Solutions for some of the construction industry’s most pressing challenges are starting to materialize while others are showing signs that they’re here to stay.

As a construction professional for decades, Peter Hilger has direct insight into what’s driving the issues and how they may be alleviated. High material prices, especially for lumber, present one of the leading challenges. Prices are just starting to stabilize as production increases. However, one of the industry’s other challenges — labor shortages — may be here to stay, he says.

Hilger has been the faculty director and instructor and internship adviser for the University of Minnesota’s Construction and Facility Management Program in the College of Continuing and Professional Studies since 1997. As a practicing architect and construction manager since 1983, he consults on development planning and zoning approvals as well as providing expert testimony at his firm.

“I’m an architect by training, I was a builder by passion, and I’m a teacher at heart,” says Hilger, who speaks with Reporter Kelly Busche in this episode of Beyond the Skyline.