2013 - Images Of The Year
Some 1,500 photographers submitted images for the Year in Construction issue. This slideshow genuine talent both in front of and behind the camera.
ElectrIcIan Samuel Magbanua, San Diego
ElectrIcIan Samuel Magbanua, San Diego
Photographer: Thiel Harryman
Submitter: Thiel Harryman
Description: Magbanua was preparing to install an electrical control panel when Harryman noticed the striking contrast between the colorful coils of wire protruding from the underground conduit and the concrete foundation—and shot this photo.
Fulton Transit Center, New York City
Fulton Transit Center, New York City
Photographer: Zak Kostura
Submitter: Rebecca Maloney
Description: This 4,000-lb stainless-steel structure, called Sky Reflector-Net, will help orient passengers as they walk through the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Fulton Center, its refurbished transit hub in lower Manhattan. Commissioned by the MTA, the work is a collaboration among James Carpenter Design Associates, Grimshaw Architects and Arup. In this image, the installer performs final checks of the 952 geometrically unique panels within the cable net. Kostura, a structural engineer with Arup, used a temporary platform to frame the shot from a low spot. He says the result is an expansive vertical wall that almost overwhelms the scale of the installer on the lift. Adds Kostura, “The net appears to take on different scales at different angles.”
Brandon Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant, Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
Brandon Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant, Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
Photographer: Robb Williamson
Description: A worker aligns aerator line brackets in a huge underground vault. “My camera did really well,” says Williamson, senior photographer with AECOM. Recalling this shot, he says this scene was lit only by a distant work light and, high above, a light coming through the entry hole. He shot at 1/100th of a second at ISO 3200 with a handheld Canon 1 D-X.
Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge Replacement
Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge Replacement
Photographer: Martin Chandrawinata
Submitter: Martin Chandrawinata
Description: Chandrawinata took this shot of an excavator demolishing the temporary truss-pier foundation that was used to support the bridge deck for the new $6-billion Bay Bridge prior to load transfer. “One morning during my field visit, I noticed the fog rolling in and hiding a part of the bridge. I captured this picture from the adjacent pier,” he says. “I hope pictures like this will inspire young engineers to dream big and work hard to build more functional structures that will benefit society at large.”
Gryllefjord Bridge, Norway
Gryllefjord Bridge, Norway
Photographer: Kenneth Solfjeld
Submitter: Natascha Eichholz
Description: “The beautiful fjord made a perfect backdrop for all my pictures,” says Solfjeld, who was hired to document construction of the Gryllefjord Bridge in northern Norway by its Swiss contractor, Implenia. The 315-meter-long box-girder span has a steel-and-concrete superstructure, with steel tube piles driven into the seabed as a foundation. The bridge and a nearby tunnel are part of a project designed to prevent rock falls and avalanches in the area. “Advanced engineering meets Mother Earth. Perfect!” says Solfjeld.
General Desmond Bridge Replacement, Long Beach, Calif.
General Desmond Bridge Replacement, Long Beach, Calif.
Photographer: Marie Tagudeña
Submitter: Marie Tagudeña
Description: Tagudeña, hired to document progress on a bridge replacement, says she was “mesmerized” when she came across a coil of wires that, to her eye, resembled “metallic snakes emerging from the ground.” She says she likes to bring jobsites to life using unusual images. “When you see something inanimate that seems to personify something alive, it is an abstract way” of giving people another way of looking at a jobsite, she says.
College of the Desert Solar Installation, Palm Desert, Calif.
College of the Desert Solar Installation, Palm Desert, Calif.
Photographer: Trevor Clancy
Submitter: David Murphy
Description: Clancy works for Marble Street Studio, an outfit that specializes in shooting for project owners and contractors. Working for Oltmans Construction, he was documenting hardware installation work on PV-panel brackets for a canopy that would shade parking spots while generating electricity. “I used an f2.8 setting to achieve this soft- focus look,” says Clancy.
Decommissioning and Demolition of Former RG Steel Sparrows Point Plant, Baltimore
Decommissioning and Demolition of Former RG Steel Sparrows Point Plant, Baltimore
Photographer: Stephen SetteDucati
Description: “Tearing down massive steel structures is very hard on excavators. I totally respect these guys who work in any weather, day or night, to get a broken machine up and running,” says SetteDucati of his subject, a heavy-equipment mechanic. SetteDucati also directs media for MCM Management Corp., manager of the Sparrows Point project, now 45% complete at the 3,500- acre site. “What inspired me to take the shot was the contrast of the yellow background with his black, grease-covered hands, torn coat and the multitude of chrome tools he was hauling.”
Student Dorm Parking Garage, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Student Dorm Parking Garage, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Photographer: Paul Knapick
Submitter: Paul Knapick
Description: Knapick, full-time staff photographer for project contractor BBL Construction Services Inc., used a 400-millimeter telephoto lens from a hilltop position to shoot this photo of union ironworker Stephen Gonzalez rigging a section of garage deck for a lift last spring. Knapick says the shot appealed to him because Gonzalez, an eight-year member of Local 420 in Reading, Pa., who works for subcontractor Edvon Contracting, “looked like he was working very hard.” Gonzalez says he now is on a project at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
Cable Rig for High-Wire Crossing of Colorado River Gorge, Arizona
Cable Rig for High-Wire Crossing of Colorado River Gorge, Arizona
Photographer: Keith Meehan
Submitter: Keith Meehan
Description: Meehan lobbied project managers early for a spot in the custom-made cart used to rig the 1,200-ft-long, 1,250-ft-high cable on which aerialist Nik Wallenda would cross a gorge near the Grand Canyon. “I knew the vantage point would provide one-of-a-kind imagery,” he says. Here, Meehan frames lineman Dennis Morgan of an electrical workers’ union local in Syracuse, N.Y., who also helped rig the line for Wallenda’s Niagara Falls, N.Y., crossing in 2012.
Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Program, Seattle
Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Program, Seattle
Photographer: Greg Phipps
Submitter: Greg Phipps
Description: When taking this photo, Phipps, photographer for the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Program, clung to the back corner of “Bertha,” the 57.5-ft-dia tunnel-boring machine used on the job. When Phipps tried to capture the TBM’s completed work, workers walked into the frame. Phipps says he liked the contrast between ordinary and extraordinary. “It’s just two workers walking to work,” says Phipps, who also notes that Bertha is the largest TBM ever built. “I was awestruck by the scale and shape of it.”
Facade of Ferdinand Building, Dudley Square, Boston
Facade of Ferdinand Building, Dudley Square, Boston
Photographer: Benjamin Johnson
Submitter: Benjamin Johnson
Description: On site to take a group photo in front of this 119-year-old structure, Johnson looked up and saw the recently erected tower crane. A photographer for construction manager Shawmut Design and Construction, which is transfoming the structure into municipal space, Johnson liked the detailed view of the old building, which had been abandoned for decades, and the new crane working to save it.
Atlanta Readiness Center, Atlanta
Atlanta Readiness Center, Atlanta
Photographer: Corey Sherman
Submitter: Corey Sherman
Description: As quality-control manager for McKnight Construction at this Georgia Dept. of Defense project, Sherman regularly takes progress photos. On an early inspection in August, he walked past the stacked duct that had been delivered the evening before. The blue protective covering caught his eye in the morning light, and the multiple squares of different duct sizes made him reach for his iPhone 4s. “It was a cool combo of color and shapes that come together on a construction site and usually go unnoticed,” he says.
Appleton Alliance Church Expansion, Appleton, Wis.
Appleton Alliance Church Expansion, Appleton, Wis.
Photographer: David McLain
Submitter: Patrick Casey
Description: McLain, a lifelong magazine and commercial photographer, did extensive shooting for a book celebrating The Boldt Co.’s 125th anniversary. He stationed himself on the church’s lighting catwalk to get this angle on the seats’ installation. “It was impressive to see everyday fixtures being installed on such a large scale,” says McLain.
Embassy Suites Hotel, Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Embassy Suites Hotel, Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Photographer: Heith Comer
Submitter: Heith Comer
Description: A photographer who regularly takes progress photos for construction sites, Heith Comer was drawn to a pile of yellow concrete shoring stacked up at a hotel construction site in downtown Tuscaloosa, Ala. “It looked really cool,” says Comer. “I thought it would be something I could hang in my office.”
Widening Project, Freeway No.1, Taipei, Taiwan
Widening Project, Freeway No.1, Taipei, Taiwan
Photographer: Chao-Yang “Danny” Chan
Submitter: Chao-Yang “Danny” Chan
Description: Danny Chan was just a new staff photographer for CECI Engineering Consultants Inc. when he was assigned to cover its Wu-yang widening project for Freeway No. 1 in Taipei. Chan was looking for “an image different from fine weather and daytime.” He took this shot in the late evening hours, “just as the traffic lights were switched on” and fog still hung over the project.
King Street Station Restoration, Seattle
King Street Station Restoration, Seattle
Photographer: Jennifer Burke
Submitter: Erin Zangari
Description: When rehab work began on Seattle’s King Street Station in 2009, the Seattle DOT hoped to restore the century-old rail station to its former glory as the Pacific Northwest’s transportation hub. ZGF Architects’ in-house photographer visited the site two months prior to completion in April and found this scene. “In a light-filled space on the second floor above the grand waiting room, I came across two craftsmen from EverGreene Architectural Arts. They were at work restoring elements of the historic plaster ceiling using traditional techniques of sculpture.”
Park Walkway Construction, Governors Island, New York City
Park Walkway Construction, Governors Island, New York City
Photographer: Timothy Schenck
Submitter: Timothy Schenck
Description: “Getting interesting construction shots, for me, is all about finding unique perspectives,” says Schenck of this image of stone masons laying a granite walkway, which was taken from atop the general contractor’s crane. “It was a clear, sunny day, so the direct sunlight made the colors really pop and gave the photo some great shadows. I try to highlight the human element and contrast it with the materials and colors of the jobsite.” The privately financed upgrade of public spaces near Liggett Hall on historic Governors Island is set for completion in 2014.
Demolition of Former RG Steel Sparrows Point Plant, Baltimore
Demolition of Former RG Steel Sparrows Point Plant, Baltimore
Photographer: Stephen SetteDucati
Submitter: Stephen SetteDucati
Description: SetteDucati, who directs marketing for project manager MCM Management Corp., “likes to shoot everything about demolition, from start to finish,” he says, including how the Gradall excavator “was dwarfed” by just one 300,000-lb bucket that formerly carried molten steel. “I wanted to show how massive and complex the building was while drawing the viewer into the detail and the contrast of the colors. My exposure was critical.”
Jacobs Medical Center at UC San Diego, San Diego
Jacobs Medical Center at UC San Diego, San Diego
Photographer: Paul Turang
Submitter: Paul Turang
Description: A concrete finisher on a mat about 80 to 100 ft below grade caught Turang’s eye as a geometric expression as Turang explored the site of the 10-story, $839-million hospital in San Diego. “I saw the finisher down there and the super-dark concrete, and I just liked the patterns,” he says. The sun was really harsh. To drive the shadows even more to black, he metered for the concrete and adjusted the exposure of his Canon 5D Mark II. “I framed it a couple of ways as the worker moved until I could cut out a wall on the right,” he says. “This was the final frame.”
Ohio River Bridge, Crossing, Louisville, Ky.
Ohio River Bridge, Crossing, Louisville, Ky.
Photographer: Nick Roberts
Submitter: Nick Roberts
Description: Nick Roberts is an independent photographer befriended by Walsh Construction, which is building the Ohio River crossing for I-65 in Louisville. The photo shows ironworker Sean Ellery giving hand signals to a crane operator lowering onto a barge an 11-ft-dia, 50-ft-long rebar cage to be used as part of a caisson for the new bridge. “I was grateful Walsh gave me access to the site and got lucky when the fog rolled in at just the right time,” says Roberts.
I-90 Resurfacing Project, Washington State
I-90 Resurfacing Project, Washington State
Photographer: William Anthony
Submitter: Lisa Brandi
Description: Hired by Illumagear, manufacturer of the Halo Light, professional photographer Anthony said he found kismet when he captured this image of a construction worker wearing the light while working at night on a road project as traffic speeds by. Describing what it felt like to take the picture, Anthony says, “It was really baptism by fire.”
Beckwith Farms Distribution Center, Mount Juliet, Tenn.
Beckwith Farms Distribution Center, Mount Juliet, Tenn.
Photographer: Bruce Cain
Submitter: Bruce Cain
Description: A tight crop from a much larger photo produced this shot of a worker on a power trowel and the patterns his machine made in the concrete. Cain, a freelance photographer, shot this progress photo with a 65-ft-high, vehicle-mounted telescoping mast and a Nikon D300s with an 18- 200 millimeter zoom lens set at 170 mm. Cain says he always shoots three-, five- or seven- exposure brackets and then blends the exposures in post-processing to increase the dynamic range of the final result. This photo was a three-exposure blend to bring out details.
World Trade Center Site, New York City
World Trade Center Site, New York City
Photographer: David Lloyd
Submitter: Submitted by Lina Cossich, Panama Canal Authority
Description: AECOM staff photographer Lloyd, a big fan of taking photos from the air, considers this shot of lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center site an aerial photo even though he did not shoot it from a helicopter. Lloyd captured the view while he was on the 104th floor of the 1,776-ft-tall One World Trade Center. The high perch and a wide-angle lens allowed him to capture most of the WTC site, the lower Manhattan skyline and beyond. For a sense of position and height, Lloyd included One WTC’s beams and scaffolding in the photo’s foreground. “Being at the top of One WTC and looking down on the footprints of the memorial was both emotional and awe-inspiring,” says the photographer, who has been shooting for AECOM for a decade.
Loop Track Renewal, Chicago
Loop Track Renewal, Chicago
Photographer: Michael Gerlach
Submitter: Kelley Hostman
Description: Begun in 2012, the Chicago Transit Authority’s Loop Track Renewal project is slated to repair or replace more than two miles of the city’s distinctive elevated railways. Photographer Gerlach usually took night shots of work on the “L,” but one overcast day something caught his eye. “I was on the switching platform tower and thought these guys with the orange safety vests looked great, all spread out. I loved getting up there, even though it’s kind of scary. I’m with two cameras and a tripod, but I’m not lifting anything like these guys here,” he says.
D.C. Clean Rivers Project, Washington D.C.
D.C. Clean Rivers Project, Washington D.C.
Photographer: Mark Kroncke
Submitter: Mark Kroncke
Description: As crews assembled the earth-pressure-balanced tunnel-boring machine “Lady Bird” to bore the 23-ft-dia Blue Plains water tunnel, Jacobs Associates senior staff engineer Mark Kroncke snapped a quick picture of the TBM’s screw conveyor. “I’m new to tunneling—this was my first TBM job,” says Kroncke. “I was standing in the smaller of the two launching shafts, looking through the tunnel at the screw conveyor. Everything was in that shot: the framing of the interconnecting tunnel, the light. It was awesome.”
Home Depot Warehouse, Perris, Calif.
Home Depot Warehouse, Perris, Calif.
Photographer: Trevor Clancy
Submitter: David Murphy
Description: Clancy, a professional photographer working for Marble Street Studio, was shooting for Oltmans Construction, the contractor. As he explains, “When shooting tilt-up construction, I usually use a longer lens and try to keep clear of the work crew and massive concrete slabs as they are lifted into position. But on this morning in June, an opportunity presented itself to squeeze in close to the workers with a wide angle lens.”
D.C. Clean Rivers Project, Washington, D.C.
D.C. Clean Rivers Project, Washington, D.C.
Photographer: James Wonneberg
Submitter: Ted Coyle
Description: Wonneberg, a graphic specialist with D.C. Water, took this picture with a wide-angle lens to show the enormousness of the tunnel-boring machine—dubbed “Lady Bird” after Lady Bird Johnson—being used on the first tunnel of the massive D.C. Clean Rivers project. The photo was taken as the first piece of the TBM was lowered into the shaft by a specially manufactured crane. “The trick was to get enough of the cut stone in the foreground” yet have enough width and detail in the shot “to show the magnitude of the machine itself,” he says.
Fuel Storage Facility, Point Loma, Calif.
Fuel Storage Facility, Point Loma, Calif.
Photographer: Thiel Harryman
Submitter: Thiel Harryman
Description: Harryman says the most valuable resources the construction industry has are people. The portrait subject, Charles Carver, was preparing logistics during construction of a fuel storage facility. “A photograph is a simple thing that can provide a viewpoint from the past,” says Harryman. “Sometimes a black-and-white photo helps to capture the essence of the subject.”
Office of FFKR Architects, Salt Lake City
Office of FFKR Architects, Salt Lake City
Photographer: John Sturr
Submitter: John Sturr
Description: As most designs are now done on a computer, the old-school light table gets little respect. “It has been relegated to the corner of the office that hardly gets any traffic” says John Sturr, a draftsman and photographer. His glowing black-and-white photo, taken at the Salt Lake City office of FFKR Architects, captures the silhouette of a woman tracing reference points on a blueprint.
Bay-area Rapid Transit Silicon Valley Berryessa Extension, Milipitas, Calif.
Bay-area Rapid Transit Silicon Valley Berryessa Extension, Milipitas, Calif.
Photographer: Michael Rooney
Submitter: Michael Rooney
Description: Rooney, a field engineer for PGH Wong Engineering and working on his first project, was making an inspection during the night shift of the initial concrete pour in an open trench. “I usually shoot color, but I thought this picture would look interesting in black and white, so I processed it that way,” he notes.
South Runway, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
South Runway, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Photographer: David Lloyd
Submitter: David Lloyd
Description: “I like shooting aerials due to the perspective it gives and the opportunity to capture abstract-type images,” says Lloyd, a staff photographer for AECOM. For this surreal canvas of a runway under construction, the soil colors provide a “painterly backdrop for the equipment in action,” he says. Lloyd shot the photo from a helicopter, which allowed him to capture the site’s scope and scale. He used a Canon 5D Mark III with a 24-70 millimeter lens and a 1/250 shutter speed, with an aperture range of f/5.6-8. The runway is set to open in September.
Saipem Fabrication Yard, Ambritz, Angola
Saipem Fabrication Yard, Ambritz, Angola
Photographer: Mario Balozla
Submitter: Mario Balozla
Description: Balzola says that, before he took this photo, he got a little scared when he was hoisted in a basket overlooking a working survey at a fabrication yard in Angola. As he was looking down, he spotted a rope and the man holding it. Balzola says the man was the only link between him and the Earth. He wanted to capture his feeling of near-vertigo as well as show the unique importance of every worker on a jobsite.
Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge Replacement
Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge Replacement
Photographer: Martin Chandrawinata
Submitter: Martin Chandrawinata
Description: Chandrawinata, a construction engineer with the Hanna Group, saw workers pulling steel collars while they stood on a stainless-steel hinge-pipe beam. “It shows teamwork because it will be too heavy for only one ironworker to pull this steel collar,” he says.
World Trade Center Transportation Hub's West Concourse, New York City
World Trade Center Transportation Hub's West Concourse, New York City
Photographer: Victor Nordstrom
Submitter: Chi Ling Moy
Description: Nordstrom, a Louis Berger graphics analyst and photographer, was documenting progress at the WTC site when he came upon this shot of workers finalizing details on this corridor, which opened to the public last October.
Yakult USA Plant Project, Fountain Valley, Calif.
Yakult USA Plant Project, Fountain Valley, Calif.
Photographer: Matthew Hudson
Submitter: Matthew Hudson
Description: With his window “cutouts” photo, Hudson, marketing director for structural engineer Brandow & Johnston, has turned massive but mundane tilt-up panels into minimalist art. Though Hudson took 100 other photos elsewhere at the industrial plant site that cloudy day, he shot only one of this view. A fan of minimalism, he was drawn to the rhythm of the openings, which he likens to a fun house’s hall of mirrors. But the raw concrete, rebar, rusted metal stabilizers and random 2x4s also appealed to him.
Line no. 9 Subway Extension
Line no. 9 Subway Extension
Photographer: IgnacIo Marqués Martínez
Submitter: Regina Lopez
Description: To photographer Marqués, who is also an architect, one of the most visually striking aspects of contractor Sacyr’s subway extension project in Madrid was “the huge amount of rebar. It seemed like an ocean of steel.” The rhythm of curved bars against straight bars and the contrast between reflected light and dark, shadowed spaces convinced him to shoot in black and white.
Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge Replacement
Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge Replacement
Photographer: Martin Chandrawinata
Submitter: Martin Chandrawinata
Description: Chandrawinata, construction engineer with the Hanna Group, stood on the new Bay Bridge’s tower, some 500 ft in the air, to take this shot of a cable inspection team. Chandrawinata says he envied the team in the basket but also enjoyed the breathtaking view of San Francisco and the chance to take a rare shot.