Skanska USA Building

Specialty: Large commercial projects, medical facilities

Management: Bob Babitsky, executive vice president and area general manager; senior vice presidents Chris Toher, Bruce Holms and Dave Harrison; vice presidents Mark Howell, Brian Thomas (field operations), Phillip Goodman (business development); Curt Burks, corporate senior vice president of pre-construction

Headquarters: Seattle (international headquarters is in Stockholm, Sweden)

Year founded: Skanska's parent company in Seattle (Baugh) in 1946; Skanska in 1887

2008 revenues: $647 million (Seattle office)

Projected 2009 revenues:N/A

Current projects: 18-floor Virginia Mason addition designed by NBBJ; multi-story addition to the University of Washington Medical Center designed by NBBJ; nine-story addition for Multicare-Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup designed by Clark/Kjos Architects and Giffen Bolte Jurgens Architects

Image by NBBJ Skanska is building the 18-floor Virginia Mason East Tower addition. Construction has reached the ground level and the project is heading toward a tentative late-2010 finish.

With the economic downturn, Skanska's field staff in Seattle is down from a high of 1,200 to about 650 employees now. There have been some cuts in office staff, too.

Bob Babitsky has seen recessions before in his 30-year career with the company -- he started with Baugh Construction, which merged with Skanska in 2000 -- and he's taking this one seriously, but is confident that Skanska and the industry will get through it.

"We're concerned, but we're a pretty diverse group and we see different market-sector opportunities," Babitsky said.

Getting lean with BIM

Private development has dried up, but Skanska has been doing a lot more health-care and institutional work, Babitsky said.

In the last couple of years, Skanska has invested a good deal of effort in building information modeling technology to help it get leaner and more innovative. BIM is a software tool that can create a 3-D model of the structure to be built. It can help contractors reduce change orders and shorten the construction period.

Also, Skanska does "best practices" nationally and internationally, Babitsky said. "How can we improve as an entire business unit and do it more efficiently?"

Watching others

Babitsky is keeping a close eye on his subcontractors and vendors, making sure they are financially stable.

He's also concerned about how the recession is affecting the behavior of other building contractors, which is something he can't control.

"Desperate people do desperate things, but it's important for all of us to stick to our core competencies," he said.

Babitsky has a message for his peers: "Be patient, we'll all get through this."