Construction leaders urged to balance speed and risk as digital tools spread

Baltimore, Maryland, September 27, 2025

News Summary

Construction leaders are being urged to balance speed and risk when adopting digital tools, emphasizing pilots, clear processes and team training to protect data and embed new systems in daily work. The industry faces rapid technological change—especially from generative AI and large language models—that can streamline proposals and documentation but requires safeguards. Meanwhile, Maryland hosted a large hands-on Construction Career Day for high school students, and a university unveiled preliminary designs for a six-story, 500,000-sq-ft Life Sciences Building with more than 1,200 lab benches to foster collaborative biomedical research.

Construction industry urged to balance speed and risk when adopting digital tools; Maryland hosts large Construction Career Day; Johns Hopkins unveils preliminary designs for six-story, 500,000-sq-ft Life Sciences Building

Key developments in construction this week involve advice on digital tool adoption for contractors, a major career outreach event for Maryland students, and the unveiling of preliminary designs for a large new university research building. Industry advisers and local institutions are emphasizing deliberate technology adoption, workforce exposure to trades, and a substantial expansion of lab capacity on an urban campus.

Balance speed and risk when adopting digital tools

Industry advisers are urging contractors to strike a balance between rapid technology adoption and careful risk management. The most successful contractors balance speed and risk when assessing and implementing new technology, according to a senior construction consultant. Josh LaSharr is a senior consultant at Well Built Construction Consulting. Well Built Construction Consulting is a Baltimore-based firm. Well Built Construction Consulting delivers strategic consulting, facilitation services and peer roundtables for construction executives.

An opinion in the coverage lays out a view that technology and construction go hand in hand, including phones, computers, estimating programs and project management software, and that every company relies on digital technology in some manner. The opinion claims the construction industry is slow to embrace new tools while framing modern digital construction technology as the latest stage in an evolutionary cycle of builder tools, from stone hammers to pneumatic and powder-actuated tools. The opinion states digital construction technology is growing faster than ever, that before 2020 technology advanced linearly, and that since 2020 technological advancements have been occurring at an exponential rate. The opinion claims post-2020 advancement pace often leaves companies wondering whether they made the right decision in adopting or avoiding particular products.

The opinion asserts construction technology adoption is critical and that simply adapting is not enough; companies must adopt tools into day-to-day operations. It references diffusion of innovation categories — innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards — and asks where construction professionals and companies will fall on that adoption lifecycle. The opinion states most construction companies and individuals lean toward the later portions of the conventional adoption lifecycle, and notes that even an ardent laggard typically has a cellphone and calls that adoption. The opinion distinguishes having a tool from adopting it into daily use.

The opinion author reports leveraging artificial intelligence as a tool while writing the piece and self-identifies as part of the early majority in technology adoption while remaining risk-aware. The opinion states all companies are exposed daily to innovative technologies, capabilities and risks, and asserts how companies decide to navigate technology and risk is differentiating. The opinion claims the most successful and largest contractors do not adopt every new technology immediately; instead they pilot, test, evaluate and implement the most appropriate tools at a speed that balances risk with reward.

The opinion highlights the rapid shift caused by mass access to generative AI and large language models, noting teams can use generative AI/LLMs to generate proposals, evaluate them for grammatical accuracy and logic, or generate complete documents from a few parameters. It also warns that integration of generative AI/LLMs risks inadvertently releasing confidential information and states ensuring data remains safe is a critical component of technology adoption. The opinion recommends developing proper processes and procedures and training teams together with new-tool adoption, comparing it to training a new laborer on a physical tool, and warns of risks from uploading data to tools with an open learning system.

The opinion states selecting the right technology tool typically lands on leadership teams, with input from IT teams. It notes young professionals may execute repetitive tasks such as submittals and RFIs, and leadership must remain abreast of new technologies. The opinion claims a typical college graduate may not fully understand the implications of running a submittal, RFI or proposal through a tool that collects data to learn. The opinion states younger employees may have the closest touch to recent technologies and their knowledge places experienced professionals in a unique position to capitalize on youth enthusiasm while evaluating known risks.

The opinion provides a concrete example contrasting digital drawing sets with hard-copy drawings, stating the alternative to digital drawings is hard-copy drawings and listing disadvantages: time, space and energy expenditure to print, slip-sheet, copy, edit, update and manage multiple full-sized drawings; extensive cost; and susceptibility to damage or destruction. The opinion states digital drawings can be accessed by multiple parties via several digital tools and can live in a cloud-based environment. The opinion states digital drawings allow tracking changes and printing a single consolidated set at the end of the job, and lists options for those who prefer physical sets: smaller, less expensive sets; digital plan-tables; large monitors; or other tools. The opinion restates that technology has repeatedly benefited lives, careers and projects in construction and concludes that adoption of technology in the construction landscape is a necessity, asking rhetorically what’s in your toolbelt.

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Maryland Construction Career Day draws thousands of students

Thousands of Maryland high school students traded in their book bags for a hard hat on Wednesday. The Maryland Center for Construction Education & Innovation held its third-annual Construction Career Day at M&T Bank Stadium. Students at the event came from Baltimore and Harford counties, along with Baltimore City. The event provided hands-on experience exploring engineering, architecture and transportation careers and is aimed at increasing career awareness for construction trades.

Jennifer Dewees is president of MCCEI. Jennifer Dewees said they have over 40 companies, unions, apprenticeship providers and higher education institutions participating. Higher education participants listed by Dewees included Howard Community College, Morgan State, Capitol Tech University and Johns Hopkins. The MCCEI event is free for students. The next Construction Career Day will be held in Frederick County.

Johns Hopkins unveils designs for six-story, 500,000-sq-ft Life Sciences Building

Local reporting described preliminary designs for a six-story, 500,000 gross square feet Life Sciences Building intended to provide more than 1,200 lab benches for biomedical researchers. The design is proposed for a full city block almost directly across the street from a domed administration building on the campus. Johns Hopkins described the Life Sciences Building as bringing together experts from five different schools to create a collaborative, technology-driven hub for fundamental, basic biomedical science. The five schools expected to use the building are the School of Medicine; Bloomberg School of Public Health; Krieger School of Arts and Sciences; School of Nursing; and Whiting School of Engineering.

Johns Hopkins Medicine CEO and dean of the medical faculty Theodore DeWeese was cited that the facility will help ensure Johns Hopkins continues to set the standard of excellence in medical research. Plans for the new building were presented to the city’s Urban Design and Architecture Advisory Panel. The construction site is described as the southwest corner of East Monument Street and North Broadway. The building will stretch along Broadway from Monument Street to McElderry Walkway. The next building to the west of the site will be the Armstrong Medical Education Building. The next building to the south of the site will be the Levi Watkins, Jr. M.D. Outpatient Center. Because of the building’s location, Johns Hopkins has the ability to connect it to the underground Johns Hopkins station on the Baltimore Metro subway line.

To make way for construction, Johns Hopkins is demolishing three buildings currently on that block: the 10-story Hampton House Building at 624 N. Broadway; 14-story Reed Hall at 600 N. Broadway; and the Denton A. Cooley fitness center at 1620 McElderry St. All faculty members and other staffers have been relocated from Reed Hall and Hampton House. Temporary space has been identified to house the research and teaching activities that were in Reed Hall and Hampton House. Demolition of buildings on the block is well underway. Berg Corporation is the contractor for the demolition work referenced. The Denton A. Cooley fitness center is scheduled to close on Oct. 11. A new space for fitness is scheduled to be operational at the end of October. Departments of the Bloomberg School of Public Health that were located in Hampton House will move into a school addition currently under construction and scheduled to open in fall 2026.

Payette is the architect of the Life Sciences Building. Payette is a Boston-based firm with a long track record of designing laboratories and research facilities. Olin is the landscape architect for the Life Sciences Building. Johns Hopkins’ timetable calls for construction to begin in the summer of 2025 and be complete by the end of 2029. A firm cost estimate for the Life Sciences Building had not been released at the time of reporting. The building will be funded through university funds, according to a Hopkins spokesperson.

The Hub described the Life Sciences Building as creating a new ecosystem for foundational/basic biomedical research centered around developing technologies such as imaging, artificial intelligence, and genetics. The Life Sciences Building is planned to have six levels of labs and meeting space. The building will be a hub for six newly developed scientific neighborhoods that connect scientists in similar fields. The building will include five technology hubs to help scientists maximize potential of new scientific technologies. The neighborhoods and hubs are to be designed and led by Johns Hopkins scientists and will take shape alongside construction. The building is planned to contain a flexible mix of laboratory space: approximately 60% of lab space dedicated to experimental approaches and 40% dedicated to scientists focused on computation. The approximately 1,200 lab benches will provide space for approximately 920 scientists working in biomedical research. The building will also house hundreds of graduate students pursuing biomedical research.

Design details include a glass and metal skin differing from historic brick buildings on the east side of Broadway, copper- and bronze-colored walls that curve to mark entrances, and a series of landscaped terraces on the ground and upper levels. Plans include conference rooms and a glass-walled cafeteria on the first floor overlooking Broadway. Panel members from the advisory review reacted positively to the design approach, calling the project transformative and praising the commitment to opening newer campus buildings to the street. Comments from landscape reviewers highlighted terraced landscaping creating a biophilic, park-like experience and intentional places for researchers to pause outside. Payette Senior Associate Wesley Schwartz led the design team during the advisory presentation.

What this means for contractors, students and the campus

Contractors are being reminded to pilot and test new technologies while protecting data and training teams. Thousands of local students received exposure to trades and pathways into construction careers. The university plan will add significant research capacity, advance laboratory design trends, and require major demolition and relocation work in the near term.

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Key features at a glance

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Additional Resources

• Construction Dive: Construction adoption, tech & AI
• Wikipedia: Construction technology
• The Baltimore Sun: Maryland school buildings failing
• Google Search: Maryland school buildings infrastructure condition
• WBAL-TV: Maryland Center for Construction Education & Innovation — Career Day
• Google Scholar: construction career day vocational education Maryland
• Baltimore Fishbowl: Johns Hopkins unveils plans for six-story Life Sciences building
• Encyclopedia Britannica: Johns Hopkins University (search)
• Construction Dive: Generation Z and construction technology
• Google News: Generation Z construction technology

Author: Construction CA News

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