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For Aragon Construction, corporate interiors has long been its bread and butter. But
the New York-based company has been mixing in a host of airport projects as of late: a
baggage terminal for British airways here, a bathroom renovation there.
“When we started hearing about the downturn, we felt corporate interiors would dry up or
become so competitive because of our competitors driving down the numbers,” said President Alex Getelrnan.
While the corporate interior work remains strong and company revenue is up, a freefalling economy has forced Aragon and many other construction and design firms to branch out - either into other sectors or other locales. Adaptation apparently isn't just a lesson for biology class.
“You want to expand your horizons on a global basis, but also focus on what you know,” said Marc Chiffert of AEC Engineering, discussing his company's thought process for these unsure times.
AEC has done work in Brazil and France for several years, but is perhaps relying on such projects now more than ever. The Manhattan-based firm last year was forced to close its Connecticut office, which had been open since 1988.
“We saw it coming and gradually there were much fewer subdivisions,” Chiffert said recently but before news broke of last week's Wall Street banking crisis.
Brazil has become a hot market because of the number of companies expanding into there and because of the favorable cap rates that often range between 10-12%, Chiffert said.
Just how much area construction and design firms will need to adapt remains to be seen. The latest figures from the Architecture Billings Index show there is still demand for schools, hospitals and government buildings, but no one can know where the industry is headed given Wall Street's news of bailout and bankruptcy.
“Right now we're seeing it coming,” Chiffert said earlier this month of the economy's problems. “We think it's going to be much worse.”
Stanton Eckstut, of Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects, said his firm for several years has become more of an international firm. That will likely help these days.
“What we're trying to do is use the slowdown as an opportunity to focus more on a brand of ours, which is to build places as opposed to building buildings,” he said. “That means - the best example is - we want to build the next Rockefeller Center where ... the spaces are as important as the buildings.” Eckstut said the firm seeks to add external value, such as quality quads on campuses.
“In this slowdown, people are looking at how to get more value out of their resources,” he said. “We're trying to look at architecture in a different way.”
“We're not looking to shock,” he added. “We want to build long term sustainable quality.”
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