Building Design & Construction articles from October 2006

Building Design & Construction archives from October 2006

Turning over a new leaf.
October 1, 2006... By Barbara Horwitz-Bennett, Contributing Editor A century-old tobacco plant is turned into an attractive mixed-use development as part of a grand effort to revitalize downtown Durham, N.C. As part of a major revitalization of downtown...

5 Ways concrete can fail, and how to avoid them.
October 1, 2006... By Dave Barista, Managing Editor Concrete is one of most durable manmade materials, but even this old industry workhorse has its weaknesses. Exposure to harsh weather, reactions with common elements, and poor construction can all lead...

Work begins on final piece of Orange County office park.
October 1, 2006... Staff The Orange County, Calif., office of design-builder Opus West Corp., Phoenix, has broken ground on the 314,000-sf Opus Center Irvine III office building in Irvine, Calif. The 13-story office complex represents the third and final...

Las Vegas condo project hopes to jumpstart arts district.
October 1, 2006... Staff HUE Lofts at Art Central, a 38-story, 500,000-sf luxury condo project planned for downtown Las Vegas, broke ground last spring with an opening slated for late 2007. Local developer Eddie Haddad said the lobby and rooftop deck at HUE...

Viñoly strikes gold in England with new visual arts center.
October 1, 2006... Staff A crescent-shaped structure clad with gold-colored copper-alloy panels designed by New York-based Rafael Viñoly is expected to become the new artistic heart of Colchester, England, a rapidly growing city 60 miles northeast of...

San Diego firm gets Jakarta tech office design commission.
October 1, 2006... Staff San Diego-based Austin Veum Robbins Partners has won an international design competition for a Class A office tower in Jakarta, Indonesia. Designed to serve the city's growing technology market, the 29-story, 520,000-sf tower will...

Shopping oasis going up on California's Pacific Coast Highway.
October 1, 2006... Staff Bel Mare, a joint venture between California developers Allied Retail Partners, Newport Beach, and Red Mountain Retail Group, Santa Ana, will be a 56,000-sf shopping center project that spans 17 lots near a busy intersection on the...

New plan will preserve historic San Francisco General Hospital.
October 1, 2006... Staff After numerous failed attempts, architects have come up a plan to build a new hospital facility on the land-locked San Francisco General Hospital campus without demolishing any parts of the existing facility. Local firm Anshen+Allen...

Developers selected for $800 million Washington, D.C., project.
October 1, 2006... Staff A team of developers led by Washington, D.C.-based PN Hoffman and Baltimore-based Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse has been named to redevelop a 47-acre site in the southwest quadrant of the District and transform it into a park-like...

First skyscraper in nearly 20 years coming to Pittsburgh.
October 1, 2006... Staff The first skyscraper planned for downtown Pittsburgh in 18 years was recently unveiled. The $170 million, 23-story Three PNC Plaza will feature a 10-story hotel with 185 rooms, 30 top-floor condos, 360,000 sf of office space, a...

Dubai adds a university to its massive projects.
October 1, 2006... Staff DMJM Design in Washington, D.C., has been awarded the master plan and design of the new University of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The 450,000-sf, $163 million campus master plan includes an administration building; College of...

New GSA building tilting up in Virginia.
October 1, 2006... Staff Clayco of Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., is nearing completion of a multilevel office building to be leased by the General Services Administration in Norfolk, Va., using tilt-up construction. The 58,190-sf building will have a first-floor...

Allergy-resistant hotels coming to Plano, Texas, and Warwick, R.I.
October 1, 2006... Staff Atlanta-based hotelier NYLO Hotels is set to break ground on properties in Plano, Texas, and Warwick, R.I., that will incorporate allergy-resistant guestrooms. The 176-room Plano property will feature 44 "pure rooms," which will...

Tribe to get a community recreation center.
October 1, 2006... Staff Coffman Engineers of Seattle and the Worth Group Architects of Englewood, Colo., are currently working on the design of a 76,000-sf, $19 million community recreation and wellness center for the Kalispel Tribe of Indians in Usk, Wash....

Dream clients.
October 1, 2006... Staff The Property Owners and Developers AEC Firms Love to Work With Johns Hopkins Hospital Baltimore, Md. Johns Hopkins Hospital ranks among the best hospitals in the U.S., topping U.S. News & World Report' s America's Best...

Let us now praise 'Dream Clients'.
October 1, 2006... Robert Cassidy, Editor-in-Chief At Building Design+Construction , we're constantly stressing the importance of the whole Building Team--not just the architects, engineers, and contractors, but the property owners and developers who...

Editors" Picks.
October 1, 2006... Staff Fabric walls subdivide rooms Staff Tension fabric manufacturer Transformit's proprietary system, The Dynamics, includes modular components to create space dividers, temporary walls, privacy bays, conversation nooks, and...

200 Fillmore.
October 1, 2006... Maggie Koerth-Baker Denver, Colorado Built in 1963, the 32,000-sf 200 Fillmore building in Denver housed office and retail in a drab, outdated, and energy-splurging shell--a "style" made doubly disastrous by 200 Fillmore's function as...

Hilton President Hotel.
October 1, 2006... Barbara Horwitz-Bennett Kansas City, Missouri Once an elegant and fashionably trendy locale, the Presidential Hotel played host to the 1928 Republican National Convention where Herbert Hoover was nominated for President, and acted as a...

Holyoke Health Center.
October 1, 2006... Maggie Koerth-Baker Holyoke, Massachusetts The team behind the new Holyoke (Mass.) Health Center was aiming for more than the renovation of a single building--they were hoping to revive an entire community. Holyoke's central...

A better idea.
October 1, 2006... Barbara Horwitz-Bennett Nonprofit groups in Cleveland team up to create an innovative, energy-efficient space inside a historic downtown structure, bringing greater exposure to the arts. Through a unique partnership between a public...

Hotel construction spending soars.
October 1, 2006... By Jim Haughey, Director, Research and Analytics, Reed Construction Data The hotel market remains the hottest nonresidential construction segment. The value of hotel construction starts is up 102% year-to-date through August, compared to...

Employment growth stalls amid layoffs in homebuilding sector.
October 1, 2006... By Jim Haughey, Director, Research and Analytics, Reed Construction Data Construction employment was mostly steady during the six months ending in August, as hiring by nonresidential building contractors offset layoffs by homebuilders and...

R.S. Means costs comparisons.
October 1, 2006... By Jim Haughey, Director, Research and Analytics, Reed Construction Data [TABLE OMITTED]

Warehouse vacancy rates dip; starts drop.
October 1, 2006... By Jim Haughey, Director, Research and Analytics, Reed Construction Data The national warehouse vacancy rate slipped marginally to 8.8% in the second quarter, but will likely remain steady through 2008 as last year's 38% surge in warehouse...

Year-to-date construction starts climb by 9.2%.
October 1, 2006... By Jim Haughey, Director, Research and Analytics, Reed Construction Data The year-to-date value of construction starts through August 2006, excluding residential contracts, totaled $185 billion, according to Reed Construction Data. ...

Office sector slow to recover, even as vacancy rates slide.
October 1, 2006... By Jim Haughey, Director, Research and Analytics, Reed Construction Data Office construction is slowly recovering from the recession, significantly trailing the pace set by the retail and hotel markets. Building owners have recovered less...

With more collaboration options, Acrobat 8 aims to please AEC firms.
October 1, 2006... By Jeff Yoders, Associate Editor With approximately 525 million free Adobe Readers distributed over the past two years, Adobe's portable document format (PDF) dominates the digital document market. But many groups within that audience...

John Adams Courthouse.
October 1, 2006... Maggie Koerth-Baker Boston, Massachusetts After more than a century without a substantial renovation, Old Suffolk County Courthouse, designed in Neo-Classical style by Boston's first city architect, George Clough, was overdue for a...

The softer side of Sears.
October 1, 2006... By Maggie Koerth-Baker, Contributing Editor How a dilapidated Sears warehouse in Minneapolis became the new heart of a revitalized community. Built in 1928 as a shining Art Deco beacon for the upper Midwest, the Sears building in...

Top picks from NeoCon.
October 1, 2006... Staff Every year, exhibitors at the NeoCon World's Trade Fair try to outdo each other with razzle-dazzle new products, and this year's NeoCon was no exception. Here are some of the best interior products for office, healthcare,...

Simulator puts sailors under fire at Battle Stations.
October 1, 2006... Jeff Yoders The USS Trayer has been attacked at night. A deck has collapsed, depositing the wreckage of the battleship's galley onto a crew barracks. As water and fire sprays into the ship's hull, sailors have to scramble to crawl through...

News briefs.
October 1, 2006... Staff - First 'green' car dealership opens near Dallas. Gensler has designed the first car dealership to register for a LEED rating with the U.S. Green Building Council. Pat Lobb Toyota, McKinney, Texas, is a 53,000-sf facility whose...

People+firms.
October 1, 2006... Staff - Adrian Smith of the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill left the firm earlier this month to start his own architectural practice. Smith, designer of Chicago's Trump International Hotel & Tower and the United Arab Emirates'...

Novel double-stair core saves precious space for Libeskind condominium tower.
October 1, 2006... Jay W. Schneider The sleek 38-story Aura Condominium tower designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind in association with Stantec Architects will do more than change the Sacramento, Calif., skyline. The $124.5 million building's innovative...

Products at Work.
October 1, 2006... Staff Superdome reopens with a coated white roof Staff The Louisiana Superdome underwent a $185 million renovation before it reopened in September for the first New Orleans Saints home game in more than a year. Part of the...

Shaking up the court.
October 1, 2006... Maggie Koerth-Baker Preserving a landmark in an earthquake zone took more than 'typical means.' In the days when three-quarters of America was a wild, lawless no-man's land, Pioneer Courthouse in Portland, Ore., stood out as a symbol...

Pilkington Profilit channel glass.
October 1, 2006... Staff The Pilkington Profilit translucent linear channel glazing system consists of self-supporting cast glass channels and an extruded metal perimeter frame that produce a wall that obscures vision but allows light to pass through. The...

Robert F. Kennedy Main Justice Building.
October 1, 2006... Staff Barbara Horwitz-Bennett Washington, D.C. The Robert F. Kennedy Main Justice Building houses the U.S. Attorney General's office, the Justice Department headquarters, and the largest historic art collection of any GSA-built...

'Terrorist targets need structural security'.
October 1, 2006... Staff Eve Hinman, PE, is president of San Francisco-based Hinman Consulting Engineers, which she founded in 1997. In 1983, after earning BS/MS degrees in civil engineering and a PhD in engineering mechanics from Columbia, she became one of...

Top of the rock--Observation deck at Rockefeller Center.
October 1, 2006... Maggie Koerth-Baker New York, New York Opened in 1933, the observation deck at Rockefeller Center was designed to evoke the elegant promenades found on the period's luxury transatlantic liners--only with views of the city's skyline...

Diving intervention.
October 1, 2006... Maggie Koerth-Baker Building Trinity Church in the City of Boston required ingenuity and daring. Restoring it would take an even more dedicated effort. Designed by H. H. Richardson in the 1870s to serve the city's burgeoning Back Bay...

Industrial connection.
October 1, 2006... Maggie Koerth-Baker Creativity turned disaster into a dream come true for an Iowa marketing firm, with the reconstruction of an old General Motors parts warehouse. It was supposed to be the perfect new office. In July 2003, Two Rivers...