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BUSINESS NEWS

ASPIRING ARCHITECTS PURSUING LICENSURE ON THE RISE At its 2015 Annual Business Meeting, the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards shared highlights from the new NCARB by the Numbers, a yearly report about the path to licensure. The report’s findings indicate progress in several areas: ❚ ❚ A record high of 37,178 aspiring architects either reporting hours through the Intern Development Program or testing for the Architect Registration Examination. ❚ ❚ 107,581 licensed architects reported by the 54 U.S. licensing boards, a 3 percent increase since 2011. ❚ ❚ The average age of an architect upon initial licensure fell to 33.3 years old, 2.7 years lower than in 2008. ❚ ❚ Racial and ethnic minorities made up 41 percent of the aspiring architect talent pool in 2014, compared with 22 percent in 2007. ❚ ❚ Women made up 38 percent of aspiring architects completing the IDP in 2014, compared with 25 percent in 2000. ❚ ❚ Women also accounted for 35 percent of candidates completing the ARE last year, nearly twice the percentage in 2000. BLUMETRIC WINS $3.2 MILLION ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING CONTRACT BluMetric Environmental Inc. (Ottaway, Canada), a cleantech company, has announced that it was awarded a contract valued at more than C$3.2 million in the first year of a possible five-year span to provide environmental engineering services to Vale Canada Limited. The contract allows for the future addition of similar services and for future contracts over the five years. As part of the project, BluMetric will undertake drilling, monitoring, and pumping of wells, aquifer tests, and groundwater and surface-water sampling. Data collected during the project will be incorporated into the existing GIS-based Environmental Information System developed by BlueMetric for Vale. UNITED NATIONS TRANSFORMS BUSINESS’ COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABILITY Sustainability is now on the global business agenda, but there is an urgent need to turn words into action, according to the conclusion in the independent report, “Impact – Transforming Business, Changing the World,” prepared by DNV GL, a firm that enables organizations to advance the safety and sustainability of their business through classification, technical assurance, software, and advisory services, on behalf of the United Nations Global Compact. The report concludes that the UN Global Compact, as the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, and the business community have had an impact on the development of sustainability over the past 15 years. Recommendations that must be implemented to accelerate progress toward a more sustainable future are also highlighted in the report. For more information, visit dnvgl.com.

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PRIMORIS , from page 3

EVALUATION CRITERIA USED BY CLIENTS In the second edition of Successful Project Management for A/E/P & Environmental Consulting Firms , author Ernest Burden transcribes interviews with real-world clients about how they evaluate design firms’ proposals: ❚ ❚ Public Client: “The long list is whittled down to five or six firms. The bigger the project, the bigger the firm that gets it. They receive the RFP, and we select the consultant based on their technical expertise, how they relate to the project, and how they present their proposal in relation to the project. Then they are ranked going into the presentation. Once they are ranked No. 1, we negotiate the fee.” ❚ ❚ Quasi-public Client: “Our process of selection is very much like public agencies, since we get federal money for research. We always go out with an RFP. We always select on the basis of the RFP and not necessarily the lowest fee proposal. What we look for is somebody who is most responsive to what we’ve requested in the RFP. We limit big projects to big firms.” ❚ ❚ Private Client: “The process we take is a little bit different: We set up an internal architectural office, and we do the preliminary test layouts, programming, in- house preliminary budgeting; so that, by the time we’re ready to go out for an RFP, we have a budget and a direction for a crop-of-work. We request that the design firm review it and give us their expertise to fit out our space. We’ll send an RFP to give to eight firms and, based on the data we get back, level that and shortlist them, so we can get to meet the proposed teams at the presentation. We want to make sure we are all on the same pages and that our personalities agree with each other and how it will all come together.”

wastewater, and engineering services to major public utilities, petrochemical and energy companies, municipalities, state departments of transportation, and other entities. Between steady growth and outright acquisitions, Primoris has emerged as a national company that has even contracted in Canada. In April, Primoris announced $218 million in contracts for the installation of underground natural gas pipelines in Florida and Pennsylvania. In January, the company announced $140 mil- lion in contracts for the installation of a crude oil pipeline in Texas and more natural gas pipelines in Pennsylvania. The con- tracts were awarded to the Rockford Corporation , a Primoris subsidiary. “For most projects, it’s the lowest bidder. However, on big jobs like these, we not only take into consideration the low bid, but the number of working days in which the project will be complete.“ All bids submitted to the Arkansas highway department are re- viewed by an awards committee, which makes sure all the math is good, the bonding and insurance are appropriate, and that the bid is complete. Once the contract is awarded, it’s up to the contractor to live up to its word. “They have to make sure they don’t default – financially or per- formance-wise,” Straessle says. “Some contracts have a financial penalty if not completed within a certain amount of time.”

THE ZWEIG LETTER JULY 13, 2015, ISSUE 1111

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