19 Quotes by Kermit Baker

We're seeing regional design activity very strong here. The strongest sectors seem to be on the institutional side, education and health care.

My suspicion is, this 'staying within the footprint' idea has to do with zoning. If there are restriction setbacks in a community, or floor area requirements, there's an incentive to do this. You can't build on, so you build within. That would generate some pretty creative solutions.

Over the last 10 years, we've seen a fairly significant core of the population spending more than half the value of their home on improvements. Some of that is because buyers increasingly are moving into older suburbs convenient to their jobs in the city, and they're renovating smaller Cape Cod and ranch-style homes.

Firms really niche themselves on a thin slice of remodeling activity.

We expect that share of activity to grow.

As the residential market shows signs of softening, the nonresidential market is in excellent position to pick up the slack in construction activity. Nonresidential construction not only represents billions of dollars in economic activity, but also generates a lot of related spending in furnishings and interior decor.

After six years of recession-like conditions in the industry, 2006 is shaping up as the year that will launch a non- residential expansion, picking up some of the slack from a cooling residential market.

Architects design a fairly small percentage of homes, but they really are the trendsetters. It helps us find out early what the key trends are.

This is a generation that has wealth and longevity. And most aging people don't want to move.