President,
Q. Are you still seeing issues related to material costs and availability?
A. Material costs and availability of labor continue to be hot topics for us as we work with our clients. Prices seem to have stabilized, but we have yet to see any major retreat in costs in most sectors we work in, locally and nationally. Our discussions with clients these days involve reinforcing that conditions today may be the new normal and that waiting for prices to fall won’t be a viable strategy. Falling interest rates are opening up some key markets for us — industrial and manufacturing — and some speculative developments locally.
Q. What are some unique challenges faced today on the engineering side?
A. We have a very competitive industry, and we aren’t producing the number of grads in our universities who stay in Arkansas to support meaningful growth. The recent federal funding of infrastructure construction has brought opportunity for engineers across the country, but it has driven an increase in competition for talent. With the change in economic climate and the resulting tightening of margins in many sectors, we have seen our clients increasing emphasis on speed of execution and controlling construction costs. Locally in Arkansas, we are seeing a steady influx of national engineering firms entering the market, especially for infrastructure projects.
Q. What are some advantages to offering architecture and engineering services under one roof?
A. Cromwell has a different structure in that it has all major design disciplines in-house. We believe that the best outcomes result from collaborative efforts between client, architects and engineers. We can trace this innovative approach to the late 1800s, when we first combined creative and technical talent to solve problems for our clients. In the mid-1900s, we built a team of architects and engineers that could support the rapidly growing industrial and manufacturing sector under the guidance of Gov. [Winthrop] Rockefeller. Today, most of our projects demand highly technical solutions, and being able to involve our engineers from the beginning improves outcomes for our clients as well. This approach provides clients with a valuable resource, not only in new designs, but also in operating and maintaining facilities.
Q. What prompted the opening of an office in Charlotte, North Carolina, and are there more growth plans on the horizon?
A. Cromwell has been in growth mode since we moved our headquarters to East Village [in Little Rock] in 2018. We are being very deliberate about how and where we grow. Our regional offices in northwest Arkansas and Europe — and our headquarters in Little Rock — have all experienced dramatic growth over that time period. Our new office in Charlotte is going to complement the work we are already doing across the country and around the world. It will allow us to better support our clients within the mid-Atlantic region. We’ll be able to attract talent to support our growth, and our team will have access to some great projects that will increase the impact we are having in our communities. Although we are just ramping up our new office in Charlotte, to meet our growth goals, we aren’t ruling out future offices in key geographies across the U.S. and overseas.
Q. What new trends are you seeing?
A. Just like most industries, the AEC industry is grappling with how to best utilize emerging technologies and AI in practice. Today, those technologies are focused most heavily on improving efficiency and rapid ideation and prototyping. As computing capabilities continue to improve, our industry will, through the widespread adoption of AI, work toward an improved built environment and ultimately a better human experience through design.
Q. Which projects are the most rewarding, and which are the most challenging?
A. For our organization, the projects that mean the most are the ones that have the greatest impact on people in our communities where we live and work. We aren’t simply designing buildings. We are eradicating cancer, improving education for future generations, making state government more efficient, supporting the families of those that defend our freedoms at home and abroad, improving health care outcomes, improving public safety, and driving job creation. When we celebrate our successes as a company, that impact is celebrated first.
READ ALSO: Sanders Announces Plan to Boost State Employee Pay
