MidAtlantic City Scoop: Construction Starts in Baltimore

City Scoop: Baltimore — Total Construction Spending Expected to Increase by More Than 7% This Year

Hill International is currently working on the General Services Administration’s Altmeyer Building in Woodlawn, Md.

*PHOTO BY H.C. CLARK, COURTESY HILL INTERNATIONAL*

ECS focuses on geotechnical engineering, construction materials testing, environmental consulting and facilities engineering services.

*PHOTO COURTESY ECS MID-ATLANTIC LLC*

City Grill

Edward C. Newman
Senior Vice President
Hill International Inc.

From the $5.5-billion mixed-use Port Covington development to the $184-million Towson University science building, the Baltimore area is active in all sectors, says Newman, especially projects catering to millennials, knowledge workers and the companies that employ them. Hill is working on a Philips Electronics North America project for health care device research that Newman says is “indicative of the kind of tenants and owners Baltimore is attracting today.”

Hill is also working on several projects in Maryland for the U.S. General Services Administration, including one at the Social Security Administration’s Altmeyer Building in Woodlawn. “All of this office and residential construction means more and upgraded infrastructure is needed, from roads and highways to services,” Newman says.

Though Newman calls Baltimore a “dynamic city,” he notes that the city’s growth should be managed carefully to prepare for what he sees as the impending end of the current construction wave. He also says Baltimore’s “intractable problem” of poverty and the “trying” political climate mean “projects need to consider residents and local businesses as stakeholders, not challenges, and learn their concerns and objectives. Successful growth in Baltimore will be inclusive, and, once that goal is met, the growth will become self-sustaining.”

Firm in Focus

ECS Mid-Atlantic LLC
14026 Thunderbolt Place, Suite 300, Chantilly, Va.
Subsidiary President: Leo Titus
Employees: 1,700
Founded: 1988
Wide-Ranging: ECS focuses on geotechnical engineering, construction materials testing, environmental consulting and facilities engineering services.

The firm has 16 offices located throughout the region, including one in Baltimore. ECS is currently providing geotechnical engineering, monitoring services and construction materials testing for the Bainbridge Federal Hill Apartments in Baltimore.

The firm was recently awarded contracts on two construction-materials testing contracts for the CSX Camden Street Storm Drain Replacement and the Community College of Baltimore County Essex Campus-Health Careers & Technology Building.

The firm also recently won work on two Baltimore City Public School projects: Patterson High School and Claremont Middle/High School.