At last year's high-stakes interview for a lead architect to shape a $1.2-billion retractable-roof stadium for the National Football League's Atlanta Falcons, 360 Architecture's Bill Johnson staged quite a show.
+ Image Elevation Courtesy of Sewell and Sewell architects Crews installed 30 micro piles around the perimeter of the cavern that opened in February and swallowed eight vintage automobiles. That sinkhole that swallowed eight cars at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky., will continue to be on view to visitors, along with a couple of the vehicles.Scott, Murphy & Daniel LLC, Bowling Green, will start work in September to construct a 35-ft wall on one side of the sinkhole and foundation slab near the bottom, then partially refill the hole, leaving the other side open to the remaining
Courtesy of BIG Museum's double-spiral form lets in daylight. The clock started ticking for Bjarke Ingels Group when Swiss watchmaker, Audemars Piguet, selected the design firm, called BIG, for a 2,400-sq-m watchmaking museum, called Maison des Fondateurs, in the Vallee de Joux.The intertwined, double-spiral-shaped pavilion, also an expansion of the Audemars Piguet facility, will contain a succession of galleries and three workshops.The roof and celing of the low-lying pavilion are cut from a single sheet of metal, clad in brass, that is continuous in plan but undulates in section to create a series of openings that allow in daylight and
Photo by Alejandro Faribay Protective glass pane shattered, frightening sightseers, buy underlying structure remained intact. Related Links: Sears Tower To Lose Its Name But Add Breathtaking View Study Claims Correlation Between Supertower Construction and Economic Busts A group of tourists won't soon forget it, but a glass pane that shattered beneath them on a ledge atop Chicago's Willis Tower, the nation's second-tallest structure, posed no structural damage to the all-glass attraction, according to its fabricator and installer.Designed "to prevent structural glass beneath it from being scratched, [the pane] allows visitors to walk out on the ledge in shoes rather than
Renderings Courtesy of 360 Architecture The oculus design by 360 Architecture, with engineer Buro Happold, for the convertible roof of a $1.2-billion multipurpose stadium in Atlanta represents a radical departure from kinetic roofs of other sports facilities.The stadium design also calls for a novel 58-ft-tall "halo" scoreboard hung from the rim of the opening. Construction of the 1.8-million-sq-ft facility for football's Atlanta Falcons began last month, by the Holder Hunt Russell Moody Joint Venture. After the 71,000-seat stadium opens in 2017, the nearby Georgia Dome will be razed.
Graphic Courtesy of WindEEE Research Institute The above simulation of the velocity field in the core of a tornado was part of the conceptual design process for WindEEE. Photo Courtesy of the WindEEE Research Institute A scale model of a two-story house, under study for roof failure, has openings to simulate windows broken by a tornado. Related Links: Communities Ramp up Tornado Defenses A three-story, $30-million hexagonal wind tunnel in Canada can recreate tornadoes and capture data to serve as a basis for developing twister-resistant structural design. It is the first facility of its kind in the world, says its
Related Links: SEI/CASE BIM Survey SEAoNY Structural engineers are using building information modeling in greater numbers, according to a recent survey. Yet few firms report that they are sharing BIMs with contractors.Two-thirds of the responding structural engineers surveyed last year say they are using BIM, compared with one-third in 2008. The fifth annual BIM survey, conducted by the BIM committee of the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) and the Council of American Structural Engineers (CASE), with the Structural Engineers Association of Texas, went to more than 20,000 structural firms. The response rate was about 5%."The majority of the respondents are not
Photo Courtesy Suffolk Construction On April 26, general contractor Suffolk Construction managed the largest continuous concrete mat placement in the city of Boston's history at the downtown Millennium Tower development.Hudson, Mass.-based subcontractor S&F Concrete marshalled 600 concrete trucks to cast 6,000 cu yd of concrete for the foundation of the $700-million building. The continuous cast lasted 36 hours, starting at 4:00 a.m. The foundation's 8-ksi-concrete mat averages 6½ ft in depth.It cost $6 million to put in place, including both the concrete and reinforcing bar. The mat will support a 625-ft-tall building with 1.4 million sq ft of space.
Dodge Construction Momentum Index for March 2014 The Dodge Momentum Index retreated 0.8% in March compared to February, according to McGraw Hill Construction. The index is a monthly measure of the initial reports for non-residential building projects entering the planning stage, a lead indicator of construction spending within the next year. The March index was 113.8, down from a revised 114.8 in February and 118.3 in January. New plans for commercial buildings fell 1%, as declines in offices and hotels offset an increase in retail buildings, Dodge says.Construction Employment Still Heading in a Positive Direction Construction's unemployment numbers continue to