PROJECT COST: $175 Million The federal stimulus funds made available by the Obama administration for tri-state area projects have had a spotty history thus far, but at least one project has secured the funding to proceed. Photo courtesy of Conti Construction St. George Ferry Terminal Related Links: Top Projects 2009 The $175 million ramp work at the St. George Ferry terminal was the biggest stimulus project in the city when it went forward last July, and for due reason: the terminal is used by 70,000 passenger every day, and, with 23 of State Island's bus lines and the Staten Island

PROJECT COST: $119 million Since the long steep plunge of 2008, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has been confidently on the rise for over a year, gaining more than 60 percent since its lows. The top banks in trouble just two years ago are this year posting record profits. To celebrate this financial exuberance, enter the Setai: a 31-story luxury condominium tower complete with lavish spa, optional butler and maid service, and a Michelin-rated restaurant inside a former office building at 40 Broad Street. Photo by Peter Rymwid The Setai Related Links: Top Projects 2009 "It's 100 steps to the

PROJECT COST: $156 Million Starting construction on a New York residential tower in the middle of 2008 has resulted in a slew of skeletons, foreclosures, and general panic across the condo industry. But at least one team has been able to proceed-cautiously, with major cost-cutting, but retaining the original design's major aesthetic attributes. Tower 111 Related Links: Top Projects 2009 Designed by New York architect Costas Kondylis, Tower 111 will rise 48 stories at 32nd Street and 6th Avenue when completed next Jun, and, in addition to the to the rentals in a tower that features several setbacks, will include

PROJECT COST: $8.7 Billion Construction began on the $8.7 billion, 9-mi Access to the Region's Core Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel in June. Two new, twin tunnels will enable NJ TRANSIT to more than double service capacity to Midtown Manhattan's Penn Station from New Jersey. Photo: courtesy NJ transit Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel Related Links: Top Projects 2009 "The current tunnels are 100 years old this year and are in fine shape and served us well, but the ridership demand has grown to the point there are bottlenecks," says Paul L. Wyckoff, spokesperson for Access to the Region's Core, a project of NJ

PROJECT COST: $103,748,350 STV will provide full architectural-engineering design services for the design/build of the new United States Military Academy Preparatory School (USMAPS) campus at West Point, NY. J. Kokolakis Contracting, the build partner, contracted with the United States Army Corps of Engineers for the $103 million project. Illustrator: sneary architectural illustration U.S. Military Academy Preparatory School Related Links: Top Projects 2009 The 256,000-sf campus will encompass 20 acres and include student barracks, academic and administrative spaces, a full-service dining facility, parking areas, and state-of-the-art indoor and outdoor athletic facilities. The existing prep school in Fort Monmouth, NJ, is being

PROJECT COST: $650 Million When completed in March 2014, the $650 million Weill Cornell Medical Research Building at East 69th Street and York Avenue will double research space at the Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC). Rendering by Red Square, courtesy of Polshek Partnership Architects Weill Cornell Medical Research Building Related Links: Top Projects 2009 The 18-story building, which includes 13 floors of laboratories, 3 academic floors, and 2 stories of support space, is intended to become the epicenter of experimental research at the college. Polshek Partnership designed the 455,000-sq.-ft. structure with an open and adaptable floor plan to facilitate collaboration

PROJECT COST: $133 million From a construction perspective, Suffolk County's newest correctional facility is no different than any other special-use building, according to E.F. Howell Co. project manager Joe Sellers. Rendering courtesy of Wiedersum Associates Architects Yaphank Correctional Facility Related Links: Top Projects 2009 "It's like any project that has specialty requirements," he says. "You find out what the client needs, and you give it to him." But considering the size, scope, and purpose of the 318,000 sq ft facility, there's little doubt that some of these requirements are rather exceptional. Under construction adjacent to an existing correctional facility, the

PROJECT COST: $800 Million Cost-cutting is credited with restarting construction of Related Companies $800 million mixed-used development at 440 West 42nd Street. Photo courtesy of Tishman Construction Company 440 West 42nd Street Related Links: Top Projects 2009 Construction of the 1.2 million-sq.-ft. complex was suspended following the economic downtown while the project's development costs were realign with market conditions. The 59-story glass tower, designed by Arquitectonica and Ismael Leyva Architects, New York, will include over 800 residences comprised of condominiums, market rate rentals and 163 affordable rentals, a 669-room Yotel hotel, the Signature Center, an off-Broadway theater complex, retail space

PROJECT COST: $172 million The light will soon shine faster and brighter at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, thanks to a multi-phased project to create a new 3 billion electron-volt energy storage ring that will generate X-rays and other types of light 10,000 times more intense than the current facilities. Photo courtesy of Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory - National Synchrotron Light Source II Related Links: Top Projects 2009 A 278,000-sq-ft, 1,000-ft-dia ring structure at the heart of the new National Synchrotron Light Source II facility is already taking shape at the lab

PROJECT COST: $508 million That most famous icon of New York's island identity, the Brooklyn Bridge, was originally constructed in 1883. By 2008, however, Popular Mechanics magazine has named the landmark one of the 10 pieces of U.S. Infrastructure the country needs to fix immediately. The bridge, after all, is the oldest suspension bridge in the nation still in operation. Brooklyn Bridge Renovation Related Links: Top Projects 2009 In 2003, shortly after the August 14 citywide blackout-during which the bridge was used by pedestrians on a scale unprecedented since the attacks of Sept. 11-a Village Voice article found that people