Wikimedia Commons Restoration of the Statue of Liberty was one of Swanke Hayden Connell's most prominent New York City-area projects. Swanke Hayden Connell, the New York City-based architectural practice, filed for protection from its creditors Jan. 9 in federal court in Manhattan.With a glittering portfolio of projects that included restoration of the centennial Statue of Liberty, New York City's Trump Tower and offices of some of the most prestigious corporations in the world, Swanke Hayden had dwindled in recent years to a small practice.The final blow to the company apparently came with a $2.297 million dispute over payments due from
ENR The sale of design-build giant URS Corp. to AECOM in a $6-billion deal creating a 90,000-person global firm was a hot story for ENR in 2014; how the firm fares in merging operations will be closely watched next year. Related Links: Environment Year in Review: Clean Air Regulations Were Big Washington Focus in 2014 Energy Year in Review: US Policy Shaped by Naturas Gas and Renewables Development Buildings Year in Review: U.S. Supertowers, Megaprojects Retake Center Stage Technology Year in Review: Robots on the Jobsite Advancing in Construction Equipment Year in Review: Pickup Truck Wars Industry consolidation moved to
Photo (top) courtesy of Kiewit-Turner JV A dispute-review judge accused the VA of acting in bad faith and flubbing the new collaborative delivery method at an Aurora, Colo., site. Photo courtesy of Brasfield & Gorrie VA hospital in Orlando, Fla., is one of a quartet of big new medical centers that the U.S. Government Accountability Office has cited for delays and owner-contractor conflicts. Related Links: Kiewit-Turner Sets Deal to Finish Work on VA Hospital With millions of veterans in need of care, the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) could have been forgiven the inevitable slipups in building out its
A week after halting work on a massive new U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital project in Aurora, Colo., the Kiewit-Turner joint venture struck a tentative deal to finish the project on a cost-reimbursable basis and collect $157 million that it is owed.
Michael Goodman for ENR Derish Wolff in 2003 as he appeared on the cover of ENR. Related Links: Louis Berger Group Completes Compliance Overhaul U.S. Charges Ex-Berger Group CEO With Overbilling Scheme Probe Leads to Wolffs Likely Exit From Berger Derish Wolff, the former chief executive of Louis Berger Group, pleaded guilty Dec. 12 to inflating overhead rates for work on cost-reimbursable U.S. Agency for International Development contracts and now faces a possible prison sentence and heavy fines.His sentencing is scheduled for March, 2015.The plea agreement in federal court in Trenton represents a bitter conclusion to a career in which
Richard Korman for ENR Casserley describes the expanding realm of construction-risk professionals. Risk professionals must match the evolving complexity of the construction marketplace and the expanded uncertainties in areas such as P3s, supply chain and cyber theft.Those themes emerged in several different ways during a keynote address by Dominic Casserley, chief executive of broker Willis Group Holdings, at the International Risk Management Institute's "Construction Risk" conference in Nashville on Nov. 11.The new risks include P3 operations, supply-chain concentrations, and cyber sabotage and theft. Significantly for brokers and agents, the risks also include how to deal with new insurers entering the
Photo by Joanne S. Lawton / Washington Business Journal The Trulands and surety XL altered the surety indemnity terms eight months prior to news reports of trouble on a big federal data-center project. Enlarge Photo by Joanne S. Lawton / Washington Business Journal Related Links: Creditors: Truland Group Owes Us $30 million Of all the decisions Robert W. Truland, chief executive of bankrupt Truland Group, and Truland's main surety, XL Specialty Insurance Co., made during the company's growth spurt, none may have been so wise as when XL, Truland and his wife, Mary, altered the terms of a surety agreement
Photo by Joseph Rosta for ENR ENR Editor Tuchman waits to enter the newly opened Biomuseo in Panama. Related Links: ASCE Conference: Panama City Dancing to the Beat of Projects Panamania: Museum Becomes Instant Icon for Developing Nation In Panama, Global Engineers Tackle Gigaproject Transparency ENR Editor-in-Chief Janice Tuchman has visited signature buildings under construction around the world and sent three staff members to write about the Panama Canal.When she made her own visit to Panama earlier this month to cover an American Society of Civil Engineers' conference, Tuchman was finally able to experience first-hand some of the wonder of
Related Links: Black & Veatch Practices Risk Control in a High-Growth Strategy Keep Your Guard Up Against Green Project Risks Is risk management oversold? We know that some government regulation creates risk and that veering business cycles are a source of uncertainty for any designer or contractor. In construction, too, it's wise to vet contracts in case an untrusting customer slips a risk-shifting clause into Section 7, Subsection (c), Paragraph 4, of your agreement.This isn't news. Entire categories of risk exist thanks to innovations considered vital to the future of construction: integrated project delivery, BIM, sustainable construction and the expanded
Photo by Richard Korman for ENR Triplett says that over the years the company has figured out which types of projects are most likely to lead to trouble. The audience had been warned of the risks of prefabrication, briefed about the complications of P3s and enlightened about recent studies whose author emphasized that contractors must avoid a growth-at-all-costs business model.That’s when Timothy W. Triplett, the senior risk executive at Black & Veatch and a keynote speaker at ENR’s Risk & Compliance Summit on Sept. 30th at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, said that his company planned to expand its annual revenue
