In observance of Labor Day, the AGC Houston office will close at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, August 29 and reopen Tuesday, September 2 at 8:00 a.m. We wish you all a safe holiday weekend!

Dallas, Texas

Sheraton Downtown Phoenix

Wildcat Golf Course

San Antonio Marriott Riverwalk
San Antonio, Texas

Registration for the CLC Leadership Development Conference, formerly known as Fall Working Weekend, is now open. This year’s event is co-hosted with the San Antonio Chapter of AGC and will take place October 23-25, 2014, at the San Antonio Marriott Riverwalk. Highlights of the program include keynote speaker George "The Iceman" Gervin, former San Antonio Spurs player; Chuck Greco, Linbeck Group, LLC, and Senior Vice President of AGC of America; and a roundtable session that will allow attendees to learn best practices from CLC groups from across the country.

Caesar's Palace

The ACE Mentor Program of Houston invites you to join in The Third Annual Build It Forward Event. This event brings together students involved in the ACE Mentor Program and industry-wide professionals. For more information and to learn how you can get involved, please click here.

This course is designed specifically for superintendents, project managers, property managers , property owners, or anyone responsible for storm water jobsite compliance.

BIM Unit 1 is designed specifically for construction professionals eager to learn the essential concepts of BIM. The full-day (8-hour) course explains the benefits of improved visualization on a construction project through the use of 3D, 4D, and 5D models, establishes a knowledge base of BIM terminology and outlines case studies showing successful BIM implementation.

Understand how basic contracts are structured, how different types of contracts are used, and how project documentation relates to effective contracting. Learn how different project delivery methods use different contracting strategies, and gain insight into contract law and language in relation to project risk.

Completion of this course meets the requirements of OSHA Paragraph 1926.50, and participants will receive an American Heart Association Heartsaver First Aid and CPR/AED wallet card valid for two years upon course completion.

Learn how to comply with contractual obligations concerning insurance and to assure compliance of other involved parties. Everything you need to know about insurance certificates will be covered.

AGC Houston-Frontline Leadership is a six-session training program designed to equip new, current, or aspiring supervisors with the tools they need to effectively manage and develop their people and projects. The format consists of six, half-day modules that can be taken as stand-alone courses or as part of the series.

AGC Houston - Frontline Leadership is a six-session training program designed to equip new, current, or aspiring supervisors with the tools they need to effectively manage and develop their people and projects. The format consists of six, half-day modules that can be taken as stand-alone courses or as part of the series.

This course covers the factors of an air quality management program which includes identify the parties involved, goal setting, control techniques, risk assessment, air monitoring and regulations/enforcement.

AGC will be bringing together industry safety specialists for a free discussion on what to expect in a standard OSHA inspection. The panel will be featuring OSHA directors David Doucet and Mark Briggs, and Compliance Assistant Specialist, Jim Shelton. Attorneys Tony Stergio and Keith Coulter, as well as Safety Consultant Homer Peterson, will be answering questions regarding employee statements, documentation during inspections, and much more. Space is limited, so register today!

This course covers the OSHA standards, policies, and procedures in general industry. Topics include scope and application of the OSHA General Industry Standards, general industry principles and special emphasis on those areas in general industry which are most hazardous.

This construction 10-hour safety course covers the safety requirements as contained in 29 CFR 1926.This course is designed to provide an entry level construction workers general awareness on recognizing and preventing hazards on a construction site.

The Globally Harmonized System for Hazard Communication is an international standard for informing workers about health, physical, and environmental hazards in the workplace. This course will cover the regulatory requirements for container labeling, the nine pictograms and their meanings, the Safety Data Sheet format and content requirements. For the Spanish session, click here.

This course focuses on how to prepare for and conduct assessments, identifying issues, and the disposition of those issues. Classroom lecture and experiential exercises are utilized to provide students the opportunity to put into practice the knowledge and skills presented.

This course is designed for healthcare professionals who want to plan and present safety and health content to their employees/colleagues.The program covers topics specific to making safety and health training engaging, relevant, and impactful for all healthcare workers. In addition to the content, the participants will receive a Trainer's Tool Kit with a variety of resources and training material

This course is designed to provide Spanish-speaking entry-level construction workers with a general awareness on recognizing and preventing hazards on the jobsite. Participants will learn about the safety requirements contained in 29 CFR 1926, review specific OSHA requirements and gain tips on how to keep a construction jobsite safe.

Architect-engineer-contractor (AEC) professional liability insurance policies typically cover negligent wrongful acts, errors and/or omissions as long as the AEC is actually found negligent by a court of law for the wrongful or erroneous service provided to the client. However, it is yet to be fully determined if some forms of negligence related to green construction are actually covered under typical professional liability insurance policies.

September 16, 2014

We're excited to announce new AGC Houston emblem stickers available to all members!

Contact AGC Houston today at (713) 843-3700 for your hard hat stickers while they last.

For decades, the building construction industry provided good paying jobs and trained craft workers. Recently, that trend has started to change—with an uptick in building permits and work, there are signs that a skilled labor shortage in the country may threaten projected growth and the ongoing recovery. Many construction industry executives expect the situation to worsen in the coming years. How can our industry face this challenge and meet the demands of the marketplace?

On August 8, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that, if implemented, will require covered federal contractors and subcontractors to submit an annual Equal Pay Report on employee compensation. On an annual basis, contractors would have to submit on the new Equal Pay Report summary employee compensation data by sex, race, ethnicity, and specified job categories, as well as other relevant data points that would include hours worked and number of employees.

On Tuesday, July 22, 2014, the president signed the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act into law. The bill easily passed both the House and Senate in recent weeks. The legislation will reform the workforce development system, giving states greater flexibility and strengthening employer engagement.

AGC of America offers a wide array of training videos—from the Affirmative Action Manual for Construction to the OSHA Standards for Construction—there's an informative video for every business need. AGC members receive 20 percent off and free shipping on all purchases through the end of August.

Whether it's a new smart phone or calling plan, AGC Houston members can take advantage of an offer from Verizon Wireless and National Purchasing Partnership Construction.

• NPP our members receive 22% off corporate calling plans,
• Employees receive up to an 18% discount (15% plus an additional 3% discount if enrolled in online billing) on their plans.

WHR Architects’ Studios for Education & The Arts and Education & Science is excited to announce an office expansion at 1201 Louisiana, Suite 3300. This new office sits directly across from the firm's main office and signals the growth and vibrancy within the firm. WHR also recently welcomed Michael Smith, a Senior Project Architect with more than 20 years’ experience in architectural project delivery. Having worked on projects ranging from 1,500 square feet to 50,000 square feet, Smith comes to WHR with experience in marketing, pricing and preparing proposals, negotiating contracts, managing design team project services and supervising the delivery of healthcare projects. It's an exciting time for WHR Architects, and we're excited to see what the future has in store for them!

The editors of Building Design+Construction magazine recently presented the findings of the annual Giants 300 Report, which ranks leading firms in the architecture, engineering, and construction industries for building-type revenue, green building work, BIM revenue, and more. Congratulations to JE Dunn Construction on their hard work and for receiving 5th place in the report's Top Science and Technology Sector Construction Firms!

Brown Auditorium: The Museum of Fine Arts

The demographics of the state are changing in ways that impact the workforce head on. According to State Comptroller, Susan Combs, "unskilled" jobs are becoming a thing of the past, and the workers of today need to be adaptable to the point that they are lifelong learners. She argues that lawmakers need to tackle several issues including increased funding for adult education programs, multimedia information campaigns to promote industry-based certification, and economic incentives for companies to create apprenticeship programs. She also urges the state to make more money available for programs in order to streamline the process to reduce waiting lists for training programs.

After a slow start to the year, the economy is finally beginning to perk up. As of July, U.S. architecture firms have produced three straight months of accelerating gains in design billings. With solid monthly scores for new design contracts (at 54.9 this month) and new project inquiries (66.0), all signs indicate strong momentum building in design activity, which is expected to produce solids gains in construction later this year and into 2015. Firms in the South continue to report healthy business conditions, as they have every month for two straight years.

Sam Houston State University

LEED certification is quickly becoming more common in Houston’s new office buildings, whereby developers can charge higher sale prices and rents. In the Houston Metro area, LEED-certified buildings have a higher gross rent-per-square-foot at $39.16, compared to non-LEED buildings, which average $30.31 per square foot, According to Julie Hendricks, director of EcoServices for Kirksey, "Green buildings are generally more efficient, more marketable and less expensive to operate. LEED-certified lease spaces typically have higher rents and occupancy rates." Overall, "green building" emphasizes healthy interiors with access to daylight and views. Additionally, employees in green buildings tend to be more productive, are absent less, and have greater job satisfaction.

The newest version of LEED v4, which will be the standard for any certification starting June 2015, includes a new location and transportation category that takes into account factors such as a building’s walkability to area amenities as well as its proximity to public transportation. Building in areas such as downtown and the Galleria area, as well as within mixed-use projects where tenants can walk to amenities and housing rather than getting into their cars, will have a leg up on their counterparts in suburban locations where walkability is a challenge and development is not as dense.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration will extend the comment period on the proposed rule to improve tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses to Oct. 14, 2014. The proposal, published on Nov. 8, 2013, would amend the agency’s recordkeeping regulation to add requirements for the electronic submission of injury and illness information that employers are already required to keep. Individuals interested in submitting comments may do so electronically at http://www.regulations.gov, the federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Comments may also be submitted via mail or facsimile. See the Federal Register notice for details.

The average total cost of risk for companies rose two percent last year, from $10.90 per $1,000 of revenue, compared with $10.70 in 2012, according to the RIMS Benchmark Survey. This measure of how much companies spend on property, casualty and workers' compensation insurance and risk management has been rising steadily for the past few years, reflecting hardening insurance conditions.