Beneath Second Avenue on Manhattan�s Upper East Side, a 485-ton monster is chewing its way through bedrock, mining tunnels for New York City�s first new subway line in 50 years. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" When completed in 2016, the Second Avenue line will run from 96th to 63rd Streets, where it will hook up with the existing 63rd Street and Broadway lines. Three new stations will be built at 96th, 86th and 72nd Streets along with new entrances to the existing Lexington Avenue/63rd Street Station. The $4.45 billion project is the first phase of the Metropolitan Transit Authority�s
It might be hard to believe, but there was a time when Skanska considered itself something of an unknown in the U.S. construction market. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" �We were always kind of a giant that no one ever knew much about,� says Richard Cavallaro, president of Skanska USA Civil, one of the Swedish construction giant�s four business units in North America. �People would ask us, �Where do you work?� and when you�d say Skanska, they�d say, �Who?� � For awhile, it made sense. Once the firm entered the U.S. market in 1971, it began acquiring firms both
Almost a decade after the attacks of 9/11, much of the new World Trade Center site remains under construction, with signature pieces like the Freedom Tower, the Frank Gehry performing arts pavilion and the 9/11 Memorial registering as little more than architectural renderings to most New Yorkers. But for the past seven years, at least one project right in the middle of it all has been fully operational � although not in its fully realized aesthetic glory. Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, celebrated for his perfectly engineered minimalist transit centers around the world, was selected to design the WTC PATH Hub.
Building Information Modeling is not just for vertical construction. Tunneling projects implementing BIM are realizing benefits in planning, design and construction coordination. In the New York City region, where tunneling projects have become one of the biggest economic drivers for the construction industry, experts are looking at underground jobs from around the country to determine where and how BIM was implemented effectively. Still, using BIM on tunneling projects is still more the exception than the rule. �A lot of civil engineering processes traditionally have been done in 2D with very little 3D conceptualization�, says Rolando Mendoza, director of consulting for
Following the November 2008 elections, hope ran high among national union bosses. Unprecedented political canvassing by union members helped shore up a victory for labor-friendly presidential candidate Barack Obama and bolstered the Democrats� headcount on Capitol Hill. More than a year and a half later, labor leaders have checked several key items off their wish list, as sweeping policy changes have ushered in new opportunities for union contractors across the country. But with the mid-term elections approaching in November, an electorate soured by the lingering recession and soaring unemployment could bring union advances to a halt. Early on, President Obama
Grand plans for the redevelopment of the World Trade Center included a who's who of the architectural world: Daniel Libeskind on the site plan, Santiago Calatrava on the the transit hub, Richard Rogers and Fumihiko Maki on towers three and four, Michael Arad and Peter Walker for the memorial. America's most famous architect, Frank Gehry, was selected to design the new $700 million performing arts center, to house the Joyce Theater and the Signature Theater Company. The Signature, which revolutionized the New York theater scene by dedicating entire seasons to the works of one playwright at a time and has
Looking back on 2009 there were a few reasons to smile. Despite a year that saw the industry�s new job rate fall to the lowest it has been in a decade, 2009 wasn�t all bad. Which is why we�re showcasing the top 25 project starts of last year. Basically, if the project broke ground in 2009, it was eligible to be on this list. We took submissions from firms all across the region and across all sectors, while also cross-referencing with our own database, the McGraw-Hill Construction Network, and came up with a list of more than 100 �major� projects
A 70-story, folded, creased and curved stainless-steel curtain wall on an 867-ft-tall apartment building has been called "Gehry only on the outside," as if the building is a fake Frank. It's true that, when it opens next year, New York City's tallest residential tower won't be an internationally acclaimed cultural icon, as is the architect's now-12-year-old Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain. The 76-story high-rise is not as colorful, whimsical and structurally innovative as the nearly decade-old Experience Music Project rock 'n' roll museum in Seattle. The new tower is not as description-defying inside and out as the six-year-old Walt Disney
PNA used finite-element analysis to reduce the free-form shapes to single curves. Gehry refined the shapes, based on PNA rules, so that more than 90% of the surface has a single curvature. This was accomplished by slight segmentation at the panel joints, says Budd. �We did the work zone by zone and face by face,� says Budd. �It was an iterative process,� adds Bowers. The contract-document phase began in January 2007. Gehry developed the surfaces and the wire frame for the curtain-wall units in collaboration with PNA. The performance mock-up was completed and tested in early 2008. PNA signed its
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