Peter Arbour thinks his patented prefabricated cladding system, with an integrated solar-energy unit, will be a winner in the marketplace, not just the winner of a design contest. The architect expects the concrete-and-stainless-steel system to make its commercial debut in a year or two, after further development of the award-winning prototype. Photo: Courtesy Of The Center For Architecture/AIA NY Award-winning unitized cladding system needs more tweaking and testing before it is ready to be installed on a real building. Photo: Courtesy Of The Center For Architecture/AIA NY Arbour holds a patent on the system, which is cast using 20,000-psi concrete.

Photo: Courtesy of City of Orlando Fans at Orlando Magic basketball games can have fun playing with their iPhone apps, thanks to state-of-the-art technology in the arena, which opened on Oct. 1. Amway Center is also the first National Basketball Association venue to incorporate all-digital signage. It has more than 1,000 digital television monitors and the tallest high-definition videoboard in an NBA venue. Populous designed the 875,000-sq-ft arena, which was built by Hunt Construction Group under a $380-million contract.

Las Vegas Strip resorts vie to be the hottest place in town, but Vdara, a recently opened hotel, literally can scorch those visiting the pool deck during certain times of the day. The 57-story, 1,495-room hotel is one of six towers at the $8.5-billion, 67-acre CityCenter complex, which opened last December. Photo: Courtesy of Citycenter Land LIC Scorcher Hotel owner says it is trying again to fix the alleged ‘death ray’ problem after a 2008 attempt. On Sept. 16, Vdara condominium owner and personal injury lawyer William G. Pintas complained to local media that the hotel’s south facade concentrated noon

In another hot competition for federal funds, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation has awarded more than 50 grants totaling over $400 million to build or upgrade bus facilities, including maintenance shops and terminals. The facilities awards are among $776 million in grants which DOT announced on Oct. 4 that are aimed at cutting into the backlog of bus transit capital needs around the country. Besides the funding for facilities, DOT also awarded dozens of grants to transit agencies to purchase new buses. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood noted that his department estimated earlier this year that $78 billion is needed to

It appears that 14 miles of 120-year-old sand-and-grass dike near Portage, Wis., has survived the flood-swollen Wisconsin River’s recent rise to a record-level 20.6-ft, or more than 3 ft above flood level. With the Wisconsin River&rsquos water level now dropping at about an inch an hour, the series of dikes, built by farmers in the 1890s and now maintained by the Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources, appears to be essentially intact, according to the DNR. “The river has dropped to 18.7 ft this morning, and is going down at about an inch per hour,” DNR spokesman Greg Matthews said Sept.

Abu Dhabi’s Union Railway Co. has begun the procurement process for a roughly $11-billion rail network that will span the United Arab Emirates. Bids for a contract to design and build the fixed infrastructure are due this October. + Image Map: Walter Konefal For ENR Rail network will connect the emirates, and ultimately link up with lines being built in neighboring countries. Scheduled to be complete by 2018, the 1,300-kilometer network would be the first in the Gulf nation. The project will be “world-class,” says Union’s chief executive officer, Richard Bowker. Construction on the 240-km first phase, which is scheduled

Construction of a 700-ft-long footbridge—cantilevered out on 20 steel beams and clinging to the side of a canyon in North Vancouver, British Columbia—has been an adrenaline-pumping building project that, when finished, will leave tourists breathless. Visitors to the Capilano Suspension Bridge & Park will be able to view the surrounding Canadian rainforest from a galvanized steel walkway with a 20-in.-wide timber deck, which is suspended 300 ft above the canyon floor and attached to a granite cliff face up to 20 ft away. It was difficult to even find a starting point for the design of the unique cliff-hanging attraction,

Israel has issued a new tender for a long-planned light-rail project in Tel Aviv. The move follows the government’s cancellation last month of a build-operate-transfer award to an Israeli-Chinese-Portuguese-Dutch consortium. The project, now estimated at $2.5 billion, is one of Israel’s largest-ever infrastructure projects. The tender would cover planning for the 23-kilometer line between suburbs north and south of the city. About 11 km of the project will be underground, as will 23 of the planned 33 stations along the route. The government was forced to take over the project earlier this year after the consortium failed to obtain the

Indiana and Kentucky have awarded the $103-million design-build contract to construct the replacement bridge connecting Milton, Ky., with Madison, Ind., to the team of Walsh Construction Co., La Porte, Ind., and designers Buckland & Taylor Ltd., North Vancouver, B.C., and Burgess & Niple Engineers, Columbus, Ohio. Photo: KY DOT New Ohio River bridge will feature an historic-looking superstructure. The project received a $20-million federal grant in February. The remaining $83 million of cost will be split evenly by Indiana and Kentucky. The cost is about 20% less than the original estimate of $131 million, according to a statement from the

Libya has embarked on an ambitious course to build an extensive rail system that will offer both passenger and freight service. The major east-west route will parallel the coast, ultimately stretching 2,300 km from Ras Ejder on the border of Tunisia to Umm Sa’ad on the border of Egypt. Separate contracts have been awarded to Russian and Chinese contractors to complete certain segments. Since 2008 RZD (Russian State Railway) crews have been building a 554-kilometer Surt-to-Benghazi segment, which involves four major stations and 24 minor stations. The project is expected to take four years at a cost of $3 billion.