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
Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Three of the museum buildings' roofs have glue-laminated arches supported on cables. Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art The buildings are open, but the creek has yet to be filled with water. 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 and
ENR Art Dept. Retail and commercial building starts. PHOTO COURTESY Forest City Enterprises, Inc. Picking Up Forest City is building a mixed-use development around the Barclays Center Arena in Brooklyn. Related Links: The Top 425 Owners Main Story ENR Top Owners Sourcebook: Overview, Rankings and Market Sector Reports With the retail sector languishing, American developers are clinging to the renewed demand for construction of office and apartment buildings.Providing modest relief, the sector movement is a result of converging market factors, including historically low vacancy rates in offices and a backlog in apartment units, as demand catches up to low levels
Courtesy of Moatti-Rivire The 324-m-tall Paris icon is getting a glass floor for its first-level platform, 57 m above grade. A new restaurant, conference center and "green" features are also in the mix. A $34-million project will replace facilities on the first level of Paris’ landmark Eiffel Tower, last upgraded in the 1980s. A glass floor measuring over 30 sq meters will fill the now open central section of the 5,240-sq-m platform, 57 m above grade. A new restaurant and conference space are also in the works, along with improved disabled access, various forms of renewable energy, stormwater harvesting and
Photo courtesy of the NPS Inspectors used rappelling techniques to assess repairs for the 555-ft-tall obelisk. The magnitude-5.8 earthquake that rattled most of the eastern U.S. on Aug. 25 created new cracks and spalling in the upper sections of the 555-ft, 5-in.-tall Washington Monument in the nation's capital. While the extent of quake-related damage was not a surprise, the size of several spalls was larger than expected, says a forensic engineer who conducted an inspection for the U.S. National Park Service.The survey team of Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc., Northbrook, Ill., extracted any spalls that represented a potential fall hazard
McCoy Architects LLC Architects' rendering of Islamic Center of Murfreesboro shows plan for conventional mosque. The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro has broken ground on a new mosque after delays by a lawsuit, arson of construction equipment, protests over the project and contractors hesitant to submit bids.The Center, which operates in a small building in the downtown area, held a ceremonial groundbreaking Sept. 28 and work started the next day on the 12,000-sq-ft first phase of what is planned as a 52,000-sq-ft complex.S&A Constructors LLC of Nashville is the contractor; the architect is McCoy Architects LLC of Lexington, Ky.“This has been
In addition to a swooping, stepped concrete and sloped stainless-steel roof-line, the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Kansas City, Mo., features a radial glass atrium that hangs on finely tuned steel cables. The privately funded, $413-million job is set to open Sept. 16 after more than a decade of planning, design and construction.Locals
The team selected materials based on availability and delivery time. One of the replacement schools was a supermarket that had been empty for 10 years. Another structural conversion reconfigured a warehouse. It took just minutes for a tornado packing 200-mph winds to level a third of Joplin, Mo.'s public schools last spring. In a remarkable turnaround, it took less than three months to bring the schools back on line in time for the new school year.On Aug. 17, classroom sessions resumed on schedule in Joplin, even as construction crews continued cleaning up from the May 22 tornado, an EF5 event
Photo by Nadine Post for ENR A common purpose is a great motivator. The hundreds of people cooperating and coping at Ground Zero, many of whom are otherwise fierce competitors, have many reasons for putting up with the added hassles, restrictions and sacrifices. Related Links: Key Links Help Reshape Manhattan Below Grade at WTC Hub, a Transit Tango At New York's New World Trade Center, Uncommon Cooperation 9/11 Memorial Is Centerpiece of World Trade Center Redevelopment In the giant “ant colony” under the $18-billion World Trade Center rebuild in Lower Manhattan, there are seven major concurrent projects (eight, if the
Related Links: Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial website The decades-long dream to create the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial in Washington, D.C., will become a reality on Aug. 28. Fifteen years in the making, the memorial faced challenges—ranging from an extensive approval process to a site on the National Mall made of fill from the Potomac River—before construction could start in late 2009. Two years later, the design-build team, the first use of the delivery system for a memorial on the Mall, will deliver the $120-million vision within walking distance of the spot where Dr. King delivered his