| Pare Corp president Larry Riggs has a message for everyone jittery about the economy: In the past 10 weeks, his Lincoln, R.I. and Foxboro, Mass. engineering firm has hired eight new permanent, full-time employees to cover the new jobs they're winning. Grateful to the Massachusetts Model Schools Program, his roughly 70-person firm is doing the engineering work for the construction of six new middle and high schools financed under that program and was just chosen for two more school projects. Pare is paired on these projects with Ai3 Architects. The 40-year-old engineering company founded by Lee Pare held off hiring for three years. But now, as the architects get new projects, Pare is being asked to jump on board. |
| No, this isn't a postcard. It's SVP Ken DeCosta vacationing in Estero, Fla. on the Gulf Coast where he was kind enough to spare some time to tell us that Pare is ?cautiously optimistic? about business prospects. Besides academic work, Ken says public infrastructure projects, including bridge, highway, and dams have been growth areas for Pare. Also, the firm is collaborating with Payette Architects on a big private project: the $80M, 186k SF Meditech Office Building in Freetown, Mass, that's now going through permitting. He says the ratio of public to private projects is 85:15 whereas in booming ?07, it was 60:40. |
| Pare engineers Scott Lindgren and Dave Potter are among those pitching in on Pare?s Massachusetts school projects: Norwood High ($53M) set to open in September, Plymouth High ($64M), Natick High ($62M), and East Bridgewater middle and high schools ($65M). The latter sit in the town center, posing the challenge of integrating new construction with the existing town hall, elementary school, and senior center. Ai3 and Pare were recently selected to design high schools in Somerset and Marshfield. The team is also doing middle schools in Hingham and Quincy. Pare is working on a new academic building at UMass with Wilson Architects. At U of RI, Pare has several projects including the Hillside Residence Hall ($42M, 429-bed) with Lerner Ladds Bartels architects. While some talk of getting government out of our lives, Ken says, Pare is very fortunate the public sector is there now. |
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