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
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
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