Rebuilding Haiti

Certainly, a natural disaster is not the way AEC firms were hoping to generate new work in 2010, but the earthquake in Haiti this week will likely bring about opportunities for companies to lend their expertise to the rebuilding efforts. As most in the industry know, there will be plenty of assessment going on of what could be done better next time to prevent what some experts are predicting will be a six-figure death toll. That means stronger foundations on buildings and technologies and tools being used in the rebuilding of the nation that might not have even been invented when many of Haiti's prominent buildings, or especially the homes of the everyday citizens, were built.

Will your firm be involved in what's likely to be a lengthy and arduous rebuilding effort? How does it feel to know this work came at the cost of so many lives lost? What responsibility do you feel to try to make sure a tragedy of this magnitude will be prevented next time around?