Cornell University plans to rent a temporary Manhattan space this fall, says a spokesman for CornellNYC Tech. “We have not announced exactly where yet; stay tuned for that,” he says. Cornell recently shortlisted six architects, chosen out of 43, to design the Roosevelt Island core academic building, which is set to open by 2017. The building will be part of CornellNYC Tech, the planned $2-billion-plus, state-of-the-art tech campus that Cornell will build in partnership with Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Cornell says it plans to select the winner and sign a contract next month.
DCO Energy, LLC, Mays Landing, N.J., has begun installing a $100-million cooling technology at the new Bara Mar Resort under construction in Nassau, Bahamas. DCO is the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor on the project, which it calls the world’s first seawater cooling district (SCD) system. Ocean Thermal Energy Corp., Lancaster, Pa., signed a 30-year energy service contract with the resort last December and will build, own and operate the 12,000-ton SCD system. The system is expected to be operational in December 2013, about a year before the multibillion-dollar resort construction is completed.The SCD system, which does not include refrigerants,
New York City has issued a request for proposals (RFPs) for construction of a waste-to-energy conversion facility. The project, part of a new waste-reduction plan under the PlaNYC initiative, aims to double the rate of waste diverted from landfills, primarily through increased reuse, recycling and composting. Proposals are due by June 5. The city will not provide capital funding for the state-of-the-art plant but will pay a per-ton fee to the plant operator, said Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office in announcing the project on March 6. Private sector firms should submit plans for a pilot plant that would use sustainable
HALLR. Randall Hall was named president of Batson-Cook Co., Atlanta, effective Jan. 1, 2012. Hall most recently served as senior vice president and general manager of the West Point, Ga.-based contractor's Atlanta division, where he was responsible for the Duke Energy Center project in Charlotte, N.C. Prior to that, Hall had served as senior vice president and general manager of the firm's West Point division. Raymond Moody, who had served as Batson-Cook's president for the past 16 years, will continue with the firm as chief executive officer. Steve Kufrovich has been hired by Choate Construction Co. in Atlanta as
Columbia University is set to begin construction March 12 on an $8.9-million upgrade to its two-story, 22,500-sq-ft Core Lab facility on the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory campus in Palisades, N.Y. The project includes some demolition work to make room for lab space, says Jessica Vail, marketing manager at construction manager Sordoni Construction, Chester, N.J. Rendering Courtesy of Payette Sordoni and the design team of architectural firm Payette as well as Vanderweil Engineers, both of Boston, will provide design and construction services to renovate the majority of the existing lab building to create the new Lamont Center for Bio-Geochemistry. There is a
A state court has ordered the New York State Dept. of Transportation to cancel an interchange upgrade project already under way and rebid the job because the agency violated competitive bidding laws by requiring compliance with a project labor agreement. A state Supreme Court judge in Albany ruled that including the labor pact was illegal in this case and "tainted" the bidding process by its inclusion. The agency says in a statement that it is reviewing its options on the project "to maximize taxpayer dollars on this critically important transportation project." The agency halted all work on the project on
Cornell University has chosen six out of 43 architectural firms to design the core academic building, part of the planned applied sciences campus that the university is developing with Technion-Israel Institute of Technology on Roosevelt Island, New York. Cornell plans to select the winner and sign a contract next month. The finalists are Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Chicago; Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Diller Scofidio + Renfro, New York; Morphosis Architects, Santa Monica; Steven Holl Architects, New York; and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Each firm will be asked to assemble a team and prepare to be interviewed
It will take months to determine the cause of the Feb. 16 accident at the 4 World Trade Center construction site in which a crane cable snapped, dropping its load of steel beams 40 stories, says the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. No one was injured at the site as the beams plummeted and hit the flatbed truck used to transport the load, says the agency, which is overseeing the investigation. Work has resumed at the site after part of it was shut down temporarily pending an investigation, the Port Authority says. “The crane in question is
Project labor agreements (PLAs) that include community workforce provisions—including targeted hiring programs and apprenticeship-use requirements—are a functional tool to generate and ensure fair access to middle-class careers in the construction industry. These tools, called community workforce agreements (CWAs), are becoming increasingly common and appear to be an effective way to promote social investment and to create career opportunities for economically disadvantaged populations. More elected officials, private construction users, contractors and developers, building trades unions and community leaders should consider using these agreements, which clearly serve a public good. Cornell University's ILR School recently conducted the first national study of PLAs
As Hurricane Irene rumbled toward the Northeast last August, crews at the Canoe Brook Water Treatment Plant in Millburn, N.J., scrambled to defend two potential casualties—the existing 90-year-old treatment plant and the construction site of its 47,000-sq-ft replacement. The crews knew that in the aftermath of major storms like Irene, which turned out to be one of worst in New Jersey's recent history, the potential for damage was high. The old facility near the banks of Canoe Brook, by its confluence with the Passaic River, wound up taking a direct hit. Waterways crested well above flood stage and swamped the
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