Specialty Contractor of the Year: Baker Concrete Construction
After winning accolades for its worker-safety program, Baker Concrete Construction is embarking on a commitment to continuous improvement.

Push Comes to Shove Over the Ohio River
By Tudor Van Hampton
Murray Johnson had performed this sort of heavy lifting before, but the previous feat was just a warm-up.

Diversity Key to HDRs Chicago Conquest
By John Gregerson
Until recently, HDR inc. was perhaps the best-known design firm no one knew was operating in Chicago.

BP Primes Its Whiting Plant for Canadian Crude
By Pam Radtke Russell
While debate rages over whether the Keystone XL pipeline should be built for exporting Canadian oil sands to the U.S., the matter is a moot point in Whiting, Ind.

BP Primes Its Whiting Plant for Canadian Crude
By Pam Radtke Russell
While debate rages over whether the Keystone XL pipeline should be built for exporting Canadian oil sands to the U.S., the matter is a moot point in Whiting, Ind.

Roosevelt University Moves Into Modern Digs
Upstaging Adler & Sullivan's rock-solid Auditorium Building in downtown Chicago is a glassy new landmark for Roosevelt University.

Chicago's Wacker Drive Is A Summer Blockbuster
Hollywood producers love a good sequel. But what about road engineers? While a successful movie's return squeezes extra profit out of a film franchise, a valuable highway follow-up cashes in on the lessons learned from previous work, yielding infrastructure that holds up over time.

No Slippage, But Not Much Traction Either
The region?s top engineers advanced, but most Midwest designers merely maintained their footing in 2010.

Owner of the Year: Magellan Development Group
It took a village to launch Magellan on its most ambitious undertaking to date: a $4-billion community in the heart of Chicago.

Six Companies To Watch
They managed to weather the Great Recession by retooling, reorganizing and reinventing themselves. Now, they're ready to roll in 2011.

Midwest Construction's Best of 2010
Annual awards program recognizes the best projects in eight states.

Midwest Construction's Best of 2010
Annual awards program recognizes the best projects in eight states.

Midwest?s Top 80 Designers
Billings hit $1.7 billion despite recession.

2010 Top Specialty Contractors
Subdued forecast leaves little room for optimism.

Top Project Starts
Midwest Construction presents its annual list of Top Project Starts, which ranks projects that broke ground in 2009 by their contract cost.

2010 Owner of the Year
Midwest Construction introduces the 2010 Owner of the Year, the City of Carmel, Ind. Rapid growth and change have presented the city with the opportunity to literally construct its own future.The city has orchestrated some $300 million worth of infrastructure projects in the past five years or so, along with hundreds of millions of dollars in brickand-mortar projects of all types.

Higher Education Construction
In a year when most segments of the construction industry are in the doldrums, many colleges and universities are keeping up some level of maintenance, renovation, and construction activity. Though only Illinois showed a rise in highereducation construction starts from 2008 to 2009, colleges in Indiana and Wisconsin also continue to renovate and build.

Regional Outlook: 2010 a Bit Better than 2009
Industry indicators show that the construction industry’s decline has slowed and many industry experts expect the upturn to start sometime in 2010. Although many factors can affect the recovery, nearly every expert we interviewed thinks the industry faces a long slow climb back to prosperity.

Midwest Construction?s Best of 2009 Awards Highlight 44 Outstanding Projects
Midwest Construction?s Best of 2009 competition drew 128 entries again this year, tying the 2008 contest for the highest total since the competition began in 1998.

Chicago?s Block 37 Really Springs to Life
Block 37, formerly the last undeveloped site in Chicago?s Loop, has reached another milestone. This fall the 60-store retail enterprise, formally known as 108 N. State, is opening with a roster of high profile clients.

One for the Books: New Library combines underground storage, automated retrieval, and glass-dome top
To keep its growing collection of rare research materials readily accessible and yet safe, the University of Chicago chose a unique design for its new Mansueto Library.

Indianapolis? Huge Hotel Expansion City and developer go with four facilities instead of one large building
The city of Indianapolis had good news and bad news for hotel-developing partners White Lodging and REI Investments. Yes, the city announced just before Christmas 2006, you win the deal to build a massive hotel in downtown Indianapolis.

Top Specialty Contractors for 2009
Despite a faltering economy and hot competition, specialty contractors are still holding on

Contractor of the Year
Pursuing Work in Growing Markets Keeps Up Revenue at Mortenson Construction

Top 2009 Projects
Warnings are proliferating about an infrastructure crisis dogging the nation, and the message may be getting through

Owners of the Year
Dr. Construction will see you now, Chicago. Like an ailing patient, construction in the Windy City has been groaning about the sluggish economy, tight credit and declining activity.

Bridges
The disastrous collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis in fall 2007 forced government officials to focus much more on the need to care for the nation?s infrastructure.

A New Mission
On the night of the first election in Iraq in 2005, a roadside bomb seriously injured Lt. Jason Scott of Chicago.

Renewable Energy Grows
Long a creaking symbol of the rural Midwest, wind turbines are spinning in the region again as part of wind farm.

Local 2009 Outlook
President-elect Barack Obama is ushering in hope in the United States at a time when economic problems continue nationwide and commercial construction forecasts darken in the Midwest.