Las Vegas Strip resorts vie to be the hottest place in town, but Vdara, a recently opened hotel, literally can scorch those visiting the pool deck during certain times of the day. The 57-story, 1,495-room hotel is one of six towers at the $8.5-billion, 67-acre CityCenter complex, which opened last December. Photo: Courtesy of Citycenter Land LIC Scorcher Hotel owner says it is trying again to fix the alleged ‘death ray’ problem after a 2008 attempt. On Sept. 16, Vdara condominium owner and personal injury lawyer William G. Pintas complained to local media that the hotel’s south facade concentrated noon
Rhode Island has become the first state to adopt the new International Green Construction Code. The state has identified the IGCC as an “equivalent standard” to meet requirements that all new major facility projects by state agencies be constructed as green buildings. Sponsors of the IGCC standards include the American Institute of Architects, ASTM International, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, the Green Building Council and the Illuminating Engineers Society. The new standards will take effect in Rhode Island this month.
Photo: Courtesy Architect 0f The Capital Related Links: No Small Plans: Architect of the Capitol Takes Reins By December, workers from Aulson Co. LLC. are expected to finish applying nearly 500 gal of paint and lots of caulk to the 288-ft-tall, cast-iron dome of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. The dome, nearly 220 years old, most recently was restored in 1960 and repainted in 2002. Current work will protect the famous symbol of democracy until a more-ambitious overhaul, scheduled to take place within five years, during which workers will strip all the layers of paint and fully restore the
Photo: Courtesy of SOM The $450-million China World Trade Tower in Beijing’s Central Business District, which opened on Aug. 30, has become the city’s tallest structure at 330 meters. The 81-story high-rise will have 36,421 sq meters of mixed-use space and is LEED Gold registered, says its designer, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), Chicago. The project’s energy and conservation strategy includes crystalline walls layered with “fritted glass” and “metal fins” that serve as “vertical sunshades” and maximize daylighting for the building’s interior, says the firm. The tower’s structural engineer was Ove Arup & Partners, HK Ltd.; its mechanical-electrical engineers
One of the world’s most ambitious urban development initiatives is taking place in Doha, the capital of the Gulf kingdom of Qatar. Photo: Courtesy Of Hochtief Infrastructure master plan includes commercial and residential centers, along with an airport and seaport. Even in a region known for brash city-building, Qatar’s plans will radically enlarge its urban footprint in the next decade to accommodate hundreds of thousands of additional residents with new housing, commercial and tourism centers through about a half-dozen projects. These projects include a plan by the state-owned developer Dohaland to re-create Doha’s downtown using more traditional Gulf architecture; further,
An Aug. 28 fire that heavily damaged an articulated dump truck and three other pieces of construction equipment at a mosque under construction in Murfreesboro, Tenn., might be connected to the national debate surrounding Manhattan�s contentious Islamic center under development two blocks from the World Trade Center site. The equipment, owned by Ole South Excavating of Murfreesboro, was doused with accelerant and set ablaze in a suspected arson attempt. Ole South Excavating could not be reached for comment. The equipment was being used to break ground on the new Islamic Center of Murfreesboro. Joel Siskovic, an FBI spokesman in Memphis,
Starting next month, California’s state capital campus, a complex of 23 buildings encompassing 5.5 million sq ft, will be cooled by water chilled in a 4.25-million-gal thermal-energy storage tank. The 140-ft-tall metal cone is the final phase of a $181-million central-plant replacement on course to receive the second-highest ranking—LEED Gold—of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green-building rating system. Photo: Todd Quam Digital Sky Aerial Imaging Payback period is three to four years for the energy-efficient systems in the state capital’s $181-million district heating and cooling plant. The 78,000-sq-ft California central plant is the largest
Covered by what is claimed to be the world’s tallest tensile structure, the Khan Shatyr Entertainment Center has opened in Astana, Kazakhstan. Photo: Courtesy Nigel Young, Foster + Partners Designed by London-based Foster+Partners, the 150-meter-tall transparent tent is clad in cushions of insulating ethyl tetra fluoro ethylene to shelter Kazakhs from their harsh climate. With a 250 x 230-m elliptical footprint, the tent encloses a park as well as entertainment and leisure facilities. The structure’s design-build team includes Sembol Construction, Antalya, Turkey, and structural engineer Buro Happold, London.
Construction began in May on a new headquarters complex for the European Central Bank in Frankfurt’s Ostend district, flanking the Main River. Designed by Coop Himmelb(l)au, based in Vienna, the energy-efficient design includes a geothermal heating system. Gassmann + Grossmann Baumanagement GmbH is the construction manager on the project. It is expected to be completed by 2014, at a cost of $1.05 billion. The 12-hectare site was formerly home to the Grossmarkthalle, the city’s wholesale produce market; the 12,500-sq-meter market building is being restored and incorporated as part of the bank complex. The complex’s centerpiece will be two towers linked
Canada-based SNC-Lavalin has been awarded a $625-million engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) contract to build a grassroots sulphuric-phosphoric acid complex in Eshidya Jordan. The project owner, JIFCO, is a joint venture owned by Jordanian Phosphate Mines Co. and the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd. JPMC is a producer of phosphoric acid and fertilizer, and IFFCO is the largest fertilizer producer and distributor cooperative in India. SNC-Lavalin will provide project management, design, equipment and construction management. The complex will have a capacity of 500,000 tonnes per year of phosphoric acid. It will also include a single-line sulphuric acid plant with