 1975. It is also an area of 20th-century history as the former site of the Dalton Wells Isolation Center, the Civilian Conservation Corps facility-turned-internment camp where Japanese Americans were detained from 1942-1945 during World War II. Owner’s representatives from the State of Utah’s Division of Facilities Construction and Management (DFCM) said an overall goal for Utah State Parks was to preserve these historic assets amidst steady and consistent tourist and recreation growth. According to Matt Boyer, Assistant Director of Capital Development for DFCM, Utahraptor State Park's development would happen “in a way that would preserve the historic nature of the site while maintaining the opportunity for recreation in the process.” According to Clio Rayner, Principal for GSBS, the design goal aimed to complement instead of compete with the natural beauty of the surrounding landscape. “We wanted to provide a subtle sense of arrival where people feel a sense of welcome and comfort,” she said. Design leaders wanted the harsh beauty and serenity of the Colorado Plateau Desert to remain the showstopper. “We went into this design not wanting to make an architectural statement but rather wanting to create a visitor experience focused on the landscape. In a place like this, it should not be about the architecture.” Since the built environment of Utahraptor State Park would consist of recreational facilities and a visitor center, Rayner explained, “We used a material palette and building massing that reflected natural features of the site and created flexible open interior space for multiple uses.” Interior design, said Rayner, “Provided an open opportunity for Utah Parks to create interpretive exhibits inside the Utahraptor visitor center that tell the story and convey the significance of the site.” Design incorporated economical and durable features like natural wood and CMU colors and patterns drawn from the stone features that abound in Utah's eastern majesty.

Multi-family Highlights

By Taylor Larsen • July 30, 2025
Much like a good bonfire, multi-family construction in Utah, and especially Salt Lake County, has blazed. According to real estate brokerage CBRE in their 2023 report, Utah multi-family builders delivered a steady burn of units between 2019-2022—over 5,700 units per year on average. And then the fire roared in 2023 with over 10,000 units delivered, nearly half of them coming from outside of Salt Lake. That’s hot. But slow absorption, steady vacancy rates, and falling rents from 2023 to the present (1) have chilled the market somewhat since the “free money” era of the pandemic ended as Federal Funds Rate rocketed from 0.5% in March 2022 to 5.5% in July 2023. This cold water on the multi-family development fire made for a strange 2024 into 2025, even as deliveries reached similar heights from 2023’s delivery boom. While it’s made developers re-think a project or two, it has been excellent news for tenants. The growing range of options across the desirability and location spectrum from this recent delivery glut has pushed rents down in the form of concessions. Raise your hand if you’ve seen an apartment complex offering 10 weeks free—a substantial discount from the standard rental rate. But make no mistake, even amidst a cooler period in development, there are plenty of recently completed, hot multi-family projects bringing unique features to the table for tenants, while showing how designers and builders are delivering successful work to a changing market.

Sign Of The Times

By Brad Fullmer • June 30, 2025
The transformation of the heart of South Salt Lake from a gritty, somewhat dilapidated industrial area into a legitimate 'downtown' urban area with active neighborhoods of stylish residential and commercial buildings, got a major boost in June with the official grand opening of the eight-story, 180-unit One Burton apartment complex, ushering in a new era of modern development in the city. "I'm very happy to be where we're at now," gushed Jason Algaze, a Principal with New York-based Abstract Development Group, as One Burton marks the firm's first completed project in Utah. "The building is unique, and we had a good [team] to help us execute our vision." One notable caveat of the $70 million project—with its location directly adjacent to Interstate 80—was that the previous landowner, YESCO, be allowed to keep its billboard on the property, leading to the building to being dubbed 'the Billboard Apartments' during construction. Architects from Salt Lake-based Architectural Nexus, led by Mihnea Dobre, Principal-in-Charge, and Charles Bagley, Project Manager, were quick to roll with that interesting design nuance, along with other design constraints specific to a location smack dab next to a bustling U.S. highway. They embraced the billboard, ultimately coming up with the idea of INFLUENCE—something that is shaped, carved, and molded by the constant effect of environment—as the design brief and conceptual driver for the project. Since the billboard would have a direct impact on the building form—and is emblematic of the very idea of what influence is—the design leaned heavy into it. From the south side, you can visually see its influence carving and shaping the building with a continued ripple effect bending and folding the eastern façade. "This project is all about influence," said Bagley. "The billboard is about influencing people, so we wanted the view corridor to influence the shape of the building, with a ripple effect as the east facade folds and crinkles." "The billboard is certainly a prominent feature," said Dobre. "We had a requirement to maintain the view corridor and build around existing billboards, so we used that to aid the design, and in maximizing site development without interfering with legal requirements. We decided to embrace what was [viewed as] a limitation." "We turned what could have been a huge hurdle for design and turned it into a 'wow' factor," said Algaze, adding that residents are not impacted from the signs due to billboard screens having directional baffles that eliminate light disturbance back to the apartments. Constructing around the billboard and next to a busy freeway offered various challenges to the contractor team, said KC Burns, Project Director for Salt Lake-based Jacobsen Construction, mainly being so directly in the public eye, along with limited access for material delivery from north and south roads only and limited space to choreograph the litany of heavy equipment, delivery trucks, lifts, and cranes. "Prior to construction, the billboard was removed and relocated slightly to allow it to be outside the building footprint—that's not something you see every day," said Burns. "The highway presented little issue itself; the exposure from passersby [traffic], however, kept us on our toes as there was a lot of oversight from freeway traffic. We became aware early that we either did it right, or it would be known immediately by all."

Finding a Groove

By Brad Fullmer • June 30, 2025
Salt Lake-based di'velept design has broken the mold for how an architectural firm finds success. As the firm celebrates its 10th anniversary, founder Jarod Hall couldn't be more satisfied with how things have shaken out the past decade. "I'm so happy with where we're at, where di'velept is as a firm," said Hall, 44. "We're more of a lifestyle firm. I enjoy a lifestyle of working from home, [and] spending more time with my family, while also doing great projects. The growth in front of us is exciting." "It's a different sort of story," admits Hall, a Vernal native who wasn't quite sure about a career after graduating from Uintah High School in 1999. He attended then-Utah Valley State College (now UVU) for four years and worked part-time for a painting contractor while in school. "That got me interested in architecture," said Hall, noticing how the buildings he was painting were designed and what he liked and didn't like. He would interact with architects from time to time and started envisioning what their day-to-day schedules were like before deciding to jump to a new career path. He ultimately earned a Master of Architecture from the University of Idaho in 2008 and landed work at a large Salt Lake-based architecture firm, where he learned the ins and outs of the craft from 2008-2013. Hall quickly proved his mettle at the firm and worked under former Principals Steve Crane and Boyd McAllister in the K-12 studio. "He was really great—he got right in there and figured out what to do," said Crane, who moved to St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands after retiring in 2017. Today, Crane resides in St. George, and is working with Hall on some projects. "The partners really liked him. He was a good designer. Now, he's got me working for him!" Hall eventually decided to launch di'velept design in late 2014, and by early 2017 was actively trying to grow the firm. Firm Buoyed by Success in Self-Storage, Multi-Family In early 2015, Hall and a friend, Jeremy Larsen, were hired to design a self-storage unit in Vancouver, Wash.—a 100,000 SF, three-story building. Success on that initial self-storage project has led to a fruitful relationship with a couple of developers who have built dozens of projects in more than a dozen states, including the Pacific Northwest, Texas, New England, Florida, and Hawaii, in addition to Utah. In 2016, Hall recognized potential opportunities in the burgeoning multi-family market and started making inroads with some smaller developers. To date, the firm has designed 18 multi-family projects that are either finished or under construction, with another 80 projects they did master planning for—projects that will advance to full design once market conditions are more favorable. Approximately 50% di’velept’s annual revenues are from townhomes and apartments, 40% from self-storage facilities, with commercial office and retail projects, including restaurants and bars, comprising the rest.

Village People

By Taylor Larsen • June 30, 2025
Economics isn’t for everybody. Some in this industry excel in real options analysis to understand risks and returns of capital outlay for a project. Others, like this writer, struggled to understand anything described in Econ 110 lectures. Independent of one’s understanding of economics, everyone in Utah lives through the social sciences’ most trusted law: supply and demand. Namely, the demand to live races onward while the housing supply lags behind. Utah is the place to live—and the data backs it up. Utah’s net in-migration has been over 20,000 yearly since 2016, according to the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. Whether incoming residents are seeking the greatest snow on earth or looking to discover linguistic quirks—have a Utahn say “Millcreek” and hear the phonetic difference—there are many reasons to move to the Beehive State. It’s excellent news for the industry. High housing demand means plenty of opportunities to design and build. The good news continues—the industry built more housing units than new households created in the state from 2019-2022, according to Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. In 2021, the state set a record, delivering 40,144 new housing units and nearly cutting the reported housing shortage in half. The bad news? It hasn’t been enough. According to that same data, Utah still needs to build an estimated 37,000 more units, or enough homes to support a city comparable in population to Provo or St. George, to meet 2025 demand. Answering the Crisis Call The bad news is glum, but the good news is that developers are helping to solve Utah’s housing challenge, creating expertly crafted homes in job centers like Salt Lake City. Key among these developments is the recently completed The Village at North Station, the largest low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) property in Utah history: a spectacular 827 units. According to Michael Batt, Managing Principal with developer Gardner Batt, the project helps to meet an urgent need for housing, specifically affordable housing. “There is definitely a demand for affordable options as we’ve seen significant housing cost increases over the last five-plus years,” Batt said. Remember the single-issue Rent is Too Damn High Party? What it lacked in political power, it revealed a commonly held belief regarding residential tenancy—the rent is too damn high, especially in Utah. According to the 2022 Economic Census, over 47% of renters spent over 30% of their income on housing. The Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute showed that Salt Lake County alone lacks the breadth of options to be affordable—190,000 units short, to be exact—for those on fixed incomes, single-parents and one-income households, and those just entering the workforce. According to Batt, one great tool to meet demand and lessen the rent burden for tenants is “the utilization of the tax credits and bonds” in development across the state, where LIHTC is the most recognized example. According to the Utah Housing Corporation, the independent state agency that administers Utah’s LIHTC program, tax credit awardees receive a dollar-for-dollar reduction on their tax liability in exchange for making an equity investment into affordable rental housing with below-market rents. Who says the government and business can’t coexist?

Carrot Over Stick: Connecting in Commercial Office

By Taylor Larsen • June 30, 2025
The stick is a powerful tool for bosses in the white-collar world, especially in bringing people back into the office. But how do you get employees back willingly? How about a carrot? “We were designing our space post-pandemic, so one of our primary goals was to create a space that would genuinely draw people back into the office,” said Sierra Smith, Partner & COO with Leavitt Equity Partners, tenants of the new space. The carrot was the tool of choice via “a space where our team could reconnect, collaborate naturally, and enjoy being together again.” Utilizing the carrot had a secondary effect, which Leavitt Equity Partners wanted to capitalize on. Smith noted, “We also wanted to create an environment where we’d be proud to invite clients and partners.” With the completion of this tenant improvement within the award-winning 95 State office building, design and construction partners from EDA Architects and Layton ICS, respectively, showed the value—and values—of creating such a connective space. Creating the Carrot Ownership listened to what their team wanted in a post-COVID workplace: “more chances to interact informally, flexible spaces to work and meet, and the amenities that made being in the office feel rewarding,” said Smith. Jason Dunn, BD/Preconstruction Manager for ICS, who served as Project Manager during the project, agreed with the intent, which comes through in this TI’s welcoming nature. “This is a good approach to get people back to the office accustomed to working from home, where they already have a comfortable, convenient environment,” he said. Dunn spoke about how the creature comforts of home have inspired interior design to bring a high-end residential mood and features to the modern office, “especially if we’re going to spend a quarter of our life at work.” As design commenced, Evan Cindrich, Principal and Director of Interior Design for EDA, created a Pinterest board to send to Smith and the team at Jane Smith Design, who assisted with design, to collaborate on ideas. At the same time, Smith and Jane Smith Design were working on one of their own. “It was incredible to see how much our ideas lined up,” said Cindrich. It lined up to such an extent that some of the same photos appeared in each set of ideas. Aligning intent to budget proved rewarding as collaboration in design honed in on the final decisions. Cindrich mentioned how rendering tools helped ownership sign off on a traditional stick-framed aluminum office front that maintained the luxurious feel originally envisioned and matched dollars to purpose.

Prototype Prowess

By Brad Fullmer • June 30, 2025
The success of the new Subaru Ogden dealership for Young Automotive Group (YAG) has as much to do with the outstanding design-build construction process of the $31 million building as did the patience of acquiring 14 parcels of land needed for the sizeable project spanning seven acres. Designed and built by the team of Morgan-based Center Point Construction and Ogden-based Case, Lowe & Hart (CLH) Architects, the two-level building makes a bold statement with a sleek, modern design and impressive functionality highlighted by a world-class customer showroom, state-of-the-art drive-thru alignment machines, quick change oil bays, and a jaw-dropping 52 high-performance maintenance bays for service, repairs, and washing. At 72,000 SF, it’s also the largest automobile dealership for Layton-headquartered YAG, which continues its impressive growth trajectory with new, statement-making buildings. At the grand opening on May 9 on Riverdale Road in Ogden, YAG President Spencer Young Jr. praised the design-build team and singled out Ron Hales, Center Point's President, for his company's efforts in delivering a phenomenal project. "He's been a great partner of ours the past seven years," Young Jr. said of Hales. "He's built many projects, including this one, and done an amazing job. His team, his people, it's a great company." Hales said Subaru's strict design guidelines challenged his team to design a new prototype building for the Tokyo-based automotive giant. It yielded excellent results, even with a few modifications per Hales' construction expertise. “[Subaru] sent a design, and Center Point modified various aspects of it," said Hales. "The owner liked the changes so much that they modified their design to mirror the changes." Hales pointed to the service drive as a "very unique feature that Subaru really liked" which allows customers to have their vehicle alignment checked by a state-of-the-art machine, along with other services like oil changes and minor repairs. "The Young team and our team spent many hours planning for the very best equipment in addition to maximizing customer flow and efficient service," said Hales. Interior finishes were overhauled to modernize the look and feel, with new colors, designs, flooring, extra glass for more open and aesthetically pleasing views, a custom sound system that pipes music throughout the entire facility, and custom furniture. Hales added that ownership spared no expense wh en it came to staff amenities. "Young Automotive recognizes the importance of their people, and there was an emphasis on making sure the technicians, parts employees, administrative staff, and the sales team have their own spaces and environments," said Hales, in addition to spacious break rooms with TVs, large restrooms and locker rooms."

Latest Shifts in Structural Engineering

By By B. Garn • May 2, 2025
The continued spread of and improvements to BIM, new fuse plate technology, and the rise of mass timber are a few of the topics shaking up structural engineering in the Beehive State. Utah Construction + Design reached out to some Utah’s leading structural engineering firms to find out about current trends, technologies, and with five years of reflection, how are owners and designers looking at and learning from the 5.7 magnitude earthquake that shook the Wasatch Front in spring 2020. Jerod Johnson, Senior Principal at Reaveley Engineers, wrote a detailed retrospective of the event in 2023 and says researchers and engineers learned a few things from the quake from how different building types responded to insights into the geology of our region. “Research has revealed that the shape of the Wasatch Fault is different from what was previously believed. The Magna earthquake, initially thought to have occurred on a fault in the western part of the Salt Lake Valley, actually took place on the Wasatch Fault. The fault extends into the valley at a much shallower angle than expected, rather than descending steeply from the toe of the mountain. This new understanding of the fault's geometry has significant implications for seismic design and building codes. We anticipate changes to the spectral acceleration maps used in structural design. The lateral shaking observed during the 5.7 magnitude earthquake was much higher than expected,” says Johnson. “It highlighted the need for updated design practices that account for this amplification. These findings will influence future building codes and practices in Utah, ensuring that structures are better equipped to withstand such events.” But Chris Hofheins, a Senior Principal at BHB Structural, is concerned the wider public may not have learned enough from the event. “Most structural engineers thought the earthquake would be a wakeup call but to a large degree I think it had the opposite effect,” said Hofheins. “People looked around and felt like it wasn’t so bad and we’ll be alright if something bigger hits. We’ve seen a few owners who decided to increase the seismic safety of their buildings but we’re also seeing the opposite where I think some people are overconfident.” Blowing a Fuse Structural resilience, designing buildings that not only protect those inside during a seismic event but can be quickly reoccupied, continues to be of great interest to structural engineers. Replaceable fuses, or structural sections that can be sacrificed dissipating energy during a seismic event and then replaced, have continued to gain popularity with designers and improve the resilience of buildings. “This innovation represents a significant shift from traditional methods of enhancing ductility in earthquake design. Instead of merely adapting existing practices, replaceable fuses offer a new paradigm for building resilience,” said Dorian Adams, Senior principal and President with Reaveley Engineers. Adams said fuse technology like buckling restrained braces (BRBs) have been available and widely adopted for several decades. Newer proprietary systems like Durafuse, among others, for moment frames have been gaining popularity. “New technologies are emerging that offer exciting possibilities. One such innovation is the SpeedCore steel shear wall with a concrete core, which is included in the new AISC seismic provisions, the 2022 edition. This technology represents a significant advancement in seismic design,” said Adams. Replaceable fuse technology is also being employed with mass timber construction as interest in and use of the material around the world continues to grow. Jordan Terry, Principal at KPFF Consulting Engineers has designed structural systems for several mass timber and mass timber hybrid projects such as the ICCU Arena at the University of Idaho in Moscow and the recently completed Portland International Airport Terminal Core Redevelopment with its 400,000 sq ft mass Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) roof. He said there have been important advances recently in seismic systems for mass timber structures. “Typically, when you get a mass timber building over five stories you have to look at the seismic reinforcing and that is where you introduce something other than just timber. You might have a concrete core with the elevator shafts or use BRBs,” Terry said. “We had a client in Portland that absolutely wanted to use as much timber as possible. We helped develop a new system called a rocking CLT core wall. The base of the shear wall panels isn’t connected to the ground and it can rock back and forth but there are energy-dissipating sections or fuses, between the panels. They are very ductile. You swap them out and it’s as good as new.” David Dunn, CEO and principal at Dunn Associates, said the firm had utilized a rocking CLT shear panel in their design for a new all mass timber building currently under construction for the Zion National Park Discovery Center at the national park’s east entrance. Terry also said the firm was assisting researchers at the University of California San Diego in developing more all-timber lateral systems but noted like all materials, it should be used for its strengths. “CLT is really strong and stiff so you’d think it would be great for seismic reinforcement, but it is not very ductile,” he said. “We have a project in Spokane [Washington] where we used BRBs. We are letting the wood be stiff and strong like it wants to be and letting the BRBs deal with dissipation.” Hofheins noted mass timber research is going on here at the University of Utah as well. Dr. Chris Pantelides and the U of U’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering are developing a BRB encased in timber. Adams noted Dr. Pantelides’s project is not the only fuse research underway locally. “One such project involved a device placed in the middle of an X brace, with elastic braces and a fuse at the intersection of the diagonal braces. This device would compress and stretch, cycling through combined flexure and shear,” he said. “A University of Utah PhD candidate recently further enhanced this concept in his dissertation, adding curved plates of steel that cross one another and engage in tension only after reaching a certain threshold of displacement. This supplemental strength activates only when needed, providing a dual-level design solution that accommodates different magnitudes of earthquakes. The idea of replaceable fuses holds significant potential for the future of structural design. These innovations will become an integral part of performance-based seismic design, offering tailored solutions for varying seismic events. Simpson's Yield-Link connection is another example of this technology, although it is currently more suited for smaller applications.” Dunn said making buildings resilient and potentially reusable quickly after a seismic event not only has implications for safety but for sustainability as well. “Designing resilient structures is really an environmental consideration that is undervalued in my view,” said Dunn. “Code-based buildings will undergo massive deformations and damage after an earthquake. Sometimes small, incremental increases in first-costs can make huge differences in anticipated building performance, salvaging buildings that would otherwise be landfilled. That is a huge environmental impact, but not as buzzy as bike racks, low-water urinals, solar panels, etc.”

No Waterway? No Problem for the Utah Inland Port Authority

By Taylor Larsen • May 2, 2025
Ports? In landlocked Utah? Sure, the traditional idea of a port in Utah, with cargo ships, cruise liners, container cranes, dockworkers, barges—not to mention coastal water—is farfetched. But the Utah Inland Port Authority (UIPA) has broadened the meaning of a port since its formation in 2018. Even without a coast, UIPA has worked to strengthen rail, air, and road cargo infrastructure to turn Utah into a 21st century logistics hub and changing the economic trajectory of the Beehive State in the process. It’s been seven years of increased industrial development that has been a boon for the A/E/C community, but more importantly the logistics and manufacturing network to build for an ever-growing consumer demand. There have been plenty of detractors to UIPA, especially as it relates to ecological conservation. Ben Hart, Executive Director of UIPA, has heard it loud and clear as he sets the organization on a path to aid in development goals that benefit the entire state and the values Utahns hold dear. Origin Story + Coordinated Efforts UIPA was created to pioneer and implement strategic and sustainable logistics-backed economic solutions that enhance the lives of Utahns and establish Utah as a global industry connector. While UIPA began its journey overseeing 16,000 acres in the northwest portion of Salt Lake County, the Northwest Quadrant, it has grown in area and emphases since 2018. Today, UIPA is associated with 110,000 acres in 12 project areas across the state. Most importantly for the organization, Hart said, is how developments within UIPA project areas create high-paying jobs to strengthen Utah communities. Where regional logistics infrastructure does not exist, UIPA can make strategic investments to unlock regional economic growth. “Part of the [UIPA] charter is developing projects that provide economic strength for their entire region. Regional projects need regional infrastructure, which most importantly includes transportation infrastructure,” said Hart, detailing UIPA tools to build out transportation infrastructure intended “to help grow the entire regional economy. Hart said that UIPA has grown its overall area scope to help meet statewide initiatives from current Governor Spencer Cox and regional initiatives from municipal leaders around the Beehive State. Speaking specifically of many of Utah’s rural counties, “There is more commerce going on in those areas than what people recognize,” Hart said, “and you still have a really good workforce in those areas as well.” Municipalities and counties of all levels (see project area map) have been willing to go through a four-step process to access UIPA capabilities in route to industrial development and the high-wage jobs that come with it.

Steely Resolve

By Taylor Larsen • May 1, 2025
Tariff talk is loud. But don’t let that be the only thing that garners attention in steel fabrication trends. Leaders in this field said that they continue to innovate and build up their spot within the industry to ensure steel continues to be utilized in projects across the Beehive State. Tariffs Add Volatility On March 12th, 2025 the Trump administration announced 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports. With over 25% of steel imported, according to the US Dept. of Commerce, steel procurement is set to get even pricier. Matt Blaser, President of Price-based Intermark Steel, sees plenty of similarities with tariff policy and the pandemic effects on the supply chain. Much as supply chains needed reconfiguring during the pandemic, “The overarching goal [of tariffs] is to bring manufacturing back into the United States,” said Blaser. “Where we’re not dependent on a global supply chain.” It’s worked as intended before, when 2018 tariffs (25% on steel imports) helped increase domestic steel production by 6 million tons from 2017-2019. For Richard Wood, President of West Jordan-based Rightway Steel, the expected increase in domestic steel production, “It’s just getting started. Many new companies have plans to build steel producing plants in the US.” These incoming ‘minimills’ are bringing faster throughput in a smaller area via a much more efficient steelmaking process. According to a 2020 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report, over half of the national steel output was produced in minimills. These mills use an electric arc furnace (EAF) to melt and refine steel scrap by passing an electric current from the electrodes through the materials to melt it at a scorching 3,000 degrees. It’s making blast furnaces and “rust belt” technology a thing of the past. But on-shoring production has still been a tough pill to swallow for fabricators as steel prices surge. “As of April 1st, steel material prices have increased upwards of 25%,” said Wood. “We’re unsure if or when the tariffs will be reduced.” Even as tariffs escalate, fabricators like Rightway Steel have sought a way forward even as Wood has seen demand and project starts slow down. Rightway has pivoted with new pricing, reduced quote hold times, and internal efficiencies to stay competitive. As developments in EAF take a greater share of steel production market toward stability—and hopefully lower prices—those internal efficiencies Wood mentioned will shape the future of steel fabrication. Innovating Internally “In any steel fabrication, or any type of production, there is a four letter word that makes all the difference: flow,” said Tyler Oliver, President of Centerville-based Fineline Steel Fabrication. Limiting the amount of movement required from the fabrication team in the shop is one internal efficiency keeping costs low. Inside Fineline’s shop, TV screens and tablets keep the team in the shop fully aware of what’s going on—and keep everyone in flow. Touring through the firm’s Centerville shop, one quickly notices how long the building is. Think arena football field, but five of them end to end to reach 1,000 feet long. If Fineline could have a facility twice as long and half as wide, Oliver said, it would help that flow even better. Oliver claimed that Fineline;s facility houses “One of the most state-of-the-art fabricators in the world.” Fineline’s Voortman Steel Fabricator has been a key part of the firm’s innovative flair. The fully-automated welding system starts with the VACAM system to determine the feasibility of assemblies, production times, etc—particularly helpful when determining the amount of automation required in the welding process. From there the magnetic handling robot grabs the steel pieces fed by the Fineline team, rotates the steel, and welds steel members in the right place. Rightway Steel has looked for similar internal efficiencies, with Wood saying the firm is improving year over year with new equipment and processes to improve quality, speed, and safety. “There’s always room for improvement,” he said before mentioning how it will be incumbent on fabricators to find or train workers capable of learning the ropes as the company invests in more robotic welding, improved machinery, and emerging technologies like wearable exoskeletons to keep production humming. Technological Infusion With lead times getting shorter for many of these projects, Oliver said, “[Owners] need their parts and members bigger, better, and faster. This is why we have innovated and are constantly working on adding automation.” Technological innovation reigns supreme. Construction software Stalwarts like Procore and Building Connected are combining with emerging technologies that incorporate in-field scanning from team members to improve accuracy. “We have also seen improvements in modeling and steel shop and erection drawings through Advanced Steel and Tekla,” said Wood. As modeling has improved, so has the final product created by fabricators. Blaser echoed Oliver’s comments on speed to delivery and Wood’s thoughts on digital collaboration, saying that the ability to fabricate from a digital file has been catalytic in today’s high-speed construction market. Blaser also reiterated points from the other fabricators regarding internal systems. Having a CNC machine isn’t enough—it’s the bare minimum. Instead, working in a “Henry Ford-esque” assembly line makes all the difference today, especially when combined with digital innovations and steel detailing software. But the future is one where those systems are bolstered by AI. “Larger companies will have machines interconnected via AI,” said Blaser. With enough capital to invest in interconnected machinery that needs less human help, AI adaptation within steel fabrication will “Consolidate the market and probably push smaller shops to the wayside.” For Oliver, “AI is the top of our list as it is with everyone else,” namely allowing the team to spend their time processing material for fabrication. “There are some major advancements with AI and how we can final QC some of our members.” While AI grows in importance on the shop floor, Wood said his teams have utilized AI as much as possible in the office for great efficiency in take-offs, proposals, RFI support, and meeting information.