Following a year in which the county has endured wildfires and a sharp drop in residential building, officials are predicting that 2008 will be one of transition and change for the construction industry.
In the last 16 years, the San Diego County residential building industry has experienced shifts in activity levels, implementation of numerous construction regulations and a change in how communities and homes are planned and built.
David Susi has been in the San Diego roofing business for 29 years. The president of RSI Roofing opened the full-service roofing contracting firm in 1993 with less than $10,000 in startup capital.
Having built the concrete foundations for all the bayside buildings along Harbor Drive, including the new Hilton Hotel, Ray Carpenter has seen the development of San Diego's waterfront during his tenure as president of one of the area's only locally based marine construction companies.
During the business day, Tom Brown serves as president of one of Southern California's largest general engineering firms, Vista-based Sierra Pacific West Inc. Yet some of his most important work is done out of the office, in his spare time.
Gene Brokaw, president of Premier Pipeline Construction of Murrieta, has been in the San Diego construction business since 1963.
As long as there are schools to build, Douglas E. Barnhart Inc. will continue to have plenty of business -- but educational work isn't all the general contractor does.
