• The American Institute of Architects projects that nonresidential construction spending for 2012 will be up 4.4% from last year, thanks in part to mild weather that let projects move ahead early.
• The organization says it also believes that despite various economic threats that loom – potential tax increases in the U.S. and fiscal problems in Europe – 2013 spending will rise 6.2%.
• AIA is not trumpeting a full recovery, however, saying that a "seesaw trend" in architects' design billings in late 2011 and through the middle of this year point "to a slow and fairly modest recovery in construction activity"

From the article:

Even with the ongoing debt crisis in Europe, international political instability, a looming fiscal cliff of tax increases and spending cuts, and a wildly gyrating stock market, the AIA Consensus Construction Forecast Panel has not dampened its outlook for the nonresidential buildings market for the rest of 2012 and 2013. ...