Pawn or king?
By Candy
Doyle
Editor
Forecasting
the future is never easy — especially considering this past
year.
Who could’ve
predicted the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks or their impact on the
economy?
No one.
And who knew
the country was in a recession — and had been since March?
Again, no
one — not even our country’s leading economists, who
hadn’t stumbled upon that realization until this fall.
Nevertheless,
you have to plan for the coming year, and it only makes sense
to make plans for 2002 based on what’s happened in 2001.
And, for the industry, it hasn’t been all bad.
In fact, construction
in Wisconsin broke a record when volume hit the $11 billion mark.
And as far
as the stature of projects go, 2001 was a banner year: the Milwaukee
Brewers unveiled Miller Park, the renovation of Lambeau Field
made great strides and the much-anticipated Santiago Calatrava’s
Milwaukee Art Museum addition opened.
So what to
expect? What’s in store for construction in Wisconsin?
In Forecast
2002, we asked those in the know. We asked legislators what they’d
likely legislate, architects what plans are on 2002’s drawing
boards and economists whether the coming year would be a boom
or bust.
Not insignificant,
we asked contractors — and association’s representing
them — what the future holds.
Of course,
the answers were all different, reflecting the expertise and interests
of those we asked.
But everyone
we talked to had this in common: Everyone shared an optimism that
the economy would turn around next year and bring renewed opportunity
for growth.
That’s
not too surprising, as much of what the new year rings in will
depend on faith, not fate.
There are
forces out of your control — there’s little one contractor
can do about a national economy that’s gone sour, for sure.
But there’s
also much that one can do — being aware of economic conditions
that affect the industry and being flexible enough to change course
as needed, for instance — to out weather a financial storm.
It’s
your move.
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2001, Daily Reporter Publishing Company, All Rights Reserved.
