A Seattle K-8 public school built under state sustainability protocols had to be shut down after staff and students complained of annoying odors. When toxicology testing showed that high pH and moisture content in the concrete flooring had reacted with carpet adhesive and backing to produce methyl hexanol, a volatile organic compound, the school district had no choice but to carry out expensive repairs. Photo: Seattle Public Schools Carpet adhesive and moisture reacted. Opened in September 2009, the $37-million South Shore School struggled with complaints about the smell until closing in April 2010. The toxicology investigation confirmed the extent of

Vancouver, B.C., residents better not fall too deeply in love with the 27,500-seat Empire Field, which is on course for a June 20 completion. The stadium, built to host the Canadian Football League’s BC Lions while the team’s current home, BC Place, is under renovation, will only exist in its current form until November of next year. Then, like recyclable scaffolding, North America’s first-known temporary stadium for professional football—constructed from some 15,000 parts shipped from Switzerland in 70 containers—will be dismantled and shipped home, where it will be reincarnated as another temporary sports facility. Photo: Courtesy of BC Pavilion Corp

The Washington State Dept. of Transportation is creating a list of best construction practices for floating bridges, based on results of tests conducted on a pontoon built at one-sixth the typical size. The best practices will be used by the design-build team that won the contract to build new pontoons for the state Route 520 Evergreen Point Floating Bridge. At 2,285 meters, SR 520's bridge is the longest of its kind in the world. Photos: WSDOT Engineers run curing tests on a scale-model pontoon at a yard near Olympia, Wash., in an attempt to minimize cracks. Photos: WSDOT Engineers run

MARTINEZ STINE ZGF Architects LLP has added 9 new employees to support its project portfolio. Todd Stine has returned to ZGF as a technical design principal. He will play a lead role on select projects and oversee technical design quality on all projects in the Seattle office. Bertha Martinez, AIA, has returned to ZGF as an associate partner and senior project manager where she is working on the Washington State University Global Animal Health project. Masaru Haruyama, AIA, has also returned to ZGF as associate partner and project designer and is currently working on the Seattle Children’s Hospital Expansion. Eric

Related Links: Architect Designs Two College Facilities Construction of I-90 HOV Lane Commences Center for Health Sciences to Start at Puget Sound The joint venture of In Line Commercial Construction Inc, Aloha, with Rickenbach Construction, Astoria, have been selected to provide construction services for three projects at Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria. The work is estimated at $4.6 million and began in March. Designed by Portland-based Anderson Dabrowski Architects, the program includes a complete upgrade to the hospital’s 14,800-sq-ft surgery suites, a new outpatient endoscopy center and a three-story, 13,545-sq-ft professional office building.

Related Links: Architect Designs Two College Facilities Joint Venture Selected for Columbia Memorial Projects Center for Health Sciences to Start at Puget Sound Sound Transit and the WSDOT broke ground on the next stage of adding new HOV lanes in both directions across Lake Washington on Interstate 90 to prepare for East Link light rail service between Seattle and the Eastside. The second stage of the project now getting underway by general contractor Gary Merlino Construction will open a new eastbound HOV lane between Mercer Island and Bellevue in late 2012. The third and final stage, to be completed in

Oregon State University plans fast-track construction of an ecologically sustainable live-learn facility designed to attract more international students to its Corvallis campus. Construction is scheduled to begin in May with completion set prior to the fall of 2011. Related Links: Joint Venture Selected for Columbia Memorial Projects Construction of I-90 HOV Lane Commences Center for Health Sciences to Start at Puget Sound  The project was designed by Mahlum’s Portland office as a six-story, post-tensioned concrete structure built to LEED gold equivalency, including solar-powered hot water, heat recovery ventilation systems, high-efficiency radiant heating and a thermally improved exterior wall system. Construction

Related Links: Architect Designs Two College Facilities Joint Venture Selected for Columbia Memorial Projects Construction of I-90 HOV Lane Commences University of Puget Sound began construction of the Center for Health Sciences at the south end of campus in May with general contractor GLY Construction. The 42,500-sq-ft interdisciplinary center is expected to open in time for the fall 2011 school semester. In addition to classrooms, offices and neurology, orthopedic, pediatric and outpatient clinics, it will house a motion analysis lab, biochemistry wet lab, observation suite, exercise physiology lab and a social sciences computer lab. The building was designed by Seattle

As the consequences unfold of the Deepwater Horizon oil-rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, the flow of information has become as critical as the movement of the oil slick. One firm’s web-based information management system is having some success in crisis communication for those affected and is gaining wider play among infrastructure managers as an employee-management and business-continuity tool. Photo: U.S. Coast Guard The U.S. Coast Guard was the first client of the PIER system. Even with skepticism about the value and veracity of spill-related updates from platform owner BP and from some government sources, the Public Information Emergency

With cracks as sharp as the frozen Arctic air, a 1,357-ft steel communications tower in Port Clarence, Alaska, tumbled to the ground on April 28, the first step in the U.S. Coast Guard's decommissioning of its network of LORAN radio navigation facilities across the country. Photo: Controlled Demolition Inc. Tower demolition is start of Coast Guard decommissioning of aging navigation signal network. The 400-ton, 45-segment triangular steel tower is the largest man-made structure to be felled by explosives, according to Controlled Demolition Inc. (CDI), Phoenix, Md., which performed the operation as a subcontractor to Jacobs Field Services North America. For