I sit on the board of the giant engineering company URS, so today Karyn, Bryan and I toured the new URS-designed Caterpillar plant in Suzhou, China. Very impressive. 72,000 sq./m, LEED Gold certified factory of front-loaders (and corporate office). Took only 14 months to complete. URS recently acquired Scott Wilson, a London-based, global engineering firm. URS has been in Hong Kong doing business for 58 years and active in mainland China since the mid-1980’s, completing 5,000+ projects along the way. Currently they have 1,035 people working across 12 offices in the country.

This extensive in-country experience has provided URS with a number of advantages including a working knowledge of local design codes and the regulatory environment. They have expertise with healthcare facility design and construction at a global level and also at the local level of Hong Kong and mainland China, and have cultured multi-lingual and cultural project managers to see the projects to completion. At this moment, URS is undertaking a variety of diverse projects, from sewerage treatment plants in Dongjiao to rebuilding an earthquake-damaged hospital in Sichuan.