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
The release of the revised report on the original Seven World Trade Center in New York City marks the end of the $16-million investigation into the World Trade Center. The investigation was triggered by the destruction of the complex on Sept. 11, 2001, by terrorists. Based on feedback, Gaithersburg, Md.-based National Institute of Standards and Technology made several changes to the draft final report on the 47-story steel-framed tower, which collapsed on Sept. 11 after burning unattended for some seven hours. The report was released for public comment on Aug. 21. The revisions did not alter the investigation team’s major