Hasta La Ideas

With the numbers reported in the American Institute of Architects’ Architecture Billings Index having returned to a monthly signal of gloom and despair, you’d think the AIA wouldn’t want to compound the collective depression with more knowledge of how rough things are right now in the business of building. Unfortunately, if you happened to miss it, last week the AIA announced that it is in the middle of assembling a database of stalled projects across the country, sharing that “almost two-thirds of architects responding to a recent AIA survey reported at least one project that is stalled due to lack of financing, despite record low interest rates.” But before you start crying into your beer (also: the larger problem could be that you’re drinking at 7am), you might perk up to learn that such a database might turn out to be a really good thing, and not some sort of sadistic torture perpetrated by the AIA. Instead, the goal of the database, which is set to be released “in the coming months,” will be made available to potential investors, to perk their interest in “stalled building projects nationwide that make economic sense but which lack the financing to be completed.” So instead of relying on investors to hunt around for new ways to make more money or fuel growth, the AIA’s database will hopefully handle some of that leg work for them. Our fingers are crossed.

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