This week, the AIA announced the nine recipients of the 2010 AIA Young Architects Award. The prize recognizes individuals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and made significant contributions to the profession early in their careers.

The New York Times is reporting that Testwell Laboratories owner and CEO V. Reddy Kancharla tried to commit suicide last week, two days after being convicted of falsifying concrete mix reports and filing them with the city.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom this week laid out a local stimulus plan that, if approved by the always unstable board of supervisors, would speed up four pending residential construction projects that have been held up due to the economy and city regulations.

The value of new construction starts slipped 1% in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $419.3 billion, according to McGraw-Hill Construction, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

At a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $405.0 billion, new construction starts in November dropped 9% from the previous month, according to McGraw-Hill Construction, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

New York, N.Y. ? November 20, 2009 ? The value of new construction starts climbed 12% in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $447.6 billion, it was reported by McGraw-Hill Construction, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies. The upward push came from double-digit gains for nonresidential building and nonbuilding construction (public works and electric utilities). At the same time, residential building in October was unchanged from its September pace. Through the first ten months of 2009, total construction on an unadjusted basis came in at $350.1 billion, down 29% from the same period a year ago.

Given that, among the 50 largest metro areas in the country,  Washington D.C. has the second lowest unemployment rate and the second highest rate of employment growth, it arguably has the strongest economy in the country.

From one month to the next, the whole world keeps hoping that the U.S. labor market will improve. It?s not impossible for gross domestic product growth to occur in what is still the world?s largest economy without an increase in jobs, but it is certainly more of a challenge. February was one more month of disappointment ?  and one more month of the ?jobless recovery? ? according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Between the first and second months of 2010, the net change in employment was -36,000 jobs. While this is an almost insignificant figure,  given a total jobs level of 130 million, it is still on the wrong side of ledger.