Photo: Courtesy Of Controlled Demolition Inc. Photo: Courtesy Of Controlled Demolition Inc. A 1,410-ft-tall signal tower in Liberia, formerly used by the U.S. Coast Guard for ship navigation and the tallest structure in Africa, was imploded on May 10. Mark Loizeaux, president of Controlled Demolition Inc., the project's Phoenix, Md.-based subcontractor, says it is the world's tallest man-made structure to be felled by explosives. The tower weighed 520 tons. The government of Liberia approached the Coast Guard for help felling the tower, which was decommissioned in 1997 says Lt. Col. Clement Ketchum, a U.S Army official in Monrovia. The Liberian
It is lucky for Aqua Tower architect Jeanne Gang that developer James R. Loewenberg thinks the Oscar Niemeyer architecture of Brasilia, the half-century-old capital city of Brazil, is monotonous and static. If not, he might never have hired Gang for one of the four residential towers of the 28-acre Lakeshore East multi-use development in Chicago. And if that hadn’t happened, there would be no Aqua Tower. Related Links: On Her Precipice “Brasilia is the most boring place because all the buildings were done by the same person,” says Loewenberg, the co-CEO of Magellan Development Group and president of Loewenberg Architects,
Rendering Courtesy Triple Five; Image AP Redesign of New Jersey mall (Top) would replace much-criticized structure now in limbo. New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie (R) and Canadian developer Triple Five said on May 3 that the firm will spend $1.5 billion to renovate and expand the unfinished and unopened Xanadu mall in the Meadowlands near Manhattan, renaming it American Dream Meadowlands. Makeover of the 2.4-million-sq-ft structure will include a recladding of its multicolor exterior, which Christie had dubbed the state's “ugliest” building. The state is finalizing details on a $200-million loan to the project, to be repaid by sales tax
London's high-rise architecture has a culinary bent of late. First there was the “Gherkin” by architect Norman Foster; now there is the “Cheese Grater” by Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners, London. The city's next major high-rise, mothballed for three years during the foundation stage but about to spring to life, got its nickname thanks to its silvery leaning south facade. Passersby likely will find the profile of 122 Leadenhall Street to be the building's most striking feature. But project engineers are more intrigued by the node connections within the structure's expressed structural-steel megaframe. Photo: Courtesy Of British Land The 224-m-tall
While Japan struggles to stabilise its wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, engineers in Ukraine are only now starting construction of a new enclosure for Chernobyl’s fourth reactor, almost exactly 25 years after it exploded causing immense human and environmental damage in the region and globally. (ENR November 24, 2008, page. 80)It's too early to say whether the Japanese will need their version of Chernobyl’s $1.4 billion, 29,000-tonne steelwork safe confinement in which to clear away their nuclear ruins. But the hard lessons learnt in Ukraine’s $2.2-billionthe shelter implementation plan following the 26 April 1986 disaster could give Japan’s clean-up a
Image: Courtesy of Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center PCL Construction Services, the pending owner's representative for the $383-million Orlando Performing Arts Center, is reviewing Balfour Beatty's construction management contract and subcontractor bids in an effort to cut costs. The first phase of the venue designed by Barton Myers Associates is estimated at $202 million, or $17 million more than is available. The PCL report is due May 9.
Even without the spire that will make London’s Shard the tallest building in Western Europe, its recently topped-out core, reaching 72 floors above ground, already dominates the city. With the structural steelwork frame ending at level 40, concrete columns and post-tension floors will complete the rest of the 310-meter-tall building’s frame next to the River Thames. Now looming 244 m over the London Bridge railroad hub, the Shard’s stump has become a temporarily unattractive city landmark. But from ground level, the rising curtain wall gives a foretaste of the final building, designed by architect Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Genoa, Italy.
Photo: Courtesy of Lester Ali Earlier this month, tenants began occupying architect Frank Gehry’s first residential supertower, which is New York City’s eighth-tallest high-rise structure and the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere. The 76-story building, with its spectacular folded facade, is the first icon to appear on the lower Manhattan skyline since terrorists destroyed the 110-story towers of the World Trade Center. The $875-million building, although not completed, is on time and on budget, says the owner, Forest City Ratner Cos. The rental building’s signature is the undulating waves of stainless steel that reflect the changing light. The
Astumbling economy has claimed another victim on the Las Vegas Strip. The two-tower, 1,720-room Sahara Hotel & Casino will close on May 16 amid funding woes that have temporarily stalled redevelopment plans. Photo: Courtesy Of Sahara Hotel & Casino Las Vegas hotel was a popular tourist and entertainment spot in the 1950s, but tough economics are forcing its closure. Los Angeles-based owner SBE Entertainment Group will shutter the 59-year-old resort on 17.5 acres because continued operation is “no longer economically viable,” a company statement said. The closure will likely affect the bankrupt 3.9-mile Las Vegas Monorail, which has a passenger
Structural engineers inspecting Christchurch’s six steel structures designed with eccentric bracing to resist seismic loads found that five performed well in the shallow Canterbury earthquake that devastated the city on Feb. 22. But the engineers are curious about why two eccentric-braced bays of a three-story parking garage did not fare well—one fractured and the other deformed. The garage did not collapse, thanks to redundancy in the overall structure. “This is the first time the level of excitation of an earthquake was at least as large as or has exceeded the design basis in an area where steel, eccentrically braced frames
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