Image Courtesy Eisenhower Memorial Commission A model of the planned Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial, as designed by Frank Gehry. Gilbane Building Co. of Laurel, Md., is overseeing design and construction management of the memorial. Related Links: Washington, D.C., Report The ongoing effort to memorialize significant figures in U.S. history and honor the country’s diverse cultural traditions along the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is ushering in several large design and construction projects in the coming years. Next year, crews expect to complete the new Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial on a 4-acre plot along the Tidal Basin. The scope
No metro area has benefitted more from the uptick in federal spending on construction than did Washington, D.C., but the area hasn’t been immune from the woes of private-sector development. Contractors continue to see limited opportunities in commercial and multiunit residential work, making competition for federal work even more intense. One hope now is that once government projects start to slow down, the private sector can find its footing and begin to build again. Stephen Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., says he still sees a lot of hesitation in the
The new United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., will greet visitors to the nation’s capital with a sweeping white glass roof that evokes the image of a white dove of peace in flight. The 154,000-sq-ft, five-story office building, located in the northwestern corner of the National Mall near the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bridge, respects the context of its historic surroundings while offering a striking modern addition to the National Mall. Moshe Safdie Associates of New York designed the project as three buildings connected with glass-enclosed atria. The base buildings are clad in precast panels that blend with their
Electrical contractor Gill-Simpson of Baltimore moved up the Top Specialty ranks in 2009, with a substantial jump in revenue. Related Links: Top Specialty Contractors “We benefited from the growth related to BRAC, health care and transit,” says Chris Odell, president of Gill-Simpson, which was founded in 1932. Odell expects several large public projects, not tied to BRAC, will move forward, although the volume is decelerating. Therefore, Gill-Simpson is focusing on infrastructure work, data centers and renewable electrical generation, such as waste energy, wind and solar. In 2009 Gill-Simpson installed the electrical systems for the 1.6-million-sq-ft, design-build, fast-track Command, Control, Communications,
A new design for the 38,885-sq-ft Plaza at the Barclays Center that will serve as the primary entryway to the arena at Atlantic Yards has been released. The plaza will be located at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues and will include a new transit entrance with a green roof, 74% of open space for community events and 26% landscaping and seating. “The Plaza at the Barclays Center will quickly become one of Brooklyn’s great public spaces,” said Bruce Ratner, Chairman and CEO of Forest City Ratner Companies.” “It will be an iconic part of the larger Brooklyn landscape.”
Public libraries across the country are cutting employees and closing facilities, but the one that serves the borough of Queens, New York, is taking an opposite tack: It’s planning to open one of its largest branches to date, and it’s hired architect Steven Holl to design it. Image courtesy NYC Dept. of Housing, Preservation & Development In Queens, an industrial area is being transformed into the Hunters Point mixed-use district. Steven Holl has been commissioned to design a new library for the neighborhood. Photo courtesy Steven Holl Architects The city announced in July that it had chosen Holl to design
Poor management of available resources at the Virginia Dept. of Transportation resulted in $877 million in transportation funds left unspent during the last two fiscal years, says an independent audit commissioned by Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R).
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to construct a 1,100-ft long sheet pile wall to anchor the remediation strategy for a contaminated 48-acre former industrial site along the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River in Portsmouth, Va. To be constructed approximately 250 ft offshore from what was for 66 years a major wood treatment facility operated by Georgia-based Atlantic Wood Industries, the wall will serve as a containment barrier for several thousand tons of creosote- and PCB-contaminated sediment that will be dredged from the river. The entire remediation program, which also includes site work to address contaminated soils and groundwater,
The Virginia Dept. of Transportation’s second attempt to identify a suitable private-sector partner for its U.S. Route 460 Improvements Project has yielded conceptual proposals from three development consortiums to develop, construct and operate a 55-mile, four-lane toll road between Petersburg and Suffolk. One group is led by Spanish infrastructure giant Cintra Infraestructuras S.A. Another, 460 Partners, is led by Moreland Property Group Inc. of Richmond, Va., and includes, among others, Lane Construction Corp. of Charlotte, N.C., Skanska USA Civil Southeast of Virginia Beach, Va., and AECOM. A third team, Multimodal Solutions of New Hyde Park, N.Y., includes Clark Construction Group
As diplomats from around the world gather this week at the United Nations headquarters in New York City for the annual General Assembly meeting, they are encountering a rare sight: scaffolding hung from buildings� exteriors. After years of intense preparation, the 17-acre U.N. campus is undergoing its first major renovation since it was erected along the East River shortly after World War Two. The sweeping renovation won�t come cheap, at $1.87 billion, with the cost to be split among all 192 member nations. But when it�s complete in 2015, the five-structure complex, whose 11-member design team included Le Corbusier, Oscar
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