Research

With encouragement from our clients, we launched our New Realities survey series and published the results to help call attention to the issues facing our industry.

New Realities: Employee Wellness and Organizational Culture in Design Firms

By Saskia Dennis-van Dijl / June 28, 2023

Over the last several years, organizations and professionals in the design industry have searched for their “new normal” amidst the disruptions of the coronavirus pandemic, the great reshuffle, and volatile social, political, economic, and environmental conditions. For many, a sense […]

Read More

New Realities: AEC Employee Perspectives on Reopening

By Annelise Pitts, AIA / September 23, 2021

For much of the last year, business leaders and public health experts have believed that it would be safe to resume in-office work at around the same time that schools reopened in fall 2021. With summer at an end, some […]

Read More

New Realities: Future of the AEC Workplace

By Annelise Pitts, AIA / June 3, 2021

In March 2020, most AEC firms made an abrupt shift from nearly universal on-site or in-office work to remote work in response to the global health crisis. Today, with COVID-19 cases on the decline and more than half of the […]

Read More

New Realities: Climate Action in Challenging Times

By Mary Ann Lazarus, FAIA, LEED Fellow / January 12, 2021

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the issue of climate change and the need for climate action had risen to the top of the list of priorities for many AEC firms. Many architects, engineers, and contractors have seen their work significantly altered […]

Read More

New Realities: Leadership Lessons on Firm Culture

By Clark Davis, FAIA, LEED AP / December 23, 2020

Ten months into the COVID-19 pandemic, most organizations have figured out the mechanics of remote work. We all miss face-to-face interaction, but we’ve found enough benefit in a remote-work mode that we’ll never return to the old normal: a distributed […]

Read More

New Realities: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

By Saskia Dennis-van Dijl / October 9, 2020

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, design, architecture, engineering, and construction companies across the world have adjusted to the myriad personal and professional challenges of remote work. In addition, the outcry for social justice sparked by […]

Read More