The New York Landmarks Preservation Commission recently held a dedication ceremony to mark BellTel Lofts located at 365 Bridge Street, as a city landmark. Pictured from left are: Ilan Bracha of Bracha Group, Prudential Douglas Elliman, David Bistricer of Clipper Equity, Brooklyn Borough President, Marty Markowitz and JJ Bistricer of Clipper Equity. Photo courtesy of Rubenstein PR. The Pike Company recently took home a top award for its Sports and Medical Sciences Academy Project at the 2009 Connecticut Building Congress Project Team Awards. (L-R) David Carlson, CBC President and Melvin Strauss, project director, The Pike Company.

Reception Commemorates Park Opening  September 2009 Louis Kahn-designed Roosevelt Island park is celebrated. Also, ACE Mentor Program announces 66 scholarships. The Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park recently held a reception at The Lori Bookstein Fine Art Gallery located at 37 West 57th Street on the third floor to celebrate the creation of the park on Roosevelt Island which was designed by legendary architect, Louis I. Kahn and will be his last project and the only design which can still be built. The park will serve as a tribute to President Roosevelt and create an extraordinary new civic space in the

After years of controversy and a total redesign, Forest City Ratner Cos., the developer of the Atlantic Yards megadevelopment in Brooklyn, N.Y., says it expects to begin construction of the development's centerpiece, an arena for the NETS basketball team, later this year. Ratner "anticipates" opening the facility, called Barclays Center, for the 2011-12 basketball season. Image courtesy of SHoP Architects and Ellerbe Becket Redesigned basketball arena in Brooklyn. Ratner released renderings Sept. 10 of the redesign by Ellerbe Becket in collaboration with SHoP Architects. The original architect was Frank Gehry. Under the new design, the 675,000-sq-ft arena is clad in

Construction costs in New York City and throughout the region have declined in response to the softening economy, according to a report recently released by the New York Building Congress. A Building Congress analysis of McGraw-Hill Construction’s F.W. Dodge data on new buildings, shows that hard construction costs which are defined as physical costs of construction such as materials and labor, for offices and banks have declined ten percent between 2008 and 2009, while apartment construction hard costs have declined nine percent over that period. The category of new buildings that includes schools and libraries has similarly dropped by eight

Despite delays and the cancellation of high-profile plans, the BAM Cultural District in downtown Brooklyn is slowly but surely moving forward. Envisioned as a hub of artistic activity clustered around the existing Brooklyn Academy of Music, four projects are scheduled to break ground later this year. Related Links: Construction Begins on NY-NJ Tunnel Upper West Side Mandell School Expands, Goes Green Empire Merchants North HQ Seeks LEED Cert. Skanska Starts UN Headquarters Remodeling Nation's Greenest Resid. Development Planned Hudson Scenic Studio Expansion Moves Forward NYCEDC Sells Property to Support Expansion Village Green Targets LEED Gold Certification Work to Begin on

The first phase of the Bushwick Inlet Park located on Kent Avenue between North 9th and North 10th Streets in the Greenpoint and Williamsburg neighborhoods of Brooklyn recently broke ground. Related Links: Construction Begins on NY-NJ Tunnel Upper West Side Mandell School Expands, Goes Green Empire Merchants North HQ Seeks LEED Cert. Skanska Starts UN Headquarters Remodeling Nation's Greenest Resid. Development Planned Hudson Scenic Studio Expansion Moves Forward NYCEDC Sells Property to Support Expansion Village Green Targets LEED Gold Certification Work to Begin on Long-Delayed Louis Kahn Park Brooklyn Arts District Plods Ahead Groundbreaking at Cornell Could Mark the End

A new 250,000-sq-ft state-of-the-art corporate headquarters and distribution center for Empire Merchants North, a New York based wine and spirits distributor is being designed by KSS Architects of Princeton, New Jersey and strives to achieve LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council upon completion. When completed, Empire Merchants North will have 35,000 sq ft of office space and 220,000 sq ft of warehouse space and will accommodate a potential 130,000 sq ft warehouse expansion. Rendering courtesy of KSS Architects. Related Links: Construction Begins on NY-NJ Tunnel Upper West Side Mandell School Expands, Goes Green Skanska Starts UN Headquarters Remodeling

The Albanese Organization of Garden City, New York has recently announced that its latest green residential development, The Visionaire, has received LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, marking it as the greenest residential condominium in the United States and the only LEED Platinum condominium on the east coast. Related Links: Construction Begins on NY-NJ Tunnel Upper West Side Mandell School Expands, Goes Green Empire Merchants North HQ Seeks LEED Cert. Skanska Starts UN Headquarters Remodeling Hudson Scenic Studio Expansion Moves Forward NYCEDC Sells Property to Support Expansion Village Green Targets LEED Gold Certification Work to Begin on

For more than a decade, Cornell University has grappled with its plan to construct a new facility for its College of Architecture, Art and Planning. On June 8, however, a backhoe began digging up dirt at the building’s proposed site—the north edge of the Arts Quad—perhaps marking the end of an epic drama that has involved a large cast of characters, a global financial crisis, and the looming threat of academic decertification. Related Links: Construction Begins on NY-NJ Tunnel Upper West Side Mandell School Expands, Goes Green Empire Merchants North HQ Seeks LEED Cert. Skanska Starts UN Headquarters Remodeling Nation's

The Board of Yonkers Industrial Development Agency recently passed a resolution to move forward with a public hearing and to negotiate an economic development package for the renovation of Hudson Scenic Studio, an award-winning national production and scenic fabrication firm that has served Broadway and the professional entertainment industry for nearly three decades. Related Links: Construction Begins on NY-NJ Tunnel Upper West Side Mandell School Expands, Goes Green Empire Merchants North HQ Seeks LEED Cert. Skanska Starts UN Headquarters Remodeling Nation's Greenest Resid. Development Planned NYCEDC Sells Property to Support Expansion Village Green Targets LEED Gold Certification Work to Begin