However, some signs indicate that certain sectors served by architects may be seeing early signs of a spring thaw. Regionally, firms in the Midwest are seeing more positive signs, with index readings over 49 for the second straight month.

No regional index has been as high as 49 since January 2008. If current trends continue, firms in the Midwest (which includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and the Dakotas) would be the first to emerge from the national recession in design activity. This is great news for landscape architecture firms who will hopefully see similar results.

Additionally, residential firms have been reporting more encouraging conditions. Two of the past four months have seen index scores above 50 for residential firms. In all likelihood, the residential sector of the construction industry will move into recovery mode before the commercial/industrial or institutional markets, so residential firms should see better conditions relative to the rest of the profession over the next several months. ?EUR??,,????'?????<