This year's Virtual Design and Construction competition in Reno, Nevada, saw the biggest turnout yet, with 14 teams of six students each. "Last year, we had nine teams," says VDC Director Jocelyn Mezofenyi, who served as one of Webcor's judges.

Problems posed to the students included a value engineering exercise, tower crane and structural concrete logistics, underground utility coordination, and multi-site utility and logistics coordination.

The Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) event draws nearly 1,700 students and 1,300 industry professionals who come together to tackle problem statements, listen to student presentations, attend the presentation of awards to competition winners, and attend a career fair and recruiting event.

Seventeen contractors participated in the competition, including 11 problem sponsors. For the teams that opted to tackle the VDC challenge, Webcor based its problems on the Mission Rock F and horizontal projects. "We talked to the project team to understand real-world challenges the Mission Rock team had and how they overcame them," explains Project Director Blair Hinojosa, who has been involved with the ASC competition for 11 years. "We then simplified those problems to something the students can solve during the 15-hour problem statement window."

The hands-on portion of the competition, introduced in recent years, was an event highlight. "The students take the VDC information they would typically crunch in the computer and think through how to use that info 'in the field' in real-world applications," says Blair. Students used total stations for layout and created shop drawings and QC mock-ups.

"This year, we also did something unique," Jocelyn adds. "Because the competition's theme was collaboration, we had the students come into our conference room and act as if they were participating in an actual trade coordination meeting to resolve model clashes."

Students from all the schools that competed in the VDC category participated in these meetings. "We got amazing feedback from the faculty and other GCs who listened to the student presentations," Jocelyn says. They thought adding those meetings added real-life experience to the competition."

The meetings exposed the students to the real world of participating in a large group where they needed to have their voices heard. "That takes some confidence, and that's what we're trying to give the students a bit of exposure to," Jocelyn explains.

"While they were tentative at first, the students embraced the hands-on collaboration between the different teams," says Project Manager Rachel Johnson, another Webcor judge. The feedback we got was that they really enjoyed getting to know other people from other schools and seeing how different schools use VDC tools to tackle these problems."Cal Poly won first and second place in the competition; Boise State took third.

Webcor's investment in the competition is paying off in recruiting. Blair shares, "This year, we found a lot of really great candidates. Just from the problem statement we facilitate, we identified 8-10 candidates we are working to bring in for interviews for either internships or full-time positions."

The competition wouldn't be possible without the efforts of many Webcor employees who served as judges and recruiters. Human Resources Specialist Dante Robinson, whom Blair described as "the MVP from the HR/Recruiting side," was instrumental in facilitating the career fair and keeping students engaged.

With nearly two decades of sponsorship under its belt, Webcor's ongoing involvement in the ASC Student Competition continues to drive innovation and attract top talent to the company.

Nobody would argue that construction work is hard work. But where does it fall among the most physically demanding jobs in America?

Not as high as you might think.

At least, that's according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 's Occupational Requirements Survey. The survey was released following a monumental five-year effort to collect nearly 150,000 observations of the physical requirements of about 480 jobs at 56,300 workplaces across the U.S.

Scores of economists from the BLS traveled the country, asking about two hours of questions on the exact requirements of the selected occupations at each business. Among the many details they sought was the need for foot or leg control and the need to interact with the general public.

More than one list resulted from the research. For example, some jobs require the most standing (and least sitting). Then there's the maximum weight workers must lift or carry. And, of course, there is the overarching ranking of the most physically demanding jobs. That list is led by firefighters, followed by first-line supervisors of firefighting and fire prevention workers, roofers, telecommunications equipment installers and repairers (except line installers, and installation/maintenance/repair workers.

Construction laborers rank 20th, after first-line supervisors of police and detectives.

The ranking is based on a median result of scores for climbing, pushing or pulling, reaching out or down, reaching overhead, low postures, crawling, stooping, kneeling, crouching, loud noise, extreme cold, and extreme heat. The only category in which construction laborers scored 100 was "reaching out or down."

When it comes to standing versus sitting, butchers and meat cutters topped the list, standing 99.7 percent of the time. As for construction-related jobs, reinforcing iron and rebar workers ranked 8th, standing 98.6 percent of the time. Drywall and ceiling installers ranked 19th, on their feet 96.4 percent of the time.

On the lifting/carrying scale, firefighters topped the list; they must lift or carry 126 pounds on average. Heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers were 8th, at 67 pounds. No construction-related jobs made the top 20 among the wettest jobs in America, though construction laborers ranked eighth among the jobs least likely to require a minimum level of education and not require literacy; cement masons and concrete finishers came in 11th.

All the data is available from the BLS here.

by Ope Tani, Webcor Sr. Design Manager

My interest in architecture was piqued as a child growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, albeit for Naval Architecture, not the architecture or construction of buildings. As an 8-year-old, I had the opportunity to tour the living spaces of a visiting small ocean liner and was fascinated by everything I witnessed below deck.

The idea of pursuing a career in Architecture came as a fallback option while preparing college applications, as there were no schools offering Naval Architecture that my parents could afford. Studying Architecture at the University of Lagos and later at the University of Minnesota were great experiences for me. After grad school, I couldn't wait to get into the job market to "change the world."

I worked as a designer and architect mostly on mixed-use developments in the UK, Maryland/Virginia, and Northern California. I thoroughly enjoyed the planning phase of the design work, and it soon became my specialty. I later developed a keen interest in design-build roles, which became my discipline about 12 years ago.

I feel fortunate to have had prominent design roles on many landmark projects, although only a few were in California. Some of my concept sketches were developed into the street facades at Santana Row in San Jose.

As a designer, I have been drawn to the work of artists who present visuals in new and exciting ways. That theme resonates particularly well this year, with "African Americans and the Arts" as the theme for Black History Month 2024.

Mark Bradford's work, in particular, excites me. Bradford, 62, is an installation and conceptual artist currently working out of Los Angeles. Bradford's artistic work is presented in multiple mediums, including collaged paintings, videos, installations, and sculptures. He studied art at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, earning a BFA in 1995 and an MFA in 1997. Bradford's early years were spent working at his mother's hair salon, where he created signs for the salon and later worked as a hairdresser.

This influence can be seen in his early works, where he incorporated permanent-wave endpapers, foil, and dye as prevalent parts of his collages. Bradford expanded on his use of found materials as he developed his artistic style, incorporating everything from peeling movie posters to salvaged plywood into his layered, abstracted creations. The result is a combination of collage and paint. Bradford isn't afraid to tackle tough subject matter in his work. Most of his pieces deal with issues of race, gender, and class in American society.

Bradford's work has been exhibited at locations including the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. Other well-known works by Bradford include A Thousand Daddies, Across 110th Street, and Help Us.

Help Us is an especially poignant piece, for which Bradford created an installation on the roof of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh for the 2008 Carnegie International. The installation, inspired by the victims of Hurricane Katrina, can only be seen by aerial view; it spells out the words "HELP US." Bradford has won several awards for his work, including the Nancy Graves Foundation Grant in 2002, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award in 2003, the Bucksbaum Award in 2006, and the MacArthur Fellowship in 2009.

In March 2018, Helter Skelter I, a monumental painting, sold for $12 million, an artist record and the highest-ever auction price achieved by a living African-American artist. Bradford's work can be seen at the Sikkema Jenkins & Co. gallery in New York.

Bradford was the U.S. representative for the 2017 Venice Biennale. In 2021, he was included in Time Magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People.