The construction industry is undergoing a significant transformation as it embraces the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI). AI technologies such as machine learning, computer vision, and natural language processing are being used to automate construction processes, increase safety, and improve efficiency. Following is a brief look at the top 10 uses of AI in the construction industry.

1. Building Information Modeling – AI-powered BIM software enables construction professionals to design and visualize complex structures, manage project schedules, and estimate costs accurately. BIM software also integrates data from various sources to provide a single source of truth for all stakeholders.
2. Autonomous equipment – Self-driving construction equipment featuring sensors and cameras can operate autonomously and perform tasks such as excavation, grading, and paving. Autonomous equipment is more efficient, safer, and reduces labor costs.
3. Predictive maintenance – AI algorithms can analyze data from equipment sensors to predict when maintenance will be required. This enables construction companies to schedule maintenance before equipment failure occurs, reducing downtime and costs.
4. Safety monitoring – Computer vision algorithms can analyze video feeds from job sites to detect safety hazards and alert workers in real time. Safety monitoring can help prevent accidents and improve safety on job sites.
5. Quality control – AI-powered inspection systems can detect defects in materials, identify noncompliant construction practices, and ensure compliance with safety regulations. Quality control can improve the quality of construction and reduce costs tied to revisions.
6. Resource optimization – AI algorithms can analyze data on weather, traffic, and construction schedules to optimize resource allocation. Resource optimization can reduce delays, increase productivity, and save costs.
7. Risk management – AI algorithms can analyze data on construction risks such as weather, labor shortages, and material availability to assess the likelihood of delays and cost overruns. Risk management can help construction companies mitigate risks and ensure project success.
8. Energy efficiency – AI-powered energy management systems can analyze data on building energy use to optimize energy consumption, reduce costs, and improve sustainability. Energy efficiency can help construction companies achieve green building certification and reduce carbon emissions.
9. Augmented reality – AR technology can overlay digital information on real-world project environments to help workers visualize designs, detect safety hazards, and facilitate communication. AR can improve productivity and reduce errors on job sites.
10. Chatbots – Algorithms for processing natural language can enable construction companies to deploy chatbots to assist with customer service, answer FAQs, and provide real-time project updates. Chatbots can improve customer satisfaction and reduce response times.

In conclusion, AI technologies are transforming the construction industry by improving safety, efficiency, and sustainability. By embracing AI, construction companies can optimize resources, reduce costs, and deliver better outcomes for stakeholders.

Editor’s note: This article was assisted by an AI engine and reviewed, fact-checked and edited by our editorial staff.

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BY: Troy Hill, Cronkite News Service

Amid global climate change and a chronic shortage of affordable housing, construction companies and nonprofits are taking innovative steps to make homes more energy efficient and environmentally sustainable.

Strata International Group, headquartered in Phoenix, has made a name by building homes out of foam and concrete, and Habitat for Humanity of Central Arizona has  for a Tempe family – the first structure printed in Arizona.

These energy-efficient and affordable materials and techniques arrive at an opportune time. A 2018  reported a shortage of more than 7.2 million rental homes for low-income renters, and a 2019 report by the International Energy Agency and the U.N. Environment Programme found that the construction industry accounts for 39% of energy-related carbon emissions.

The foam home

To form the structure of a house, Strata uses a system it calls SABS, which utilizes an expanded polystyrene foam that is similar to Styrofoam. The foam is shaped, the shapes are bonded together into walls, ceilings and floors, then coated inside and out with a layer of the company’s special concrete mix, called Sabscrete. It holds everything together, protects the foam from impact, weather and fire, and allows the surface to be painted and textured. No lumber or steel is used.

“These houses are built to last 300, 400, 500 years,” said Amir Saebi, executive operations manager at Strata, adding that the foam acts as insulation – meaning less energy is required to cool or heat homes. That benefits both homeowners and the environment.

Contractor Kenneth Skinner, who’s using SABS to build his personal home in north Phoenix, expects the solar panels he’s installing on the roof to meet all his energy needs because of the insulating foam.

Because SABS doesn’t use lumber, it’s a big cost savings at a time of supply chain issues and inflation.

“It was going to cost me somewhere between $35,000 to $40,000 more … because of the lumber prices,” Skinner said. “So that’s right when I got introduced (to) Strata, and so I saved that money.”

Skinner is constructing his home with only a few workers; Saebi said some builds can have as few as three workers, given that construction is less intensive because workers only have to move large slabs of foam and Sabscrete mix.

But it’s not entirely eco-friendly, as Saebi acknowledged. Expanded polystyrene foam is made from petroleum waste products, he said, but that impact is offset because the homes are expected to last centuries – far longer than contemporary homes made of wood.

The printed house

Habitat for Humanity took another approach to affordable, sustainable homes: a giant 3D printer.

The equipment applies thin layers of concrete, one over the other, until a full wall or frame is erected, then workers pack insulation in the space between the wall layers. Once the exterior and interior walls are complete, the floors, ceilings and installations are completed using traditional building techniques. Habitat for Humanity estimates 70% to 80% of the 1,738-square-foot, three-bedroom house was printed.

It’s the first 3D printed home the nonprofit has built – and the first in Arizona – and the idea came from two Arizona State University graduates in sustainability. Habitat officials say they can’t calculate an exact cost for the project because most materials were donated, but they hope to use this technology to build more at lower costs.

3D printed houses are more energy efficient than traditional houses because concrete and the solidly packed insulation sustain internal temperatures.

“We’ve heard from the family (who lives in the home) that the AC doesn’t really come on much,” said Dusty Parsons, the chief marketing officer for Habitat for Humanity. “When it does, it’s only on for a few minutes, the house … stays very, very cool because it’s a solid double wall of concrete with foam insulation.”

The printer, made by the German company Peri and donated by them for use in this project, is supported by metal pillars and moved around the site on sliders controlled by computer.

Cronkite News reporter  contributed to this story.

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Concrete production, according to some sources, accounts for roughly 8 percent of the world’s carbon emissions each year. That’s a ratio that, if concrete were a country, would give it the third-largest carbon footprint in the world behind China and the United States.

Obviously, for building industry professionals, the amount of concrete used in a project really matters.

“We can give whole building life-cycle assessment (LCA) in terms of enclosure and structure,” said Baha Sadreddin, a high-performance design specialist with ZGF Architects. “And in around 70 percent or so of a given building the concrete accounts for the carbon; it’s the single biggest impact material.”

Even more important than concrete is the cement it contains. That’s the main source of carbon within concrete. And because it’s part of a larger mixture, the use of cement within concrete can be analyzed – and changed.

The concrete used today still owes its general makeup to the 19th century process of baking limestone and clay in an oven and then grinding it into powder to form Portland cement – the key ingredient along with aggregate and sand.

Cement production is very carbon-intensive. But modern researchers have devised new concrete mixes that feature greater use of substitute cementitious material. This practice has expanded in recent years as builders have looked for ways to reduce concrete’s carbon footprint.

Now, Sadreddin and ZGF principal Chris Chatto, also a high-performance design specialist, have devised a new digital tool that analyzes proposed concrete mixtures for their carbon footprint and performs an LCA based on data provided. It can be done in seconds so that results can influence the next pour.

“Everything is moving toward Revit (building information modeling software) integration, and the reality is we have to make decisions way before we have a Revit model,” Chatto said.

Until now, this type of analysis was not done routinely for concrete mixtures until after completion of a project. This seemed backward to Chatto and Sadreddin, so they created their own tool to perform an LCA for any proposed concrete mix based on a simple Excel spreadsheet.

Users enter the desired strength of the mix in pounds per square inch along with the proposed mix of ingredients. The tool then uses an LCA database from Tally, a Revit application that quantifies the environmental impact of numerous building materials, to compare the proposed mix to typical regional practices. By using known baseline mixes for different regions of the country, the tool calculates the impacts of a proposed mix on climate change, energy demand, acidification, eutrophication, ozone depletion and smog formation.

“We’re using Tally for our data, but our calculator is simple so we could pull different cements in with the right EPDs (Environmental Product Declarations),” Chatto said. “We thought about building our own web calculator, but honestly I feel like Excel (is) on everyone’s desktop and it’s easier to save things for a project this way. It takes people five minutes to figure out how to use it.”

The tool thus allows comparison between a proposed concrete mix design and regional baselines without a Revit model and without proprietary EPDs for those mixes.

It’s also a boon for parties seeking Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. The latest iteration of the world’s largest green building certification program assigns valuable points for use of products with EPDs as well as additional points for reaching carbon reduction marks of 5, 10 and 15 percent through the LCA process.

The tool has already proved its worth on several projects ZGF designed for California’s Department of General Services, including the Clifford L. Allenby Building completed in Sacramento this past spring. Use of the tool for that project allowed adjustments to concrete use so that the carbon footprint was reduced by 14.7 percent.

“We have to go further,” Chatto said, “but this is the first step toward building awareness in the industry. I’ve talked to some of our colleagues at other firms, and some are trying to get involved in LCA, but it’s daunting. But knowing concrete was the worst in terms of carbon footprint, we started there.”

ZGF is now offering its new tool for free to anyone who wants a copy.

“Right now the focus is to make the tool readily accessible, easy to use – and we know how high-impact concrete is,” Sadreddin said. “So we’re focusing on cement and hopefully we’ll have a lot of people using this.”

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Representatives of a manufacturer of earth-stabilizing geosynthetic fabrics say they have a product proven to reduce road project costs and increase the lifespan of infrastructure. But TenCate‘s been having trouble getting it adopted by a single state department of transportation.

With a new five-year funding plan providing some certainty for federal highway projects, this story of gridlock might be close to some kind of resolution.

“DOTs have been very innovative in how they spend money,” said Todd Anderson, a TenCate vice president. “But not so much in innovation in products.”

Late last year, TenCate representatives took to the road to visit Western states, where they see opportunity to expand their product line. They were joined by Eli Cuelho, a researcher in civil engineering at Montana State University. The product they were pitching is a structural geosynthetic fabric called Mirafi RS580i. They said they wanted to meet people outside their clique of engineers and public works specialists.

“It’s an innovative idea: building a better road using a plastic,” Cuelho said.

(Cuelho said that aside from travel expenses, TenCate wasn’t paying him for his endorsement.)

Developed in the 1960s, geosynthetics were first applied to road projects in the U.S. to provide separation between fine, natural materials and the crushed stone that builders add to stabilize a road. The technology has improved steadily, Cuelho said, but products like Mirafi represent an innovative step forward, despite more or less resembling any other geosynthetic fabric.

In 2012, Cuelho’s research team field-tested 12 geosynthetics to evaluate performance as subgrade stabilization. Nine state DOTs paid into the research project. Mirafi performed the best of the 12, though all the materials proved better than not using structural geosynthetics, they said.

“Our product performed well in the test, but really, our industry performed well,” said Mark Sikkema, TenCate’s Portland-area rep.

Mirafi and similar plastic products have two innovative properties, according to Cuelho: they strengthen and allow water to flow through. The structural strength they provide allows road engineers to use less rock on a project. For instance, a project calling for 24 inches of stone or gravel could be cut to 15 inches when Mirafi is used.

So, assuming a cost of $1 million per road lane per mile, using Mirafi saves an agency $36,000 per lane per mile, or roughly 3.5 percent. (The product itself costs between $3 and $4 per square yard.)

The other benefit – allowing water, but not fine materials, to flow through – has the potential to save a government money, by increasing a road’s life span by up to 10 years. When sands and other fine materials reach the gravel layer, Cuelho says, resulting pressure leads to ruts and other damage on the surface.

In Portland, Commissioner Steve Novick’s idea for a 10-cent gas tax to fund road improvements has been picking up steam. A pro-tax group, Fix Our Streets Portland, had raised $40,000 as of this week (the donor list is a who’s who of the Portland building and development community).

But change doesn’t come fast in infrastructure, Anderson said.

“It is tough to be innovative, because the engineer is going to be the one taking the risk,” he said. “If they’re going to deviate from what they’ve done for 20 years, and what’s being taught in textbooks, they’ve got to make sure it’s going to work.”

In the Western U.S., there are fewer quarries to put up political opposition, according to the TenCate team. But the percentage of Oregon’s pavement rated “good” is slipping, with conditions expected to continue to decline as pavement budgeting remains a low priority, according to ODOT’s latest Pavement Condition Report, issued in 2014.

ODOT has used geosynthetics for years on nearly every project to improve the durability of its roads, said Justin Moderie, an ODOT pavement design engineer. He said Mirafi meets several needs at once and could be useful in certain projects; however, he believes broader application could be cost-prohibitive.

“It is a very good innovation, I have to say that,” he said. However, “the costs I’ve seen for this one are pretty high, and with taxpayer dollars, we have to assess where a product’s useful and where it’s not. Widespread use probably wouldn’t be in the public’s best interest. Specific uses? Absolutely.”

Cost is key, Moderie said, and saving money on a road project involves balancing different factors. A heavy-duty geosynthetic can see more use in places like the Midwest, where there’s softer soil and less hard aggregate around for gravel. But it can also be more expensive.

“In many areas of Oregon we have very cheap, good-quality gravel. So we have to weigh whether a more expensive geosynthetic is worth it in that case,” he said.

The state doesn’t endorse products, but four styles of sub-grade reinforcement geo-grids are on ODOT’s Qualified Products List, a 209-page list that contractors can pull from and that ODOT designers use to specify materials in contracts. Mirafi is in “trial” use by ODOT, meaning contractors can use the product. But it won’t become “approved” until it’s used in two road projects, and then field-tested by ODOT engineers.

Dean Chess, who administers ODOT’s Qualified Products List, agreed that the balance of costs is different here in Oregon because of the availability of good, cheap aggregate materials. Mirafi is unique though, Chess said; because of its dual capacity to filter fine materials and provide structural strength it fits into two sections of the QPL.

For now, Mirafi RS580i is still being used mainly in private industry, like building dirt roads leading to well pads in the soft dirt of the North Dakota oil sands. Change happens slowly in their industry, Anderson said.

“We are excited,” he said. “We’re saying, look, you don’t have to do it the same way. You don’t have to look at saving money by restructuring your contracts or saving half an inch of asphalt or using a chip seal … You can take the savings and use it on something else. What do you want to use it on?”

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Portland is one of the most dynamic cities in the country for tech company growth, according to JLL’s 2015 Technology Office Outlook. Also, the city’s relatively low cost of doing business and its talent pool are spurring even more startup activity, according to the report.

The report showed that tech startups and other technology-based firms added more than 2.6 percent of jobs, pushing total tech jobs to more than 60,000 in the Portland area in 2014. That has resulted in office vacancy being pushed to historic lows in the past 12 months, while rents are growing higher. Rents have increased by almost 10 percent in the past 12 months.

Nevertheless, Portland’s average overall direct asking rent of $24.08 per square foot is still well behind larger, more established tech centers. In Seattle, the equivalent rent is $33.70 per square foot, in Silicon Valley it’s $41.68 per square foot; and in San Francisco it’s $66.80 per square foot.

Based on an estimate of each employee taking up 175 square feet of office space, the annual total real estate cost per employee in Portland is $4,214. In Seattle, it is $5,898, in San Francisco it’s $11,690 and in New York it’s $12,362.

The comparatively low cost of doing business in Portland has attracted enough tenants that searches for office space often are challenging, according to the report. Currently, total vacancy is only 9.1 percent. Over the next 18 months, the city will gain approximately 1.5 million square feet of office space in addition to its existing 58 million square feet, but half of that space has already been spoken for by growing firms.

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Picture this: Within the next 12 to 18 months, artificial intelligence will have completely taken over the building industry.

Power tools formerly used in construction will be replaced by what will appear to a layperson to be lightsabers. These lightsabers will be wielded by androids, each capable of doing the work of 1,000 men. Computer algorithms will be advanced enough to make deals between real estate moguls without the companies having to bother checking that they got the best possible deal. While the computers are in sleep mode, their dreams will create architectural renderings, effortlessly solving every problem that plagues mankind.

None of that is true, of course. However, technology has and will continue to dramatically change the world of building – from the way structures are created, sold and maintained, to how social media is used to attract top employees.

“There’s not any downside to the technology advances that have gone on during my 30-plus years of building buildings,” said Dan Kavanaugh, vice president and general manager at Turner Construction. “Every ounce of it has been to our benefit.”

THE CUTTING EDGE

With computers, smartphones and tablets being ubiquitous in today’s world, it is easy to forget that they can be used for much more important things than checking Facebook.

“You can’t do anything unless you’re set up with a computer, smartphone and iPad,” Kavanaugh said. “You have to have all of those tools these days. There’s no way around it. You can no longer be without any of that stuff. What we have at our fingertips is so far beyond what we had 15 years ago.”

Those devices have dramatically improved communication in the construction industry.

“Communication is instantaneous,” Kavanaugh said. “Our ability to communicate has just gone through the roof as to how we can communicate about the processes of building a building. It’s becoming a paperless process to a fair extent.”

Social media is another ubiquitous technology, but it is vastly important.

“Social media is really relevant,” said Susanne Orton, vice president of marketing and corporate communications at Harsch Investment Properties and the chair of the social media committee for Portland chapter of Construction Real Estate Women (CREW). “We use it a lot in supporting our tenants. We use it a lot in supporting our events. It’s a way to make connections. For example, LinkedIn is a great resource to provide thought leadership and connect industry leaders.”

Being on the cutting edge of technology has become essential not only to doing business, but also for companies to convince the most talented people to work for them.

“Technology helps us recruit talented employees and it helps us retain top talent,” said Eddy Wagoner, chief information officer for JLL Americas. “I don’t think people always felt real estate was cutting edge. But when our clients are cutting edge, that means we have to be right there with them.”

COMPUTERS, SOFTWARE AND DRONES

Kavanaugh believes one of the most important technological advances in construction is Building Information Modeling (BIM), which utilizes software to model buildings.

“BIM represents a whole category of software,” Kavanaugh said. “It’s a whole movement in the construction and design industry. You’re basically using the computer to model buildings. It goes through the entire building and models it so that we can work through how the building goes together. We can avoid conflicts that we might not otherwise realize. We can see a myriad of things, like if a beam or a footing conflicts with underground utilities.

“It’s a very impactful transformation in the construction industry. It ties together everybody from the developer conceiving their vision of the building, to the architect who is designing it, to us in construction and the subcontractors who are building it. Everyone is using BIM these days.”

While a project is being built, drones have provided an entirely new avenue for marketing.

“The drone technology is really helpful because during construction you can show actual views from the point in the sky where your glass will be while the building is constructed,” said Vanessa Sturgeon, president and CEO of TMT Development. “People won’t have to guess what their views will be like; they’ll know. It’s a huge sale factor.”

Once a structure is built, companies have the ability to control maintenance systems with computers.

“Now, all of your maintenance systems are online,” Sturgeon said. “If someone has an issue with their air conditioning, my engineer can log in and turn that on from home. We can get problems dealt with in real time.”

THE BOTTOM LINE

As interesting as technology can be on an academic level, companies would not use it unless it benefited them financially.

Sturgeon said that handling emergency maintenance issues with computers can save huge amounts of money, while also improving customer service.

“With something like a water issue, every minute makes a difference,” Sturgeon said. “You can get that system under control before it becomes a massive damage problem. And those solid customer service experiences drop down to the bottom line.”

Businesses are able to use the digital age to promote transparency and maintain the faith of the public.

“Everything is available on your iPhone,” Orton said. “When something comes out in media, whether it’s social media, whether it’s on your website, whether it’s a broker flyer, the facts are available for anyone to check. That’s really been a transformative moment for us in the real estate public relations field. It’s a huge deal.

“The life of a Tweet is about an hour. And we’re constantly having to generate content. But because of the nature of social media and because of the nature of the digital space that we live in, the content has to be accurate. Everything has to be transparent. If you put something out there that’s not transparent, someone will find out and you’ll lose your credibility.”

Technology has not necessarily made building a structure faster, but it has improved the quality of what is being built.

“I don’t know that we necessarily build faster,” Kavanaugh said. “At times I know we do and at other times, not really. There are a lot of things that impact a schedule of whether we build faster.

“But, our buildings have become a fair amount more complex. When I first started, we built more straight forward buildings. These days, buildings are sophisticated pieces of construction and design. Technology has certainly enhanced our ability to do things in a more communicative and collaborative way that produces more quality.”

It is safe to say that there will not be androids working with lightsabers and computers selling property with algorithms while designing buildings in their sleep anytime soon. However, the advances in technology over the coming decades are certain to be astounding.

“We’re in our infancy with technology,” Kavanaugh said. “Where technology goes in another 30 years, it will be just amazing. Where it’s come in my 30 years of work has been crazy-cool. It will be tenfold cooler in the next 30 years.”

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Organizing a union in the workplace? There may not be app for that right now, but employment lawyers think it’s just a matter of time before one pops up.

The call for an app or platform to help workers organize with just the swipe of a smartphone or tablet screen was issued recently by a pro-labor think-tank called The Century Foundation.

In their 19-page paper, think-tank president Mark Zuckerman, senior Fellow Richard Kahlenberg, and Fellow Moshe Z. Marvit outline the benefits that unions would reap by moving their recruiting efforts out of the past and into the modern-day world of technology. The most obvious benefit, according to the three authors, would be a boost in union membership numbers that have been sagging for decades.

In 2014, the number of union members increased from 2013, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the percent of American workers in unions dropped slightly from the previous year, representing a loss of market share for organized labor. The situation is a far cry from decades ago, when unions were at the height of their power.

“The (decline) has pretty much been ongoing since the 1970s, from a high point in the 1950s, when about 40 percent of the private-sector workforce was unionized,” said Jose Klein, an employment lawyer in the Portland office of Fisher & Phillips. “Now, it’s about six percent.

“It’s been a long, steady decline, and there are a lot of reasons why. Some of it has to do with jobs being shipped away to other countries. Some of it has to do with just changes in attitudes of the American worker.”

In their paper, Zuckerman, Kahlenberg and Marvit also attribute the decline in the popularity of unions among workers to a general reluctance by organized labor to embrace technology, which has hampered the ability to connect with new generations entering the workforce.

Doug Tathwell, the IT administrator for the International Brother Hood of Electrical Workers Local 48, admits his group was slow to tap into technology. But the union now is working to make up for lost time.

In addition to using social media such as Twitter and Facebook, the group uses text messaging to communicate. Its members can jump on the Local 48 website for dispatch services and to pay dues.

Ben Basom, communications director for the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, said his group also was slow to adopt technology, but the situation now is changing quickly.

The carpenters’ group has an active social media presence, taps into text messaging mobilization and has even held remote town halls, according to Basom. The group’s website is undergoing a major update.

While the northwest regional council sees a big benefit in using technology to connect with existing members, it would be less likely to tap into an app – or any other high-tech approach — to recruit new members, according to Basom.

“I think apps and Facebook and Twitter feeds and websites are great tools to use as resources for information,” Basom said, “but when you’re trying to recruit new members, our best tool is what our union was founded on 134 years ago – person to person.

Tathwell agrees.

“If an iPhone app would bring in electricians, we would have it already,” Tathwell said. “(In recruiting), you’ve got to earn trust, and you don’t earn trust through an app.”

Despite the union stance that an app for workplace organizing isn’t needed, Fisher & Phillips employment lawyer Klein believes the question isn’t if an app for organizing in the workplace will be created, but when.

Within the past 12 months, changes in national labor laws have created a landscape that’s ripe for unions to make a push to regain strength. New administrative rules published this year, for example, have shortened the timeline for instituting an election to unionize a workplace, leaving employers with less time than before to present a counter-argument to employees.

An app supporting worker efforts to organize would leave employers at an even larger disadvantage.

“This app would make organizational activities a lot less visible to employers,” Klein said. “It’s possible there could be elaborate conversations going on that the employer would have no way of knowing about.”

That’s why Klein says it’s critical for employers to gauge – and address — employee satisfaction related to work conditions.

“It’s really important that (owners) understand and keep an eye on employee sentiment, and the key piece there is your front line supervisors, who operate as liaisons between owners and employees,” he said.

Sometimes the solution can be as simple as creating a workplace committee to provide a way to address issues and concerns before they have a change to fester and spread, according to Klein.

“One of the things that leads employees to organize is when employees feel the employer does not hear them or their concerns,” he said. “It’s a world in which employers need to figure out ways to remain connected to employees’ feelings, to understand what employees are feeling and try to address employee concerns before they mushroom into clandestine organizing.”

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Technology companies are continuing to expand in Portland, taking up limited office space and driving up rents, according to a third-quarter market report released last week by Jones Lang LaSalle.

“Office vacancy in Portland is at 10 percent – the lowest it’s been since 2000,” said Patricia Raicht, JLL’s vice president of research. “Tech demand continues to dominate our office leasing activity with tech occupiers making up more than 30 percent of all office demand, up from just 14 percent in 2011.”

According to data from Greater Portland Inc., Portland has 86,000 high-tech workers. That’s 30 percent more than the national average.

Raicht said limited supply is driving up rents in the Central Business District. Overall, office space rents are up 3.7 percent year over year, and specific submarkets have experienced increases significantly greater.

“Developers and occupiers (are) finding unique and creative ways to meet their space needs,” JLL Senior Vice President Eric Haskins said. “Owners are repositioning their buildings with amenities and features desired by tech tenants – they want a rich amenity set.”

Some of those amenities, Haskins said, are updated lobbies, athletic facilities and showers, bike parking, outdoor spaces and a strong component of sustainability.

Owners are not only remodeling office spaces, but also increasing new construction in the Portland area, Raicht said.

“There is now 780,000 square feet under construction, and we expect 400,000 square feet to deliver to the market in 2014,” she said.

Brad Christiansen, a Colliers International vice president, said he believes that a combination of affordability, an educated workforce and Portland’s culture are drawing companies to open offices in the area.

“On a macro level all the things our leadership program began promoting years ago – smart urban growth, good quality of life, emphasis on education – are all in alignment with what millennials value,” he said. “It’s a unique dynamic that we have an alignment between the culture here combined with a lower cost of living and an educated workforce that we didn’t have 15 years ago.”

Christiansen said larger tech companies are looking to Portland rather than Seattle or San Francisco in part because though rents are on the rise, they’re still far less than in either of those cities. Not only is office space more affordable, but apartments are too, comparatively.

“I’m hearing from companies that when they’re opening an office here they’re internally having a portion of their employee base ask for a transfer (here),” Christiansen said. “I see the trend of tech companies coming to Portland continuing as the cost of doing business continues to go up.”

When companies look to open an office in Portland they’re able to hire well-educated, high-quality people at a fraction of the salary they’d have to pay in a larger market, Christiansen said.

“They come here and they see the proximity to schools like Portland State (University), which has one of the top graphic design programs in the country, or Pacific University,” he said. “There’s Oregon State (University), where they have great mechanical and structural engineering programs. Those skills are transferable to the tech industry.”

Paige Morgan, a senior vice president at JLL, said her firm is seeing institutional and even foreign interest in Portland’s real estate market increase.

“Interest in Portland as an investment market has increased dramatically in the past several years with buyer pools deepening,” she said. “Two things are driving this increased interest; the first is the flood of capital that is being priced out of primary markets, and the second is our solid and improving market fundamentals.”

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For all of their differences, the construction and legal industries share a common trait: They’re both slow to embrace change.

Or at least they used to be. Lately, contractors have led their industry in tapping into ways technology can help them construct buildings in ways that save clients time and money.

Lawyers, too, are realizing that the world in which they operate has changed in more than a few ways – and for more than a few reasons.

Like construction companies, law firms took a hard hit during the recession. As their business clients tightened their belts in order to survive, they began to demand that the law firms they worked with do the same.

“Before the recession, most law firms had carte blanche to charge whatever they wanted,” said K. William Gibson, a former personal injury attorney who now focuses on arbitration and mediation in his Clackamas solo practice. “(Once the recession hit), corporations were saying, ‘Those days are over.’ Because business for (attorneys) had slowed so much … power shifted to the consumers rather than the providers.”

Charging clients less meant that law firms had to find ways to shave the time that attorneys spent with clients, such as cutting down on frequent face-to-face meetings.

“So much of what goes on with an attorney and a client … really doesn’t require a lot of action,” said Gibson, who has written and edited several books for attorneys.

One of the most common solutions has been for law firms to go virtual, saving clients time and money by offering documents and case updates online. The exact definition of a virtual firm, though, is still being shaped by law firms and their clients. In “Flying Solo,” a book edited by Gibson and slated for release in the next month or two, a chapter by contributing writer Chad E. Burton describes the various ways firms interpret being virtual.

For some firms, Burton writes, being virtual means offering every aspect of a practice online using cloud technology and a portal that allows clients to see – and access – virtually everything.

“In that case, a lawyer might not need to have an office,” Gibson said. “But that’s the extreme, and few are going that far.”

Instead, most firms that call themselves virtual are actually a combination of virtual and more traditional models. While they rely on some form of a bricks-and-mortar home base – such as a traditional office space, or a rental conference room for meetings – they also offer clients virtual components.

Embracing the concept of any aspect of virtual is easier for solo practitioners and small firms. Moving a large firm – especially those with a long history in the industry – in that same direction can take more effort, starting with changing the mindsets of attorneys in the firm. But Gibson expects that eventually having a virtual presence to some degree will likely become the norm for law firms.

For one thing, there’s pressure from online sites such as Legal Zoom: They are forcing attorneys to venture into the virtual world in order to compete. For another, younger attorneys entering the field who have grown up with iPhones and cloud computing will likely enter the profession with fewer qualms about trusting technology.

“I see it continuing to gain acceptance…,” Gibson said. “One drawback up to this point was the scarcity of platforms that lawyers could purchase to develop an online presence. Now there are more online legal portals available. Now it’s easier.”

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Technology upstart Viewpoint Construction Software announced Tuesday that Bain Capital will invest $230 million into the company by the end of the week.

The deal has been in the works since October as Viewpoint looked to expand its reach into the global construction software market, said Jay Haladay, Viewpoint’s chairman and CEO.

“By any measure, it is a large investment,” he said.

Demand for greater construction technology is fueling the company’s revenues, which were $19 million in 2009 and are projected to be $140 million in 2014, according to Haladay.

“We’re going to be a much larger business three or four years out, and the construction market is compatible with us being a much larger business,” he said.

The investment by Bain Capital, a private firm with holdings in companies as varied as The Weather Channel, LinkedIn and SurveyMonkey, is expected to increase Viewpoint’s growth potential in the next three or four years. The next step, Haladay said, will be for the company to go public.

“What we’re saying is Bain is investing in our business, but they expect to invest more in our growth,” he said. “This is just the starting point.”

In July 2012, global private equity firm TA Associates invested $76 million in Viewpoint, then known as Coaxis Inc. The company also received $10 million from Updata Partners in 2010.

Eighteen months ago, Haladay had thought future growth would come from one of his company’s current investors. But the company’s growth had him reconsider, he said.

Updata Partners typically invests in companies in early stages, and has an investment capacity of between $10 million and $25 million, Haladay said. TA Associates typically invests between $50 million and $125 million. Bain has a minimum investment of $200 million.

Both companies are selling their interest to Bain as part of the deal, Haladay said.

“It’s a little like having banking relationships,” he said. “As you grow, your needs of your financial institutions change.”

The time frame for Viewpoint to go public, Haladay said, will depend on the markets and the company’s ability to create a predictable business model, he said.

“The important thing about our relationship with Bain is that they are aligned very similarly to us,” he said. “We don’t have a predetermined time frame. It could be a year. It could be three years.”

Most of Viewpoint’s growth is expected to come from its building information modeling software products. The industry is going through a paradigm shift that parallels what happened in the auto industry around the time of the Model T, Haladay said.

“We are right at the threshold of being an industry that goes through a lot of automation,” he said. “Construction is going to go through that same kind of revamping over the course of the next 15 to 25 years. We have positioned ourselves to be very relevant in that conversation.”

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