To create Blox’s stacked box profile “hovering over the road,” many trusses are needed to transfer loads around spaces varying from apartments to a 200-seat auditorium.
Various “thought leaders” in the industry have been trying—some would say hitting their heads against the wall—for at least the 37 years that I have been covering buildings (and likely before that), to use technology to streamline, automate and quicken building design and construction.
Located in the heart of the University of Miami’s Coral Gables campus, the Frost Music Studios project is part of a $61.5-million master plan that will nearly double the school’s space while preserving its historically significant architectural elements.
This $91-million, 223,000-sq-ft building not only features laboratory, office and administrative spaces, but also a basement vivarium, two underground cisterns with 24,000 gallons of capacity and tunnels designed to connect to two future buildings.
The $72-million Pinellas County Public Safety Facilities and Centralized Communications Center project called for the complete demolition of existing buildings on a 40-acre campus and replacement with new, storm-hardened facilities such as a sheriff’s administrative building, emergency operations and dispatch centers, a 1,248-space parking garage and an energy plant to supply emergency power and cooling.
Two independent sources with knowledge of the investigation into the Oct. 10 collapse of a parking garage at Miami Dade College have refuted a claim reported by Engineering News-Record that the structure was struck a second time by a crane pick just prior to the fatal incident.
