New Growth at Mowery Construction

by  | March 27, 2019 | News |

Mowery has experienced tremendous growth over the past few years. With a record number of project opportunities that have been in the pipeline and being built, in 2018 these opportunities translated into record revenue and profit.

While this increase can be attributed to the positive economy, it’s also a result of Mowery being in the right place at the right time with the right level of experience.

With growth comes new team members and an expansion of our team, as well as continuing to develop and train all employees. In 2018, we hired 14 new employees and already in 2019, we are slated to add another eight just in the first quarter. In our trainings, we emphasize slowing down and prioritizing critical project facets: safety, planning, efficiency, teamwork and delivering a quality product.


Emerging Construction Sectors
A major contributor to our continued growth is the industrial and distribution sector. Our region is the epicenter of one of the largest distribution markets in the world – nearly 60 percent of the country’s population is within a day’s drive. As a result, manufacturing, logistics, distribution and warehousing are booming in central Pennsylvania. Mowery has worked in the industrial and retail distribution markets for almost 50 years; it’s our experience and the valuable lessons learned that have enabled us to be at the forefront of this growth.

Adaptive reuse is another growing construction sector. There is a surplus of older buildings with viable ’bones’ (such as the frame, the shell and the roof); these buildings often need a creative mind and a daring developer to step in to give them new life. At Mowery, our team is seeing churches, schools, malls and old factories converted to new uses, including a current trend in adaptive reuse: sectioning off space for multi-family projects. Apartments and condominiums are more and more attractive because of their low maintenance and high connectivity to jobs, recreation and commerce.

New Design Principles
Along with growing and emerging markets, new design principles are evolving, such as deconstruction. This term refers to planning for the end of a building’s lifecycle up front, so it can easily be disassembled and repurposed later. A newer concept, deconstruction speaks to the nation’s emphasis on sustainability. Rather than dispose of materials when we demolish buildings where most construction debris is sent to landfills, why not choose materials, connections and systems that can be used again and again?

Another design principle is resilient design, an emerging trend in both building design and material selection. This process intentionally approaches the design to insulate the project from natural and man-made disasters. It also advances protection from the effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels, heat waves and regional drought. The goal is to create buildings that can withstand damage, be more flexible and avoid demolition from severe weather. We have seen some unique examples of this on some of our projects. For example, the lowest levels of buildings that may be susceptible to flooding are installed with water resistant or waterproof materials or even no flooring materials at all.

New Technology in Construction
Part of Mowery’s growth and the construction industry as a whole is in technology. Two areas where we are seeing the world of construction and technology collide are artificial intelligence and augmented reality.

Artificial intelligence is folding directly into construction processes. Today, computers can sequentially construct a building and are learning to generate critical path method schedules where the technology finds the most efficient project schedule based on the parameters provided.

Within augmented reality, technology can apply to both on-site processes and future maintenance. Imagine wearing a hard hat that displays virtual plans in your line of vision (think Iron Man) or shows you the 3D outline of the future building. Another application for augmented reality in the construction world is using it to virtually see what’s behind the walls. This would be a huge safety improvement and time savings for many facets of the industry.

The world of building materials, structural design and technology are continuing to evolve, and we are proud that Mowery is at the forefront of these trends, making sure we harness the changes so our clients experience the benefits of efficiency and improvements.

Have a project in mind or considering any of the items discussed in this article? Contact us today.

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