High Tech

Why it matters: Construction giant Suffolk Construction is at the forefront of an industrywide embrace of technology advances.

Josh Christensen is going to help make construction cool again in 2018.

The vice president of operations for the west coast division of national construction giant Suffolk, Christensen's path to cool includes virtual reality, digital walls and 3-D visuals. All of that, and more, will be inside Suffolk's new Smart Lab, scheduled to debut in Tampa by the end of January. The Tampa market was one of six Smart Labs selected by Boston-based Suffolk, which does $3 billion a year in revenue and has nearly 2,000 employees. Other Smart Labs are in operation in New York and San Francisco, and ones are forthcoming in Boston, Los Angeles and Miami.