Photo Courtesy of In-Press With the last few sections of structural steel recently erected, the U.K.'s tallest building, London's Shard, stands at its 310-meter height. With the last few sections of structural steel recently erected, the U.K.'s tallest building, London's Shard, stands at its 310-meter height. Some 500 tonnes of steel in some 800 pieces went into forming the spire, which will receive over 500 panes of glass cladding.Steel subcontractor Severfield-Reeve Structures Ltd. began erecting the skyscraper's 12,500-tonne main frame around two years ago. Columns and composite floors form the lower 40 levels; concrete columns and post-tensioned slabs complete the
Rendering courtesy KSP Jurgen Engel Architekten The mosques minaret will ascend 265 m into the sky, making it the tallest minaret on any mosque in the world. Rendering courtesy KSP Jurgen Engel Architekten The mosques prayer hall, shaped like a cube with regular rows of pillars, will be able to accommodate 35,000 worshippers at any one time. Algeria is set to begin construction of what is expected to be, after worship centers in the Saudi Arabia holy cities of Mecca and Medina, the world’s third-largest mosque. In February, China’s state-controlled China State Construction Engineering Corp. signed a $1.3-billion construction contract
Related Links: Disappearing Act is a 'Whalebone' of a Feat Creek Replica at City Creek is so Real, it Even has Fish For Shelley R. Clark, a structural engineer for the world's most complicated retractable skylight, frustration became the mother of invention. But ultimately, it took her firm Magnusson Klemencic Associates only 15 minutes to turn
India’s leading real estate developer, a major U.S. builder and a London-based hedge fund have formed a joint venture to build integrated residential commercial projects worth $25 billion over the next 20 years throughout the emerging nation.The venture's key partners are India's Sahara Prime City Ltd., investment firm Acropolis Capital Group and Turner International, the international subsidiary of Turner Construction Co., New York City. With an initial investment of $100 million, the Mumbai-based company will operate under the name Sahara Turner Construction Ltd. Sahara Group holds a 63% stake.In its first five-year program, the venture says it will build new
After tortured beginnings that included a false start followed by a protracted design competition during which the eventual winner "gambled" $2 million, a shroud of secrecy has enveloped the planned 1-kilometer-tall Kingdom Tower, to be sited north of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Of the 12 stadiums for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, at least six are on track to complete construction within the coming year. Here is a slide show that provides a brief look at how the work for the world’s premier football event is progressing and a summary of some of the challenges facing the contractors.
AP/Wideworld The death toll stands at 17, but authorities say five people remain missing. Google Maps/ENR Art Dept. The collapse of the Liberty Building, shown in orange, impacted surrounding structures. The deadly collapse of three buildings in the historic center of Rio de Janeiro has launched a series of inquiries into the cause of the accident as officials continue to search for the bodies of victims.The 20-story Liberty Building on Avenida 13 de Maio, located near Cinelandia Square in central Rio, fell at about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 25. The debris crushed the nearby 10-story Columbus Building as well as
It’s not just bankers’ ballooning bonuses that can forewarn of an impending financial disaster. It now appears that periodic global cravings for ever-taller buildings might also be harbingers of economic doom. If new research from Hong Kong is to be believed, China’s frenetic high-rise boom, with India in its wake, could reflect a “misallocation of capital, which may result in an economic correction for two of Asia’s largest economies in the next five years.”Since launching its Skyscraper Index 13 years ago, Barclays Capital (BarCap) has revealed “an unhealthy correlation between construction of the next world’s tallest building and an impending
Related Links: Grand Egyptian Museum website The Case Against the Grand Egyptian Museum A joint venture of Orascom Construction Industries, Cairo, and BESIX Group, Belgium, defeated 39 other bidders to clinch the $810-million turnkey contract for the construction of the final phase of what will be Egypt's biggest museum.The joint venture's scope includes construction of the Grand Egyptian Museum—which will house a conference center as well as the museum—an exhibition center, manager's residence and tunnels linking phase-one and phase-two construction to the main building. The 40-month contract also involves interior design and landscaping on a site that overlooks the legendary
Rendering courtesy Hyundai Hyundai's new headquarters, designed by Gensler, will seek LEED Gold status. Looking at Hyundai Motor America, a division of Korea-based Hyundai Motor Co., it would be hard to tell there is a global economic crisis. Hyundai's U.S. car sales were up 20% in 2011 compared with 2010's sales. In total, Hyundai sold 645,691 cars this past year in the U.S. The company is tearing down its existing U.S. headquarters in Fountain Valley, Calif.—about 30 miles south of Los Angeles—and investing $150 million in a new one. Hyundai joins other major corporations—Google and Coca-Cola, for example—that are putting