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
Courtesy of HCC The $8-billion Lavasa development, a 1,500-acre new hill town planned according to the principles of new urbanism, is one bright spot on the nation's horizon. India is beginning to face both the myriad problems of its urban centers and the many opportunities for economic and social transformation.By 2030, a $1.2-trillion investment will be required to meet projected demand for the 700 million to 900 million sq m of commercial and residential space, says a McKinsey Global Institute report. The real estate development is equivalent to building a new Chicago every year.In addition, 2.5 billion sq m of
+ Image Courtesy of the National Disaster Management Authority Sixty-eight percent of India's population is in danger due to poorly designed buildings in earthquake zones. The 344 towns in zone five are among the most damage-prone cities on the planet. Related Links: As Indian Ocean Tidal Wave Death Toll Mounts, U.S. Joins Aid Effort Massive Loss of Life Prompts Calls for Expanded Tsunami Warning Net After the Dec. 26, 2004, Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that killed over 230,000 people in 14 countries, officials from the National Disaster Management Authority of India decided that installing deep-sea sensors could warn them
Courtesy of the Council on Tall Buildings & Urban Habitat Most of the projected 20 tallest buildings in 2020 would be in Asia, says the tall buildings council. The Council on Tall Buildings & Urban Habitat is adding a new noun to its dictionary—a megatall—which it defines as a building 600 m or taller. As of 2020, there will likely be eight megatalls, says the council. That assumes, of course, that none of the megatalls on the drawing boards or under construction is canceled, mothballed or cut short.The projected 20 tallest buildings in 2020, just listed by the CTBUH, are
Related Links: Korea's Songdo IBD is Model for Sustainable, High-Tech Living Delivery of the future-tallest building in the Republic of Korea is a family affair—or the closest thing to it. Lotte Group, the owner-developer of the planned 555-meter Lotte World Tower in Seoul, is bringing back the master-builder model for its first supertower by keeping project management, construction management and general contracting under its own roof."This is the first time in the world this is happening" for supertower delivery, says Y K Kim, executive director of the CM division of South Korea's fourth-largest family-run conglomerate, or chaebol. Kim should know.
Related Links: Lotte, Koreas First Supertower, is an All-in-the-Family Affair U.Life. It sounds like a New Age movement. For developer Stanley C. Gale, the driving force behind the $35-billion Songdo International Business District, U.Life actually is a "new age movement" of sorts, except the "new age" is the digital age and the "movement" is variously called smart cities, intelligent urbanization or, in Gale's lexicon, ubiquitous life, or U.Life. If Gale has his way, everyone living and working in the 1,500-acre Songdo IBD will be linked through a common backbone of information and communications technology.The master-planned new town in Incheon, Republic
The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened to the public on Nov.11, 2011. The complex was completed on schedule, according to Bill Greek, senior vice president of Linbeck Group LLC, which led the joint venture that built the project. Construction of the 201,000-sq-ft museum—a collection of 10 linked buildings—was challenging, thanks to its setting over or alongside a stream in a blasted out ravine in Bentonville, Ark., and its two weirs, curved forms and cable-supported roofs, courtesy of architect Moshe Safdie. Work even required damming Crystal Spring. Though the museum is open to the public, the diverted creek has
Rendering courtesy of Facebook The Lulea, Sweden, Facebook data center will be powered by nearby hydropower. In a joint venture with Fortis Construction, Portland, Ore., and NCC Construction Sweden, Stockholm, among others, DPR Construction recently was awarded a $121-million contract to construct a data-center complex for Facebook in Lulea, Sweden.This project will be the Redwood City, Calif., general contractor’s first foray outside North America, said Andy Andres, project executive, who is currently in Forest City, N.C., constructing another Facebook data center. This year, DPR and Fortis also completed Facebook’s data-center complex in Prineville, Ore.“This was the right job and right
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