bring on 2010

[pcaruthers]

good morning everyone.

what a year it has been, we've all seen our share of layoffs, lost jobs, and no work. I'm curious to see if anyone out there is actually recovering....Here in Florida, we are not. Most of our work is in the elderly housing arena, we've managed to keep the firm afloat with these projects even though they are few in far between. Our reputation in this area has been a huge advantage for us. But there is still no commercial jobs that require Bank $$. The road sides are littered with half completed housing developments, and construction jobs that have been cancelled. Construction companies are dropping like flies along with many architectural firms... Everything we've done with exception of a couple residential projects has gone through HUD, and now HUD is so backed up it takes months to get HUD approvals.

How is everyone doing? what does it look like on the horizon for you and your company? where are you located?

Paul Caruthers
Bessolo Design Group
St. Pete, FL

[ACADuser]

I had my hopes with the stimulus package. It's been a full year now and we have yet to see a penny of this money. All of that stimulus went to pay for projects that were already in the works in effect delaying the loss of work for those that were already employed. No new jobs were created as a result. Things are a real mess at the state level and is only going to get worse with time if things don't turn around soon.

Cuts have been made along with a first round of layoffs. Although we don't have much to do, we're good till the end of the fiscal year since we have a balanced budget. The problem is we have spent our "rainy day" fund and made many cuts leaving only one alternative come July. Layoffs, I hate that word. In all my years working in the private sector I have been laid off a few times. Since starting work with the government I thought It was the best financial decision I ever made for my retirement. Now I'm not so sure. If it does come to being laid off, I have a small amount of funds in my retirement account. As I have in the past, cashed out my retirement to pay the bills. My biggest concern is not being able to find work and running out of cash.

As always I try to look on the bright side. I have a job.

[Anonymous]

We are actually doing pretty good but then again, I am a sole employee. We
are a custom residential firm and we are very busy. We had an article in
ROBB Report a while ago and it has sparked some interest for us. Pretty
soon we will be looking at hiring a licensed architect as we expect to be
very busy this year.

[AllenJessup]

In New York the people who will be put to work with the stimulus money are the guide-rail installers and the bridge painters. Those were the projects that could be thrown together before the deadline. There weren't any big projects sitting sarong waiting for funding. You don't take a project to that stage unless you already have the funding in place and anything that already had funding wasn't eligible.
Shovel-Ready sounds good but how many large projects are there sitting on the shelf just waiting for funds. There are a lot of good ideas for projects and some that have had some investigation. But none with plans sitting in the hopper ready to go.
We did have one exception. We were supposed to build an new highway garage in 2009 and the plans were done. But the project was dropped because of the economy. But it didn't qualify for stimulus money because it wasn't the right kind of infrastructure.
Allen

[jmcintyre]

- Brisbane Australia.

From what I'm reading here we haven't got it anywhere near as bad as USA.
Certainly noticed a down turn in commercial work. Nearly all speculative developments have stopped (they can't borrow money). Housing market had a slight dip but recovered strongly. The government stimulus package is generating quite a bit of wotk, but will end soon. General unemployment is around 5-6%

[Anonymous]

Really? 😮

On 01/05/2010 11:14 AM, ACADuser wrote:
> I had my hopes with the stimulus package.
>

[Anonymous]

I've felt for you folks in civil/architectural. It's been rough enough in
mechanical, but not like you guys have seen. I was freelancing and doing
fine; now I'm drawing a salary. I'm blessed to be working at all, of
course, but was doubly fortunate to get on with a green energy company
that's stable and moving forward.

As bad as this has been, I have to chuckle when the innelekshuals compare it
to the Great Depression. I'm old enough to have talked to a few people who
lived through that time, and this isn't anything close to what they
described. I remember the man who told me about when he was a kid and his
mom got hold of a crate of apricots. She canned them without sugar becasue
there wasn't any, and that's what they ate for every meal one winter because
that's all there was. Now? Well, we've had a couple living with us because
he couldn't find work. Has it been a daily party? No, but we're fed,
clothed, sheltered from the weather, and there's hope.

Bring on 2010 indeed.

Cheers,
Walt

[Charles_Shade]

If you need a 2D outsource with great experience in Residential Design...
Regards, Charles Shade
clshade at cshadedesign dot com

[Anonymous]

My Grandfather (still with us, thankfully) grew up during the depression.
When I was in High School, I recorded him talking about his upbringing
and youth. I should convert that to digital sometime...
At any rate, for his family, it was corn. Corn meal mush for breakfast
and corn meal cakes for lunch and dinner.

Walt Jaquith wrote:
> I've felt for you folks in civil/architectural. It's been rough enough in
> mechanical, but not like you guys have seen. I was freelancing and doing
> fine; now I'm drawing a salary. I'm blessed to be working at all, of
> course, but was doubly fortunate to get on with a green energy company
> that's stable and moving forward.
>
> As bad as this has been, I have to chuckle when the innelekshuals compare it
> to the Great Depression. I'm old enough to have talked to a few people who
> lived through that time, and this isn't anything close to what they
> described. I remember the man who told me about when he was a kid and his
> mom got hold of a crate of apricots. She canned them without sugar becasue
> there wasn't any, and that's what they ate for every meal one winter because
> that's all there was. Now? Well, we've had a couple living with us because
> he couldn't find work. Has it been a daily party? No, but we're fed,
> clothed, sheltered from the weather, and there's hope.
>
> Bring on 2010 indeed.
>
> Cheers,
> Walt

[Anonymous]

pcaruthers@bessolo.com wrote:

>
> How is everyone doing? what does it look like on the horizon for you and your company? where are you located?
>

the housing market in KC dried up and blew away 2 years ago and hasn't
even started to act like there is any life there...commercial market is
heading that same direction rapidly...many smaller engineering and
surveying firms have closed their doors and more on the way...

[Charles_Shade]

Grandparents lived in Hampton Roads (If you do not know it the biggest naval port on the east coast if not the world). Nana told me she never knew the depression was happening. Seems that same reality is going on today. Your work or your geography dictate whether you are living on little or still going on vacation.
Regards, Charles Shade

[Anonymous]

Canada's version of a conservative is the left wing of the U.S.
Democratic party, so accusations against Obama can't use Canada as an
example... plus they have had government run health care for over 30 years.

Archy wrote:
> Y'all don't have Obama to contend with...
> Lucky Devils...
>
>
> Thus said The Dark Princess:
>> Toronto Ontario

[pcaruthers]

well, they say Florida is one of the worst hit by this. 18 months ago we had 37 people, all of us putting in 50 plus hrs. we are now 5. we have layed off all of our all of our project managers & engineers, and all of our drafters. it hasn't been fun. I know that most of the people we have layed off are still unemployed with a few exceptions, and those have actually relocated.

I am a little surprised by the response i got from my OP, I'm glad to see it's not just us, and also discouraged .....it's gonna be a long road for sure......


Paul

[Anonymous]

Joshua Tapp wrote:
> I was laid off in Portland, Oregon back in October, but found a new job in
> Bend, Oregon by the middle of December. Not the case for many of my former
> cow-orkers (some are at a year or more out-of-work).
>
Wow! I'm envious!! What a great place to live and work! I've spent lots
of time in the Bend to Redmond area fishing the Deschutes R canyon. If
my wife liked living in the woods/mountains I'd be your neighbor for sure 🙂
--
Dave - DDP
Acad 2010 64 bit on Win 7 Pro
Intel I7-860 @2.8GHz
8GB DDR3 RAM
GeForce GTX260

[pcaruthers]

Jamie I've been reading your post for years , I guess i just didn't realize you were from god's country. for some reason I had you pegged as a west coast girl..... (no insult intended there.)

you've been helpful in the past on several occasions, I'm glad that your firm is doing well. How about others across the border? or did our firm just happen to be in the right place at the right time doing the right thing.......my on version of the 3 R's

Paul Caruthers
Bessolo Design Group

[AllenJessup]

I was very lucky during the late 1980's when everything had plunged. I was laid off but my boss new of an opening for someone with my experience at the county highway dept. I'm still here after almost 20 years. While I expect that we'll be asked for give-backs when our contract is up at the end of 2010 there are no serious talk of lay-offs YET. But there is not money for anything that isn't vital. They removed a 3rd of our lights to save money and another 3rd have burned out with no sign they will be replaced.
I'm fairly sure I'll have to drop licensed of Civil 3D this year too.
Allen

[Charles_Shade]

Doesn't seem so bad west of the Mighty Missisip'. Most all responders have been here in the east.
Are they still asleep out there?
Regards, Charles Shade

[Anonymous]

The civil engineering market for coastal South Carolina is in the tank,
but we are trying to survive by becoming more diversified....



pcaruthers@bessolo.com wrote:
> good morning everyone.
>
> what a year it has been, we've all seen our share of layoffs, lost jobs, and no work. I'm curious to see if anyone out there is actually recovering....Here in Florida, we are not. Most of our work is in the elderly housing arena, we've managed to keep the firm afloat with these projects even though they are few in far between. Our reputation in this area has been a huge advantage for us. But there is still no commercial jobs that require Bank $$. The road sides are littered with half completed housing developments, and construction jobs that have been cancelled. Construction companies are dropping like flies along with many architectural firms... Everything we've done with exception of a couple residential projects has gone through HUD, and now HUD is so backed up it takes months to get HUD approvals.
>
> How is everyone doing? what does it look like on the horizon for you and your company? where are you located?
>
> Paul Caruthers
> Bessolo Design Group
> St. Pete, FL

[Anonymous]

No... we're just all busy working... 😉


I'm in St. Louis... I've heard about quite a few layoffs, but, I don't
actually work in construction myself, so I really don't know how bad it
is. My hospital is still doing projects, but, my contacts at many of our
long-time contractors have changed a bit 😞

A few of the folks from my LUG have re-tooled to become IT, Teachers,
freelancers, etc. or, like my spouse and a few of the guys in our
neighborhood from the local plant, are sitting out the recession as
Stay-At-Home-Parents. It seems like there are still *some* jobs hiring,
but, if they don't pay enough to cover daycare and gas, what's the
point, right?



Charles_Shade wrote:
> Doesn't seem so bad west of the Mighty Missisip'. Most all responders
> have been here in the east.
> Are they still asleep out there?
> Regards, Charles Shade

[Anonymous]

still bad here too (southeast PA)

we are fortunate to have one of the large builders as a client, and they have just enough work to keep us busy enough to avoid more
layoffs.

"Grizzly" wrote in message news:6312721@discussion.autodesk.com...
The civil engineering market for coastal South Carolina is in the tank,
but we are trying to survive by becoming more diversified....

[Charles_Shade]

Ouch..., and you're too close anyway.
About a dozen near about are middle management layoffs that haven't found any where to go. One guy was telling me he had been interviewing with a company for six months but is hopeful.
Regards, Charles Shade
I'm glad this got away from the politics and back to the core of the thread.