Yale University’s Art + Architecture Building, captured headlines when it opened in 1963 in downtown New Haven, Conn. The fortress-like, 114,000-sq ft cast-in-place concrete structure was one of the world’s most iconic, Modernistic buildings ever built as a school of architecture. Related Links: Best Of 2009 But over the years a fire and unsympathetic patchwork renovations destroyed legendary designer and then-Yale architecture school dean Paul Rudolph’s original vision. A fast-track $126 million renovation, restoration and construction project has restored the building, rededicated as Paul Rudolph Hall, to its original landmark status. Besides the 46-year-old building, the project included construction of
A challenging $7 million project to renovate and restore The Emerson, in Manhattan’s Clinton Urban Renewal Area, proved more difficult than expected. The Emerson was constructed in 1915 as a model tenement building, providing safe and healthy apartments for families and the working poor. William Emerson, an architect and prominent proponent of housing reform, designed the seven-story building with 63 apartments, a grocery, public showers and other social services. Related Links: Best Of 2009 Plans to demolish the dilapidated, vandalized and pigeon infested property at 53rd Street and Eleventh Avenue marshaled the building’s remaining tenants to organize a tenant association
Skanska USA was out to prove a point when it fit-out its new Manhattan offices. It wanted to show clients it could build a LEED Platinum office at a reasonable premium and produce long-term energy savings. And it managed to mark the feat in the landmark, 102-story Empire State Building. The $4.6 million effort cost $210,000 more than a typical Class A office fit-out, a premium of less than 5%. And since opening the 24,400-sq-ft 32nd-florr office last year, Skanska’s energy expenses dropped 46%, which, extrapolated over the 15-year lease, would produce savings topping $550,000. All of that complemented earning
The Firefighter’s Memorial Park is a tribute to the North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue firefighters fallen in the line of duty, and it’s not just a memorial: appropriately enough, the park, opened this August, is full of water. Related Links: Best Of 2009 Union City, N.J. Mayor Brian Stack decided to use the state Green Acre funds to build a free municipal pool. The city picked an old Masonic temple which, at the time, served as a community recreational center that was underused and falling apart, according to John Capazzi, principal of RSC Architects, designers of the project. What
For Bijou Properties, the adaptive reuse of dilapidated urban properties is perhaps the ultimate form of recycling. The firm’s latest project, Garden Street Lofts, converted a circa-1919 Hostess coconut-processing warehouse in Hoboken, NJ, into state-of-the-art green condominiums. The $16.9 million project expects to be certified as one of New Jersey’s first LEED Silver residential buildings. Related Links: Best Of 2009 “We thought a LEED building would not only be great for the environment but would also attract buyers,” says Dave Gaber, Bijou director. The project, helmed by Union City, N.J.-based Del-Sano Contracting, integrates the five-story, 42,888-sq-ft structural steel, concrete and
When city officials in Elmsford, N.Y. wanted to expand their town’s library in 2003, they needed public approval to do it. Slide Show Related Links: Best Of 2009 They got the approval they needed – but just barely. “The winning vote was by 60 votes, out of a 1,200-person referendum,” said Salvatore Coco, a principal with Beatty Harvey Coco, the architects on the project. “It was controversial because it was the biggest public project the town has ever done.” The original building, completed in 1968 in modern Brutalist style, was retained and gutted for an open-space area for young adult
In order to maintain clean drinking water for Upstate New York communities whose system had long been polluted by a General Electric manufacturing plant, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was forced to look elsewhere. Related Links: Best Of 2009 The $10 million Hudson River PCBs Alternative Drinking Water Supplies project brought potable water from Troy, N.Y. to Waterford and Halfmoon and a carbon filtration system to Stillwater – all in New York – to ensure residents had clean drinking water while crews dredged the Hudson River to remove 1.3-million pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). “We’re providing a safe source of
When OTG Management was awarded a contract by JetBlue in late February 2008 to create the concession area of the airline’s new terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport, their goal was to get customers to see the OTG philosophy: “We don’t operate airport restaurants; we operate restaurants that happen to be in airports.” Related Links: Best Of 2009 The airline was asking for nine full-service restaurants, three coffee shops, six bar/lounges, a food court, and a gourmet market – all keeping with the hip, modern feel of the terminal itself. The $32 million project was completed in October 2008 and
Clock management is a critical football skill. Hard-fought games come down to decisions based on minutes left in the fourth quarter. But quarterbacks and coaches are never asked, midway through the game, to finish up a quarter early. Related Links: Best Of 2009 That’s essentially what the New York Jets asked their project team to do about a year into construction of the team’s new corporate home and training center in Florham Park, N.J. – finish nearly three months earlier than the original schedule in order to move in before the 2008 season. The team promised to deliver, evoking the
When Yale University decided to expand its facilities and programming for international affairs, which brought distinguished global leaders to New Haven, Conn., officials said they wanted a facility that matched the prestige of the guests who would meet there. Out of that plan came the new Maurice R. Greenberg Conference Center, a $14 million, 14,000-sq-ft green building that is linked by a glazed arcade to the historic Betts House (built in 1868 and restored in 2002), which is home to many of Yale’s international affairs centers and programs. Related Links: Best Of 2009 Designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects of
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