March/April 2009

DCD Builder Product Revue
FAU Fort Lauderdale Installs City’s First Large-Scale Solar Roof Project on Higher Education Complex Building
    Florida Atlantic University's School of Urban and Regional Planning in the College of Architecture unveiled Fort Lauderdale's first large-scale solar roof installation on FAU's Higher Education Complex (HEC) building on the Fort Lauderdale campus in February. Florida Governor Charlie Crist, FAU President Frank T. Brogan, and community leaders unveiled the roof that was installed by Advanced Green Technologies, Inc. Crist, accompanied by Advanced Green Technologies' Rob Kornahrens, cut a ribbon on the 240-panel system that will produce 34 kilowatts of electrical power. 
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DCD InSights
Red Goes Green
Sustainable Design Becomes Part of Triage for Fire and Rescue Stations
    When it comes to green building initiatives, most fire and rescue stations have not been first responders. But as larger municipalities across the country begin to see their investments pay off in long-term cost savings, more cities are putting green on the radar.
    It is no surprise that green building for fire stations (and municipal facilities in general) has been a slow process. While public structures traditionally strive to set an example for their communities, the government building process is often slow, mired in political red tape, and restricted in budget. And while few would dispute that sustainable design and green building practice are good ideas, changing established protocol to accommodate these ideas simply wasn’t an emergency.   
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New Enhanced Online Functionality With All DCD Subscriptions
    Design Cost Data™ magazine and D4COST™ Software are well known in the building industry as tools to reliably predict the price of future construction using the cost of actual buildings as a benchmark. As publishers of DCD we have gathered, analyzed and archived thousands of buildings since 1958; and in the early 1990s we developed D4COST, the first square foot cost modeling software for the industry based on our massive database. Our subscribers and software users access this data daily to answer, “how much is this going to cost?” when posed by their clients.
    It has been over five years since we placed hundreds of projects from DCD’s project database on DCD.COM for our subscribers to use as a benchmark for their new projects. Stored in a quick and easy-to-use database, the NHBCdb™ (National Historical Building Cost Database), subscribers were able to browse by building category and quickly model new projects using a selected project and changing the bid date and location resulting in a new cost model.   
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DCD Cost Trends
Construction Cost Trends for 2009
Construction costs moderated in Q4 of 2008 with overall yearly increases in the 5% range. Housing starts are off and residential construction is down approximately 30%. The remaining commercial sectors still show signs of strength but cannot offset the housing disaster. The inventory of foreclosed homes still ex- ists, until these are sold off and a significant reduction in builder inventories is realized, look for a continued overall slump in construction spending. Construction is still down by 6-7% and federal spending programs will not be felt until later on this year. Look for this year to be soft for construction.
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DCD Cost Guides
The DCD Medical Square Foot Cost Guide
Design Cost Data™ magazine includes a Building Sq. Ft. Cost Guide in each issue. These square foot cost guides have been assembled from projects in our database, the DCD Archives™s online at DCD.COM. These guides are provided to the industry by DCD as a benchmark for future building costs.
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