To get the world’s tallest building to stretch beyond 800 meters (slide-1), workers jacked, in eight lifts, a steel-pipe pinnacle from a lifting apparatus within the steel spire (slide-2). Crews are expected to finish the cladding, including the spire’s cover (slide-3), several months before the projected fall finish. Slide Show
The reconstituted committee charged with developing the nation’s first green building standard met for the first time on Jan. 27 in Chicago at the winter meeting of the standard’s lead developer, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers Inc. The two-year-old committee stopped work in the fall after ASHRAE decided the panel needed broader industry representation. The new Standard 189 committee has 34 voting members, up from 21. The committee includes more representation from owners, the steel sector and construction, said Kent Peterson, chief engineer of P2S Engineering, Long Beach, Calif., and the panel’s new chair. Panel
Sustainable features of the Vancouver convention center expansion go beyond daylighting controls, some natural ventilation, the 2.4-hectare green roof with 400,000 plants and grasses and restoration of 200 ft of shoreline and 1,500 ft of marine habitat. There also is a “blackwater” wastewater treatment and reuse system, for plant irrigation and toilets, connected to a roof-top stormwater management and reuse system. Slide Show Photo: LMN Architects Green roof can be irrigated using building’s treated water. Related Links: Stupendous Setting Is Crummy Site Habitat Apron Cooked Up To Mitigate Impact on Marine Life The building, going for a LEED Gold rating,
The foundation engineer calls the $8.2-million artificial reef—the marine habitat apron—the most unusual element of the Vancouver convention center expansion project. “I know of nothing else like it, anywhere,” says Ryan MacPherson, project engineer for WorleyParsons Westmar Consulting Engineers, North Vancouver. “It’s very successful.” Marine life is already growing. Slide Show Photo: LMN Architects Marine habitat apron, an artificial reef, is attached to the marine platform. Precast was placed by barge-mounted cranes. Related Links: Stupendous Setting Is Crummy Site Water Treatment and Reuse Reduces Use of Potable Water The 400-meter-long apron resembles long stadium bleachers, consisting of 86 bays of
Canada’s $730-million Vancouver convention center expansion on the city’s waterfront sits on the best of sites. To the north are breathtaking views of Coal Harbor, Burrard Inlet and the North Shore Mountains. Across the street to the south is the city center. Directly to the west is the landmark Stanley Park. Slide Show Photo: VCCEP Team Related Links: Habitat Apron Cooked Up To Mitigate Impact on Marine Life Water Treatment and Reuse Reduces Use of Potable Water Photo: LMN Architects Building could not block street and park view corridors. But the 106,000-sq-meter project in seismic British Columbia also sits on
It is not surprising that architects in the earthquake-prone San Francisco Bay Area incorporate robust and sophisticated seismic technologies into their buildings. Some of the earthquake-resisting strategies in the region’s high-profile new-construction projects, such as the coupled shear-wall system inside the twisting and turning tower at the de Young Museum or the base isolators below the just-completed Oakland Cathedral, naturally attract attention because of their unusual design. But older, more conventional structures are continuously being subjected to seismic retrofit and they require at least just as much engineering finesse. Slide Show A seismic retrofit is part of plans to transform
Workers were scheduled to finish jacking the steel-pipe pinnacle atop the world’s tallest buildng on Jan. 10, marking the Burj Dubai’s topping out. The skyscraper’s curtain wall is 90% complete. But because of interior design changes, tower construction is not likely to be done until September, says Kyung-Jun Kim, project director for Samsung Corp. Crews jacked the pinnacle from within the structural steel spire that tops the reinforced concrete frame. The owner, Emaar Properties PJSC, still will not reveal the tower’s final height. However, project sources confirm the building is taller than 800 meters.
Moscow’s Federation Tower is well on the way to becoming Europe’s tallest building at 365 meters, with one of the world’s loftiest concrete frames. With its accompanying 509-m-tall observation tower, the skyscraper is on “super fast track,” a schedule that sometimes has left the building’s Chinese contractor struggling to keep up with a design that keeps evolving. Slide Show Photo: Thornton Tomasetti/Sofia A. Pechorskaya Contractor is having trouble keeping up with design changes. Related Links: High-Rise Fever Hits Moscow As one of Russia’s first modern skyscrapers, the two-building Federation Tower development leans heavily on western expertise in design, management and
Until recently, no buildings in Moscow surpassed the 240-meter Moscow State University—the tallest of the city’s “Seven Sisters” towers built at sites throughout the city during Stalin’s era. But a few years ago, Russia’s new wealth from natural resources started an upward rush. Before the global economic crisis hit, plans were moving forward for 4.6 million sq m of high-rise development by 2012. But with only two buildings complete and 11 under way, developers are raising eyebrows by putting some jobs on hold. Still, Moscow remains Europe’s high-rise hot spot. Slide Show Photo: Turner Construction Moscow City, with 14 towers
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