Happy New Year from Finley Design. We started 2021 hopeful that the pandemic would soon dissipate. At year-end, COVID remains a force of massive disruption. Despite this, we are growing while partnering with our clients to meet new challenges with innovative solutions and strategies.
2021: A Year of Supply and Price Uncertainty
During 2021, the construction industry saw two major changes that impacted projects:
- Availability of materials (or lack of) combined with construction industry operating capacity led to significant labor shortages and cost increases across the board.
- Prices for materials such as structural steel and wood framing saw a roller coaster of spikes and drops throughout the year, ultimately resulting in increased costs for most projects in construction.
Combined, these changes caused projects that were initially designed and priced within budget to face pandemic-related cost increases. As we head into 2022, we’re still dealing with availability and pricing issues.
Over the past year, Finley Design worked closely with our clients to create innovative solutions to get projects built within reasonable budgets despite the surge in construction costs. A few commercial projects that were originally composed of structural steel with metal studs were converted to concrete block structures with wood trusses. This approach allowed projects to stay relatively affordable working with modified pro formas so clients can deliver space already committed to tenants while still achieving financial success.
Steel trusses have been a particular point of concern as lead times have ranged from 6 to 9 months at some points throughout the year to get steel trusses delivered. This forced our design team to evaluate alternative solutions including wide flange steel structures for roof conditions in lieu of trusses to meet delivery dates for tenants. The attractive designs we developed were kept intact while ensuring on-time delivery while minimizing increased cost as much as possible.
It’s times like these that our planning efficiency and approach to economical design from the beginning of every project adds tremendous value for our clients. With our proven approach, our clients have been able to proceed with construction and meet schedules despite the turbulent construction costs we all face.
As we begin 2022, we expect price uncertainty and supply chain delays to continue to be an issue. Finley Design is working hard to stay vigilant in our continued dedication to keep buildings simple in design while achieving high-quality results.
Focus on Building Simply Carries Us Through
In our multi-family residential design, our approach is to build simply while achieving innovative designs that provide our clients highly competitive and attractive brands that are buildable even in these uncertain times. This commitment to simplicity has led to significant growth in our client base and new opportunities in a variety of residential projects, as well as our commercial work. We’re now designing projects in several states ranging from townhouses to garden apartments, mid-rise, adaptive re-use, and mixed use developments in addition to a constantly expanding retail portfolio.
Featured Projects
Mosaic at Chatham Park
In the past year, the first buildings at Mosaic at Chatham Park were completed with the first tenants open for business. The next wave of buildings at Mosaic includes 160 residential apartments as well as the first group of for-sale condominiums, with both starting construction in the second half of 2021.
Roanoke Convention Hotel Conversion
Our solution for the conversion of a former convention hotel in Roanoke into apartment towers and garden apartments with a hospitality level clubhouse at The View at Blue Ridge Commons continues construction with units to be delivered in the first half of 2022.
Garden Apartments in Mooresville
Granger Village, the contemporary garden apartment project in Mooresville, North Carolina, has begun construction and will provide a unique and highly competitive brand for our client in that market.
Expect More from Finley Design in 2022
In 2022, Finley Design will introduce a number of new innovations in client experience, collaborative vision, lighting design, and residential design. We look forward to working with our loyal client base as well as our growing list of new clients in implementing and making use of these innovations to improve our performance as well as our clients’ success.
Our team continues to grow with creative individuals that possess unique skill sets that will expand our capabilities and commitment to continuously improve our design approach in creating distinct environments.
