A Chicago developer has signed an agreement for Israel's largest-ever seismic retrofit and upgrade project to bring 24 apartment buildings in a Tel Aviv suburb in compliance with stricter earthquake building standards. The $78-million project in Bat Yam also involves adding 2.5 floors to each building. Courtesy of Copter-Fix Aerial Photography Seismically upgraded apartment building complex in a Tel Aviv suburb will include extra floors and structurally boosted elevators. Courtesy of Copter-Fix Aerial Photography Buildings are in the Syrian-African Rift where quakes have occurred; new laws in Israel have toughened building codes. Israel lies along the Syrian-African Rift, an active
Builders of a 201,000-sq-ft art museum set in a blasted-out ravine in northwest Arkansas knew they would be digging themselves into a hole when they signed on to construct the pet project of Alice Walton, heiress to the Walmart discount chain-store fortune. They were prepared for headaches associated with the job's remote location in Walton's 120-acre forest. They had braced themselves for building structures, dams and ponds in a flood-prone streambed. And they were prepared for architect Moshe Safdie's curved forms and cable-supported roofs. “We were quite intrigued by the cable structures across the creek—which to our knowledge had never
Work has resumed on the Steve Herrera Judicial Complex in downtown Santa Fe, N.M., after a plume of free-phase hydrocarbons, leaked from 1930s-era leaded-gasoline tanks, led to a two-year delay. In 2009, demolition of the site’s existing structures had been completed and excavation for the 103,000-sq-ft, three-story building had begun when the owner, Santa Fe County, and the New Mexico Environment Dept. dug test wells that revealed the extent of the contamination. Rendering: NCA Architects Work on a $38.5-million courthouse in Santa Fe finally progresses after extensive soil remediation. To date, 27,000 tons of contaminated soil and 15,000 gallons of
Two major stadium renovations at Washington state universities are aiming to attract more fans to college football and boost revenue. A $250-million upgrade at the University of Washington’s Husky Stadium, Seattle, and an estimated $70-million, smaller rehab of Washington State University’s Martin Stadium in Pullman are pitting rival schools against each other in the stadium upgrade race. Rendering: Courtesy of The University of Washington Husky Stadium, first built in 1920 for the University of Washington’s football team, is set for a $250-million makeover to improve sight lines, add some capacity and correct structural deficiencies. Renovations to Husky Stadium, a 90-year-old
An inadvertent meeting of the minds during planning for a 484,000-sq-ft hospital in Dayton, Ohio, turned into an effort that has propelled multitrade prefabrication of hospital components to a new level. In the most ambitious U.S. implementation of the strategy, the construction manager estimates that prefabbing the 178 identical patient rooms and 120 overhead corridor utility racks sliced more than two months from construction and 1% to 2% off the cost of the $152-million building, which is 90% complete. The first effort is seen as just a beginning. “I want to change the design of hospitals with this process,” says
A series of guides written by leading building organizations to advance energy efficiency are on target, helping designers achieve 30% energy savings over the minimum code requirements of Standard 90.1-1999, developed by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers and others, according to a market assessment released on May 20 by ASHRAE. The assessment, which focused on ASHRAE members, was conducted by the Energy Center of Wisconsin and showed that 70% of ASHRAE members who have used the guides find them credible and useful design resources. The guides were developed in conjunction with the American Institute of Architects,
Writers of standards—both for general structural design and, in particular, structural steel design—rolled out their 2010 versions this month, completed in time to be referenced in the upcoming 2012 edition of the model “International Building Code.” An overriding goal, say the engineers responsible for the revisions, is to make the standards simpler to understand and use. Illustration: AISC Weld-access-hole geometry is included in steel standard, despite a patent issue. The major editorial change to ASCE/SEI 7-10 “Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures” from the 2005 standard is a “complete” reorganization into a multiple-chapter format—first introduced for seismic loads
With cracks as sharp as the frozen Arctic air, a 1,357-ft steel communications tower in Port Clarence, Alaska, tumbled to the ground on April 28, the first step in the U.S. Coast Guard�s decommissioning of its network of LORAN radio navigation facilities across the country. Photo: Controlled Demolition Inc. Tower demolition is start of Coast Guard decommissioning of aging navigation signal network. The 400-ton, 45-segment triangular steel tower is the largest man-made structure to be felled by explosives, according to Controlled Demolition Inc. (CDI), Phoenix, Md., which performed the operation as a subcontractor to Jacobs Field Services North America. For
On April 15, opposing sides in a debate over the fate of a deteriorating, nine-year-old Seattle apartment tower presented their positions regarding the building’s future safety to Seattle’s Dept. of Planning and Development (DPD). McCarthy Building Cos. maintains the 26-story McGuire Apartments, with its corroding post-tensioned slab system, can be economically fixed. The owner disagrees. Photo: Kennedy Associates Contractor and owner at odds about ‘sick’ tower’s cure. + Image Source: Post-Tensioning Institute Post-tensioned slab The steps to post-tensioning are as follows: Place the tendons and nail anchors to the formwork, cast the concrete slab, remove the formwork, stress and anchor
A recent successful load test on a steel-fiber-reinforced-concrete beam, free of congestion-causing diagonal reinforcing steel, promises to positively impact constructibility of tall, moment-resisting frames in seismic zones. Using SFRC, engineers can reinforce high-aspect-ratio link beams, which span openings in shear walls, as regular beams, say the test’s researchers. Photo: Gustavo J. Parra-Montesinos Steel-fiber-reinforced-concrete beam (above, rotated 90°) needs no diagonal reinforcement. “We have a design for which you do not need diagonal bars, and you can still achieve large drift capacity under very high shear forces,” says Gustavo J. Parra-Montesinos, the test’s lead researcher and a Dept. of Civil and
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