After a heated dispute lasting more than a half-year, building owner Carpenters Tower LLC and its contractor, McCarthy Building Cos. Inc., have resolved all the legal issues related to the distressed, reinforced concrete frame of the 25-story McGuire Apartments in Seattle. The resolution clears the way for the demolition of the vacated residential tower, completed in 2001, though the owner has not yet set a timetable for the razing. The brouhaha reached a peak last spring after the owner claimed the cost to repair the building’s corroding post-tensioned slab system and other problems would exceed the structure’s worth. McCarthy then
Workers are building the $810-million Olympic Stadium with 80,000 seats and a partial roof. But in 2012, soon after officials of London Games hang the final medals around the necks of the winning athletes, crews will move back in to shrink the venue down to its "legacy mode," with only 25,000 seats and no roof. Consequently, from the start of design, a "here today, two-thirds gone tomorrow" attitude dominated the team's thinking. The project marks “a new era of Olympic stadium design...demonstrating how a successful event can be blended with the long term needs of a community,” claims Rod Sheard,
By transforming a 250-hectare blot on London’s landscape into a permanent sports village, after a fortnight for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games, the shapers of the $11.5-billion park hope to leave a green mixed-use development that lives on well into the future. Furthermore, with the 75%-complete project on schedule and very close to its 2007 budget, they are touting the success of a collaborative contractual model that relies heavily on project management and involves sharing risk and reward among the main building team members. “For us, planning the Olympic Park was about legacy first,” says Dan Epstein, who
Photo: Courtesy Of General Secretary For The Olympic Games Related Links: 2012 Games Are Stepping Stones in Grand Scheme MIXED EFFORTS, MIXED RESULTS Lavish spending and intentions of impressing the world drove preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Delays, political indifference, and legal and bureaucratic obstacles plagued construction for the 2004 Athens Games. The 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics marked the first “greening” of the games. Atlanta 1996 was a break-even effort, largely privatized, with only eight new venues. The Los Angeles 1984 project, with only two new, corporate-sponsored venues, was debt-free, unlike the earlier Montreal and Moscow Games.
As the 2012 Olympic Games’ gateway venue, the $405-million Aquatic Centre is the 250-acre park's most flamboyant building, adorned by an aluminum-clad roof with a sweeping profile. But many agree the center will not look its best until workers clip its temporary wings, after the July 27 to Aug. 12 games. During the events, nearly two thirds of the 17,500 Olympic spectators will sit in two temporary wings, rising steeply from either side of the center. The curvaceous building is running 20% over its 2007 budget. Officials at the U.K. Dept. of Culture Media and Sport attribute the rise to
The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating & Air-Conditioning Engineers Inc., Atlanta, is making available copies of its energy conservation standard in PDF form at www.ashrae.org/standard901-2007-free. The download, which is free until April 2012, is made possible through a funding contract with the U.S. Dept. of Energy. ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2007, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, has become the basis for building codes as well as the standard for building design and construction throughout the U.S. The standard was developed in response to the energy crisis in the 1970s.
Texas developers unveiled an ambitious plan for a $2-billion combined green-technology business park and regional airport project near Austin. Supported by a generous tax rebate scheme, the project is aimed at attracting international anchor tenants and designed to demonstrate the best way to build a commercial development based on green principles. Rendering: Courtesy of Eco-Merge Green Corporate Centers Eco-Merge Green Corporate Centers project already has signed four international tenants, says the developer. Rendering: Courtesy of Eco-Merge Green Corporate Centers Complex covers 1,500 acres east of Austin. Developers of the planned Eco-Merge Green Corporate Centers, a 1,500-plus-acre project about 15 minutes
Foreclosure lawsuits mounting atop the $2-billion Chicago Spire project come at a time when the Windy City’s glut of condominium inventory has forced developers to make other deals. Rendering: Courtesy of Shelbourne Development Chicago Spire’s foreclosure lawsuits heat up as condo market remains frozen. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" In the near term, “I think any high-rise residential developments will be rentals,” says Gail Lissner, vice president of Appraisal Research Counselors, Chicago. A dozen rental high-rises are planned downtown, she says, including a 49-story tower that is being floated by luxury apartment developer AMLI Residential, Chicago. As for condos,
After several years of languishing, the performing-arts center at Ground Zero, part of the master plan for the redevelopment of the World Trade Center, is getting a boost, thanks to an agreement to create a $100-million fund to finance the project. Under the pact announced earlier this month, the center and several other projects would benefit from federal funds designated for Lower Manhattan.
Photo: Courtesy of City of Orlando Fans at Orlando Magic basketball games can have fun playing with their iPhone apps, thanks to state-of-the-art technology in the arena, which opened on Oct. 1. Amway Center is also the first National Basketball Association venue to incorporate all-digital signage. It has more than 1,000 digital television monitors and the tallest high-definition videoboard in an NBA venue. Populous designed the 875,000-sq-ft arena, which was built by Hunt Construction Group under a $380-million contract.