Architect Ellerbe Becket, Kansas City, has been retained by Nets owner and Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner, of Forest City Ratner Cos., to come up with a new design for the long-delayed and controversial Atlantic Yards basketball and entertainment arena in Brooklyn, N.Y. Ellerbe Becket replaces Gehry Partners. Other key designers, New York City-based structural engineer Thornton-Tomasetti, and mechanical-electrical-plumbing engineer, WSP Flack + Kurtz, will remain on the project. Forest City Ratner says it hopes to unveil new images of the arena, named Barclays Center, in late June and that it intends to break ground later this year in anticipation

Crews recently topped out the $640-million Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. The design-build project is being constructed on the site of the existing National Naval Medical Center as part of the Base Realignment and Closure Act of 2005 by a joint venture of Clark Construction Group, Bethesda, and Balfour Beatty Construction, Fairfax, Va. When completed, the building will feature a new 560,000-sq-ft ambulatory care clinic and a 165,000-sq-ft in-patient addition to the existing hospital. The team also is constructing an eight-story, 944-space patient parking garage, a 700-ft-long logistics tunnel and 450,000 sq ft of phased renovations

The third draft of the nation’s first standard for high-performance buildings, currently out for public comment through June 15, has stricter energy conservation provisions and reflects input from a broader cross-section of experts, according to its developer. National laboratories currently are using energy modeling to determine how much more savings could be generated using the latest version of the proposed standard compared to previous versions. “I would anticipate [savings would go] up at least another 5%,” says Kent Peterson, chair of the committee writing American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers Standard 189.1, and principal of P2S Engineering Inc.,

Structural engineers from Keast & Hood are a bit baffled in the belfry of historic Independence Hall in Philadelphia. As part of a planned $4.3-million renovation, triggered by leaks in the landmark’s tower, the local firm discovered that several lines of iron rods, which run vertically down the center of the tower’s 2.75-in.-thick wooden siding, have significantly deteriorated. But the team doesn’t know why the rods are there in the first place, so they don’t know if they need to be repaired or replaced. Photo: National Park Service Philadelphia tower built in 1828. Photo: National Park Service Purpose of rods

This summer, Sears Tower will have a new face to match its new name. Although Chicagoans are less than thrilled about Willis Group Holdings moving in, the new view atop “Willis Tower” may render them speechless. Image: SOM Sears Tower’s observation floor will extend visitors beyond the curtain wall. Image: SOM Innovative glass boxes will provide gut-wrenching views from Chicago’s tallest tower. Just outside the glassed-enclosed, 103rd-floor skydeck, construction is under way to offer visitors a view of the city at all angles, including straight down, by means of four laminated, structural-glass modules that will extend more than 4 ft

Calling the state of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., an “international embarrassment,” a panel of leading design experts has recommended that the National Park Service amend an improvement plan unveiled earlier this year to make it broader and more environmentally sustainable. The plan calls for a ban on new monuments and statues and a redesign of the Union Square/Capitol Reflecting Pool area. Angela Dye, president of the American Society of Landscape Architects, who facilitated the panel, says the Park Service’s current plan would improve the mall but does not go far enough. The panel recommends the Park Service hold

A 10-person design-competition jury, working for the Smithsonian Institution, has picked the team of Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup to design a home for the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The site for the $500-million project is on the National Mall near the Washington Monument in Washingtin, D.C. The team selected consists of the Freelon Group, Adjaye Associates, Davis Brody Bond and SmithGroup. The design phase will last up to three years. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2012 and finish in 2015. Photo: Freelon Adjaye Bond/Smithgroup

Sparks are flying over a proposed addition to the 2010 edition of the steel sector’s code of standard practice. The addition would recognize the practice, in use for years, of the structural engineer of record designating connection design to a licensed professional engineer working for the steel fabricator. Tests will likely confirm that welded double-angle connections (below) and seated connections (above) need modification to meet new model code requirements. “The fundamentals of this proposal are accepted,” says Charles J. Carter, vice president and chief structural engineer for the Chicago-based American Institute of Steel Construction Inc., at its North American Steel

The National Gallery of Art’s East Building in Washington, D.C., is preparing for an emergency facelift. Some of the marble panels on its exterior are tilting outward, indicating problems with its veneer panel support system, according to Deborah Ziska, gallery spokeswoman. The panels are attached to the building’s exterior with stainless-steel anchor and clip supports. Local structural engineering firm Robert Silman Associates recommended the removal of all the gallery’s 16,200 panels, reinstallation with new supports and installation of new gaskets between panels. Photo: National Gallery of Art

The Charles Pankow Foundation has a small pile of gold it hopes to spin into building design and construction improvements. The private foundation, which funds about six new research projects annually, expects to give out $1 million in the next year to support new and ongoing projects. “We fund research that moves innovative [nonproprietary] solutions to problems from the red zone to the end zone,” says Robert K. Tener, the foundation’s Claremont, Calif.-based executive director. Builder Charles Pankow started the foundation in 2002 to “inspire new and better ways to build.” Pankow, who died in 2004, left much of his