Focus Introduces Building Chicago, an Industry Event Aimed at Elevating the Conversation Around Chicago Construction

Focus recently hosted the first Building Chicago roundtable, the first in a series of programming aimed at elevating the conversation around the challenges facing the Chicago real estate industry.

Held at Roister in Fulton Market, Focus coordinated a panel of industry innovators to discuss how they are combating the rising cost of construction, particularly when building mid-rise product in the Chicago neighborhoods. During the exclusive event for industry insiders, the panel focused on the use of creative technology, design and construction methods such as hybrid building technologies, prefabrication, fenestration and structural and MEP technologies. Moderated by Chris Hume of Cullen Construction Management, the panel included Angela Spadoni of Skender, Jeff Goulette of SGW Architects, Steve Franckowiak of Forefront Structural Engineers, Bill Montgomery of AMS Mechanical Systems and Josh Stark of Focus.

“Speaking as a panelist at Focus’ recent Building Chicago event was a unique experience as the entire panel was focused on bringing viable solutions to the very real challenges facing developers in the current market,” said Jeff Goulette of SGW. “The well moderated discussion included a lot of valuable insight into the new technologies available to the industry today and how those are improving each project’s bottom line.”

Building Chicago is a new initiative for Focus, which aims to provide a space for candid conversations amongst industry leaders with the goal of smarter, more efficient development and construction in Chicago. “We hope the content produced as part of the Building Chicago roundtable series will encourage collaboration and innovation amongst the leaders in our industry,” said Focus CEO and Founder, Tim Anderson. “The goal is that everyone walks away with new ideas and techniques they’d like to explore further.”

In addition to a quarterly series of roundtables, Building Chicago programming will include articles, which take a deep dive into the challenges facing our industry along with newsletters curated by industry experts and more.