My father was an environmental engineer who worked on projects to protect the Chesapeake Watershed and the Los Angeles sewage and stormwater-management systems and on master-planning water and sewage infrastructure for cities in Egypt. We had numerous provocative conversations about human beings’ relationship to global warming and climate change. Just to try and get each an edge, we often purposefully took opposing views—with these conversations always taking place over a game of chess.
I thought a lot about my dad as I read this issue’s cover story, which presents a roundtable discussion among construction leaders on the industry’s evolving role in responding to climate change. Here’s a preview: The buzzword for the communities we design, build and operate is now “resilience.”
Speaking of resilience, Delaware Elevator is a fourth-generation company that has grown an international portfolio of business that includes maintaining, restoring and renovating vertical systems in many prominent Washington, D.C., facilities, including the Washington Monument. Historic preservation is also the subject of this issue’s Markets department, which focuses on a Macallan Construction project in Dahlonega, Georgia.
This issue also includes a Viewpoints Q&A, as well as articles about safety, change management for capital projects and mentorship/leadership development. And, of course, Washington Update provides the usual in-depth analysis of recent legislation and regulations coming from Capitol Hill.
This is an issue I would have sent to my father prior to our next game of chess!
