New York University has reduced its plan to expand in Greenwich Village by 19%, or 337,000 sq ft, of the proposed 2 million sq ft under the university’s 30-year plan. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer approved the changed plan April 11. Rendering Courtesy of NYU Greenwich Village residents and Community Board No. 2 had opposed the plan since its inception in 2007, fearing that the expansion would take away from neighborhood esthetics. So the university changed the plan to ensure that the public-strips surrounding Washington Square Village are preserved by eliminating a proposed 183,000-sq-ft below-grade space and a 20,7000 gymnasium.

Dept. of Buildings’ engineers have found defects in the hoisting system of the crane that collapsed at the No. 7 subway line expansion site in Manhattan April 3, said Robert LiMandri, DOB commissioner, in a statement. The accident, which occurred shortly before 7:30 p.m. at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority project located between 33rd and 34th Streets on 11th Avenue, killed 30-year-old Michael Simermeyer, a worker for crane owner and operator J&E Industries LLC, Far Rockaway, N.Y. The crane is a Manitowoc 4100 model. “The maintenance and operation of the crane in the days and weeks prior to this tragic accident

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office has begun to specify a slew of major infrastructure projects statewide that will receive funding under the newly created NY Works Task Force economic development program. The program, which the governor calls the “centerpiece” of his $132.6-billion budget that passed last week, includes an investment of $1.2-billion to accelerate road and bridge improvements. The program will accelerate state investments in improvements to hundreds of miles of roads, bridges as well as parks and historic sites. Investments announced the week of April 2 include $460 million to replace New York City’s Kosciuszko Bridge; $145 million for bridge

On the heels of passage of New York State’s $132.6-billion budget that includes $1.2 billion in funding for bridge and road improvements, a state assembly member has proposed a bond bill aimed at helping to finance the state’s future infrastructure needs. Jim Brennan (D-Brooklyn) introduced legislation on April 5 to ask voters on November 2013 to authorize the state to borrow and pay the debt service on $4.5 billion of improvements for mass transit, roads, bridges, airports and other transportation-related work. Under the bill, funds would be divided into $2.025 billion for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority; $225 million for non-MTA

After three years of construction, computer chip-maker GlobalFoundries’ new $4.6-billion plant in Malta, N.Y. is nearing completion. Construction of the interior is currently under way, with full plant start up set for year-end. Photo Courtesy of GlobalFoundries The 1.2-million-sq-ft “Fab 8” will be one of the most technologically advanced fabs worldwide, with capacity to process about 60,000, 32/28 nm wafers a month, the company says. It will serve 160 companies including IBM, which worked with GlobalFoundries last December on an initial production of advanced chips at the site.“The project is currently transitioning into the operations phase,” says a spokesperson for

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority says it has suspended construction at the No. 7 subway line extension project and ordered inspection of all cranes at every MTA Capital Construction work site, following the April 3 crane collapse at the No. 7 project. The collapse took place around 7:20 p.m., killing one worker from subcontractor J&E Industries LLC, Far Rockaway, N.Y. and injuring the leg of another from Yonkers Contracting Co., the agency says. Yonkers Contracting is the owner and operator of the Manitowoc 4100 model crane that collapsed at the site, located between 33rd and 34th Streets on 11th Avenue in

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has appointed Anna Young of Dewberry, Fairfax, Va., to the New Jersey State Board of Architects. YoungShe will be one of two landscape architects on the 13-member board. John M. Dionisio has been elected chairman of the New York Building Congress, succeeding Peter A. Marchetto, the president of Tishman Construction. Dionisio is chairman and CEO of AECOM.Art Hance, president of Hance Construction, Washington, N.J., has been elected to a two-year term as president of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Metal Building Contractors & Erectors Association.Grassi & Co., Jericho, N.Y., has hired Brian Sackstein as a

New Jersey Image Courtesy of Ocean Thermal Energy Corp. Sea Change: Ocean Thermal Energy's $100-million cooling system will pump 25,000 gallons of seawater via a closed-loop system. Photo Courtesy of AECOM Bridging Gaps: At a California school, students who received free "Those Amazing Engineers" books practice what they've learned. DCO Wins Contract for Seawater SystemDCO Energy LLC, Mays Landing, N.J., has won the engineering, procurement and construction contract for work on a $100-million seawater district cooling system (SDC) at a resort under construction in Nassau, Bahamas. This is the world's first such system, DCO says.Ocean Thermal Energy Corp., Lancaster, Pa.,

Cornell University plans to rent a temporary Manhattan space this fall, says a spokesman for CornellNYC Tech. “We have not announced exactly where yet; stay tuned for that,” he says. Cornell recently shortlisted six architects, chosen out of 43, to design the Roosevelt Island core academic building, which is set to open by 2017. The building will be part of CornellNYC Tech, the planned $2-billion-plus, state-of-the-art tech campus that Cornell will build in partnership with Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Cornell says it plans to select the winner and sign a contract next month.

DCO Energy, LLC, Mays Landing, N.J., has begun installing a $100-million cooling technology at the new Bara Mar Resort under construction in Nassau, Bahamas. DCO is the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor on the project, which it calls the world’s first seawater cooling district (SCD) system. Ocean Thermal Energy Corp., Lancaster, Pa., signed a 30-year energy service contract with the resort last December and will build, own and operate the 12,000-ton SCD system. The system is expected to be operational in December 2013, about a year before the multibillion-dollar resort construction is completed.The SCD system, which does not include refrigerants,