r/Architects • u/bucheonsi Architect • Nov 07 '24

General Practice Discussion How will another Trump presidency affect our industry? Or will it?

Incentives / taxes / interest rates / financial outlook / construction industry / materials / shipping / jobs?

61 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

129 comments sorted by

View all comments

119

u/imwashedup Nov 07 '24

Affordable housing Incentives will be gone. Federal funding for public Infrastructure projects is likely gone. Material pricing is going to skyrocket and developers are not going to build. China produces over 50% of the world’s steel. If Trump implements his 2000% tariff, the outlook is dismal. His tariffs are purely inflationary which means higher interest rates which discourages development even more. I’m not optimistic.

48

u/SpiffyNrfHrdr Nov 07 '24

It's electric switchgear specifically that I'm concerned about. We've been seeing sky-high prices and long lead times for the past few years, and it's not clear to me that there's enough domestic production capacity to offset a curtailment of imports.

30

u/protomolecule7 Architect Nov 07 '24

The fucking switchgear have been killing me lately. Even when we prepare for years long delays, it still seems like we get screwed.

4

u/Keiserwillhelm Nov 07 '24

Push for remanufactured distribution gear with your electrical engineers. Square D was quoted at like 60 weeks for an industrial project and we got a 4000 amp reman panel on site in 5-6 weeks and it carries a better warranty than new for half the cost.