Last night, one of my customers, Phil Frey of B&F Partners, had a surprise 60th birthday party. Since Phil worked as a dentist on a Navajo Indian reservation in the 1980s, his wife Pati threw him a “Phil Missed the 1980s” party. My costume, like most of the men, consisted of turning up my collar on a polo shirt. TBW, on the other hand, went all out with an Olivia Newton-John work-out outfit and won the prize for best costume.

Lots of people I work with in the development, design and construction industry attended. We enjoyed talking shop in the 1980s environment (which doesn’t seem that long ago to me). What fascinated me was the enthusiasm and new directions I encountered.

One developer just launched a sitework contracting company by hiring some fantastic personnel available due to the challenging times. Beyond doing his own sitework efficiently, he can deliver some great values to customers, treating them like friends. So while many sitework companies are teetering on bankruptcy, new ones are opening with different strategies.

A mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) firm I often utilize has branched into new markets and has been looking for a talented young Professional Engineer to help their designs improve even more. They’ve been looking for quite a while and haven’t found the person that fits. So for any MEP engineers out there, here’s a great opportunity.

Another developer recently bought property in Panama, knowing that lots of earth fill on the property would be utilized for another large project. He’s teamed with a local excavating company to provide expertise and investment to get the work done in Central America.

Generally, people in the development, design and construction industry aren’t a doom and gloom bunch. We’re innovators looking for opportunities. As I talked and listened last night, and from what I’ve been reading, now’s not the time to double down and bet your hand. Now’s the time to innovate. Evaluate what you do, what your market has done and where it might be heading. Try to position your firm, or yourself, to be where the fun projects are.

Speaking of fun, Pati arranged for an old style photo booth for the party. TBW and I had a go.

I found a few tidbits in this week’s ENR that I thought you might enjoy.

You are probably sick of reading about the new health care law, regardless of which side you’re on. Did you know that the construction industry has a special status in the new law? For every company in America, except construction companies, 50 full time workers tips the firm into the requirement to provide health care to employees. The law currently states that construction companies must provide health care with 5 employees or $250,000 in payroll. The penalty is $750 per employee per year.

Supposedly, the Reconciliation package will eliminate this special treatment of the construction industry. As you’d expect, vocal proponents are politicking on either side of the issue. Construction business groups wonder about the hardest hit industry of the Great Recession taking another shot. Union leaders want the 5 employee rule to stand.

The unemployment rate in construction dropped from 27% to 25%, which I guess is good news. Though an industry with a 1 out of 4 people out of work really can’t celebrate. Firms I’m talking with are starting to see some work moving in mid-2010, though most don’t see much improvement till 2011. The forecast seems to vary widely depending on the types of buildings.

Most of my work seems to be designing and constructing apartment buildings, churches and solar farms. A decade or two ago, it was factories and office buildings. I’m not sure what that says about America, but I’m thinking it isn’t so good.

Something that is good, though, is the cover story in ENR about an innovative apartment building now being constructed in Manhattan. Designed by architect Frank Gehry (think the curvy metal of the Disney Theater in LA or the Guggenheim Museum in Spain), this 70 story building is on time and budget. Nadine Post writes yet another wonderful article outlining how the various players work together to design and build this complex project. She also makes the astute observation that the cooperative design-build team kept much of the project simple (to control cost) and only added the curves and complexity where it showed.