ChoiHi Sun Choi, senior principal of Thornton Tomasetti's New York office, and Leonard Joseph, principal of the firm's Irvine, California office, have been named co-chairs of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat's Outrigger Design Working Group. The first-ever outrigger system design guide is currently being developed by the council. The guide is aimed at providing an overview of the history, design considerations and recommendations for outrigger systems. It is expected to be published in 2012. Built Ecology, a high-performance building, specialty design practice within international engineering firm WSP Flack + Kurtz, New York, has expanded its services
St. Joseph’s College has awarded Racanelli Construction, Melville, N.Y., a $12.5-million contract for construction of a 30,000-sq-ft athletic facility at its Brooklyn campus. Racanelli will serve as the general contractor on the project, which is scheduled to begin this week with completion slated for June 2013. Bentel & Bentel Architects/Planners, A.I.A., Locust Valley, N.Y., is the architect on the project. The three-floor facility will be built in an historic section of Brooklyn where there are space constraints, and will require shoring and bracing of existing areas, Racanelli says. The facility will include a state-of-the-art basketball arena, gym floor and
The New York City Council gave final approval today for the long-awaited transfer of the six-acre Admirals Row site at the Brooklyn Navy Yard from the National Guard to the City of New York, which owns the 300-acre navy yard. The approval comes after a five-month-review process by city officials and the conclusion of talks between the guard and the non-profit Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp. (BNYDC), and it allows for the redevelopment of the historic site. Redevelopment of the site, expected to begin next year following the site's transfer to the city, will include construction of a 74,000-sq-ft supermarket,
The Dept. of Transportation has denied the American Automobile Association’s request to oppose the recently enacted Hudson River toll hikes. AAA, which is still pursuing legal action related to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s toll and fare increases, maintains that revenues from the increases should not be used for projects outside of the PANYNJ transportation network, including the World Trade Center. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood says that since congress passed the Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Assistance Act in 1987, the agency no longer has “oversight of tolls on interstate bridges over navigable waters,” but that
Only a few weeks remain before a federal renewable energy incentive program expires. The 1603 Treasury Dept. grant program, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, pays investors a cash grant equal to 30% of the total cost of eligible projects that began from 2009 through December 31, 2011. Under the program, payment is due within 60 days of the renewable energy system’s activation. After the expiration date, projects may be eligible for the 30% federal investment tax credit program that allows participants to reduce their tax liability."The grant program is a big incentive for developers to
The New York City Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced on Nov. 7 that all construction managers working on its $14-billion capital construction program are required to be certified. The announcement was made at the Construction Management Association of America’s national conference in Washington, DC. “We are raising the bar,” says Kevin Donnelly, deputy DEP commissioner. “In order for us to be successful, we recognize that we need to change our organization, both internally and externally.”The DEP will expect more leadership from its construction managers in areas such as safety, quality management, risk management, and the timely resolution of issues.“Our
Gotham Organization Inc.’s $520-million Gotham West, a four-building, mixed-use residential building that spans from West 44th to West 45th Streets between 10th and 11th Avenues in Manhattan, broke ground on Nov. 7. The 1,200-unit complex, scheduled for completion in 2014, is expected to create more than 2,900 construction and construction-related jobs and 34 permanent jobs over the next three years. Rendering Courtesy of Gotham Organization Inc. The groundbreaking follows an agreement reached in June in which key New York City unions, including laborers and structural trades, agreed to a 20% wage cut for work on the Gotham West project.Gotham Construction
Seven educational institutions including Columbia University, Cornell University, New York University, and Stanford University have responded to Applied Sciences NYC’s Oct. 28 deadline in a request for proposals to build or expand a state-of-the-art engineering and applied sciences campus in New York City in exchange for access to city-owned land and up to $100 million in city capital, says the office of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Applied Sciences NYC is an initiative created by the city that is expected to help drive the economy. According to the New York Economic Development Corp., the new applied sciences campus will generate an
A construction worker died Nov. 8 after rescuers pulled him from wreckage at a Brooklyn, N.Y., condominium project under construction. Four other workers were also rescued from the rubble at 2929 Brighton Fifth Street in the Brighton Beach section, according to a New York Times account. Three were listed in stable condition, according to news accounts. A fifth worker who was working outside the building refused to be treated. New York Dept. of Buildings engineers, in a preliminary investigation, theorized that the building’s collapse could have resulted from workers not following proper concrete pour practices, says a DOB spokesperson.
EPA and the Dept. of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced plans last week (Nov. 4) to jointly evaluate the feasibility of developing biomass, geothermal, solar or wind energy production on 26 Superfund brownfield and former landfill or mining sites. The feasibility study, part of EPA's RE-Powering America's Land initiative, calls for EPA to provide about $1 million in technical assistance to the sites, Lura Matthews, RE-Powering America's Land project lead, told attendees at the PV Power Generation Mid-West & East conference, held this week in Manhattan. The study aims to determine the best technology for each site; the
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