Showing posts from category: architecture
MGM Resorts has finally made it official and have filed a demolition request for Norman Foster‘s unopened Harmon Hotel in Las Vegas, something they’d hinted at last month, and before then back in the fall of last year, and had likely started considering way back in 2009 when construction defects were discovered too late and the project had to be massively scaled down. The company is still viciously fighting in court with the general contractor, Perini Building, who they claim made a number of massive errors which caused unsafe, unstable conditions and resulted in an unfinished building that cost nearly $300 million but is still unusable. However, it’s that ongoing legal fight that may stall the demolition itself, for as long as the battle continues in court, the Las Vegas Sun reports that the county can’t authorize the building’s destruction, thus likely extending this whole story by at least another year or two. For their part, Perini Building, who will not sign on to exploding the Harmon, believes that MGM wants the demolition as soon as possible to help cover up evidence of the design errors that had plagued the project from the start. The company also believes that the building can not only be repaired, but that it is currently safe, disputing research funded by MGM that found much to the contrary. Should MGM be able to wrangle their way around the legal system and get the county to agree to bringing down Foster’s hotel, the Sun reports that the company expects the demolition to take roughly six months, with five more months following to remove all the rubble and return it to the vacant lot it once was.
Source: UnBeige
How Tomorrow Is Built Today
As Europe continues to battle economic and environmental gloom and doom, nations across the continent are re-evaluating how to build the cities of tomorrow with tight budgets and green mindsets. “We are at a key moment, where we as architects must become activists. We must innovate and help to find new solutions for how people can live well and do well,” says Enric Ruiz-Geli, founding principal of Cloud9 architects in Barcelona.
To get a glimpse of what’s being built around Europe, we took a look at four cities known for their architectural relevance—London, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Barcelona—and spoke to four firms making waves in their cities and beyond. Some are shaping new landmarks, others are just making their mark, but each is seeking to create buildings that impact how we live. From the residential to the commercial, concrete to conceptual, key figures behind these firms talk about where European architecture stands today, where they’d like to see it go and how they plan to help it get there.
Continue reading at The Wall Street Journal
Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s investment vehicle, Kingdom Holding, has announced that an associate company will partner with the country’s Bin Laden Group to build a tower near Jeddah that would replace Dubai’s 828m Burj Khalifa as the world’s tallest building.
The associate company, Jeddah Economic Co, signed the SR4.6bn ($1.23bn) contract with the Bin Laden Group, a construction company, that will also own a 16.63 per cent stake in the company. Kingdom Co will hold 33.35 per cent.
The 1km-tall building will include a Four Seasons hotel and apartments, luxury condominiums and offices. The tower is the first phase of the 5.3m square metre Kingdom City development to be built north of the Red Sea city of Jeddah, according to a statement on the Saudi bourse, Tadawul.
Construction is due to start shortly and is expected to take just over five years. The design was inspired by a desert plant.
The SR100bn Kingdom City development was unveiled shortly after the global financial crisis in 2008. Analysts then raised doubts over Kingdom Holding’s ability to generate funding or investors’ interest amid a global real estate crisis.
Last year Kingdom signed up US-based Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill Architecture to design the building. The company’s previous projects include the Burj Khalifa, the Mao Tower in Shanghai and Pearl River Tower in Guangzhou.
Kingdom Holding posted a 21 per cent rise in second-quarter net profit, buoyed by higher income from its global investments. Jeddah Economic Co’s capital is made up of SR8.8bn in land, SR7.3bn in other assets and SR1.5bn in cash.
Started in 1979, Kingdom has evolved from a real estate and construction business into a diversified holding company with a broad range of assets from media to banking and hotels.
Prince Alwaleed, a nephew of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, controls 95 per cent of Kingdom Holding. With a net worth of nearly $20bn, he is the richest Arab businessman. His investments include substantial stakes in News Corp, Citigroup and Apple, as well as several luxury hotels.
Source: The Financial Times
Photos: World’s Most Amazing Hotel Pools
Swimming is almost beside the point at these 15 pools found at gorgeous, unexpected properties around the world. Each of these hotels is working hard to outdo the next, often at fantastic expense. Your lust list for decadent summer fun begins here.
Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc
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While the economy has stabilized in some regards, architects are still suffering.
Just when it seemed that the architecture industry might be pulling out of its tailspin, some key economic indicators are suggesting that a recovery might take longer than expected.
The Architecture Billings Index, a measure of the industry’s health compiled by the American Institute of Architects, has dipped below 50 for three consecutive months, posting scores of 47.6 (April), 47.2 (May), and 46.3 (June). Those dips came after five straight months of the ABI hovering at or above 50, a sign of increased activity.
Moreover, Engineering News-Record’s Construction Industry Confidence Index—based on surveys sent to contractors, subcontractors, engineers and architects—fell five points in the second quarter of 2011, from 51 to 46.
That data doesn’t surprise architect Charles Dalluge of the Omaha-based firm Leo A. Daly, which has 31 offices around the world. Even though some architects were publicly predicting that “it would be heaven in 2011,” he says, a lot of firms are still suffering.
And he might know. In June, his firm laid off 50 employees from various offices, including architects and engineers. Dalluge defends the move as part of a “strategic repositioning” that will result in the hiring of 50 workers with specialties in areas of growth, such as healthcare. The firm now has 900 employees.
But even a healthcare focus may not be enough to keep some firms alive. In June, Karlsberger, a Columbus, Ohio-based healthcare-focused firm, closed after 83 years in business. None of the firm’s managers would comment on the shuttering, which is believed to have resulted in 40 job cuts. A statement on its website, however, blamed the state of the market for its woes. “Our level of revenues are insufficient for us to meet our ongoing obligations,” it says.
Karlsberger’s former president, Mitchel Levitt, who resigned in April 2010 after 31 years, told RECORD that the firm lost a major lawsuit that made it difficult to go on. The suit was brought against Ohio State University, one of Karlsberger’s largest clients, over the school’s termination of a contract for a $1 billion medical center expansion; the lawsuit was dismissed in December. “It probably hurt them,” Levitt said in an interview conducted in June. “But I thought they had done what they needed to do to continue to operate.”
While the new office building market may show few signs of turnaround, especially while jobs are scarce, a bright spot appears to be college work. Many schools’ endowments were wiped out in the recession but are now being replenished by a robust stock market, which means that many stalled university projects are back on track.
Indeed, the economic downturn suspended a renovation of Yale’s 1928 Swartwout Building, designed by Egerton Swartout. But that project recently resumed, says Richard Olcott, partner at New York-based Ennead Architects, which is overseeing the renovation. Olcott adds that his firm didn’t lay off any workers during the recession; in fact, it hired 40 people in the last year, including architects, for a grand total of 160 employees.
Even public universities, once hurt by dwindling tax-collection revenues, are restarting projects, according to Ayers Saint Gross, a Baltimore design firm at work on a once-stalled science building for the University of Delaware.
The firm added 18 people last year and is now looking to hire five more, including architects. It now has 130 employees, its highest-ever headcount, said Adam Gross, a principal. “I think the indicators are pretty serious,” he said, referring to the ABI and other worrisome data, “but not as serious as we experienced” in the fall of 2008.
Source Architectural Record
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* June ABI 46.3 vs. May 47.2
* Project inquiries index rises to 58.1
* Institutional sector weakest amid tight govt. budgets
* Analyst: Construction recovery in 2012 or later (Adds analyst comment)
NEW YORK, July 20 (Reuters) – A leading indicator of U.S. non-residential construction activity fell for the third consecutive month in June, suggesting an anticipated construction recovery was still several months away.
The Architecture Billings Index fell 0.9 point to 46.3 points in June, according the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Any reading below 50 indicates contraction in demand for architects’ services, whose revenue predicts construction activity nine to 12 months in the future.
A separate index of project inquiries rose, however, to 58.1 from 52.6 in May. This measure is typically higher as multiple architecture firms compete for the same work.
“While a modest turnaround appeared to be on the way earlier in the year, the overall concern about both domestic and global economies is seeping into design and construction industry and adding yet another element that is preventing recovery,” AIA chief economist Kermit Baker said.
Demand is weakest in the institutional sector that includes government buildings, reflecting depressed government budgets, according to the monthly survey of architecture firms.
“The threat of the federal government failing to resolve the debt ceiling issue is leading to higher borrowing rates for real estate projects,” Baker said. “Should there actually be a default, we are likely looking at a catastrophic situation for a sector that accounts for more than 10 percent of overall GDP.”
Commercial property values fell to new lows in April and office vacancy rates are well above pre-recession lows, JPMorgan analyst Ann Duignan said in a note to clients.
“The recovery has yet to find solid ground and that the non-residential construction environment remains challenging,” she said. “We believe it is more likely that non-residential construction will not recover until 2012+.”
A depressed construction market has been a headwind for manufacturers of construction machinery and components that make up buildings’ infrastructure, such as electrical, cooling and security systems.
Most diversified industrial companies get at least some revenue from the non-residential construction sector, which includes office buildings, retail and warehouse space, and institutional buildings such as schools and hospitals.
Companies exposed to the sector include Honeywell International Inc (HON.N), Tyco International Ltd (TYC.N), Ingersoll Rand (IR.N), Johnson Controls (JCI.N), Eaton Corp (ETN.N), Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N), Deere & Co (DE.N) and Terex Corp (TEX.N).
European companies such as Siemens AG (SIEGn.DE), Schneider Electric SA (SCHN.PA) and lock maker Assa Abloy (ASSAb.ST) are also big players in the sector. (Reporting by Nick Zieminski, editing by Maureen Bavdek and Derek Caney)
You don’t have to be an architectural expert to appreciate a building that has been impeccably designed and built. From the medieval cathedrals of Europe to the engineering feat that is Burj Khalifa in Dubai, there are architectural gems aplenty to ogle no matter where you are in the world. For those who want to learn more about these gems, whether you’re an architecture studentjust learning the ropes of your trade or simply a casual admirer of all things architecture, there are plenty of books out there perfect for introducing the practices and theories of architecture in a way that isn’t too technical for the layman to understand. Here, we’ve chosen 20 such books that will let you appreciate the ideas, artists and processes behind the great architectural work of the world, whether you know a little or a lot about architecture.
- A History of the Future by Donna Goodman: Architects have long been imagining what the buildings of the future will look like, sometimes with concepts that seem strange to us today. In this book, Goodman examines both its impact in the 20th century, as technology and design merge, and how the first Renaissance city planners imagined a better, more perfect city.
- 10 x 10 (Architecture) by Editors of Phaidon Press: Collecting 100 different architects, this book features some of the most iconic minds working in architecture today, with insightful essays accompanied by breathtaking photos.
- BLDGBLOG Book by Geoff Manaugh: This book companion to the popular blog will let you read essays on the future of architecture and the built environment, which even the casual reader can understand and enjoy.
- The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard: Have you ever really thought about how the space of your home, office and city impacts your life? This book will ask you to do just that, offering up a philosophical take on the humans’ relationship with the spaces we occupy.
- Vitruvius: The Ten Books Of Architecture by Vitruvius: There aren’t many works to survive from antiquity, and even fewer on architecture. In fact, there’s just this one, which may arguably be the most important works on architecture in the Western world. As such, it’s a must read from any armchair architect.
Continue article at source.
The Big Dig by Topotek1, at the Xi’an International Horticultural Expo. All Photos: Geng Wang
You were seven, it was summer, and you were bored to tears. Somehow you got the idea in your head that you could dig a tunnel to China. You grab a spade or shovel (of hard plastic) and begin to dig. You’re determined, and nothing—not the limitations of your physical strength, hunger, networks of piping, dangerous levels of air pressure, lack of oxygen, the earth’s molten core, or, if you managed to get past all that, the fact that you’d end up in the middle of the Indian Ocean and should have started in Argentina—will keep you from digging. But after 30 minutes, but what seems like hours, night fall or dinner time precludes the conclusion of your journey.
A thin glass barrier encircles the hole and prevents the visitor from falling into the abyss and, presumably, ending up in an unknown land.
“The Big Dig” is designed as the emerging point of your trans-national travel. More than a hole in a two dimensional surface, the installation is a suctioned chasm, where space is curved and stressed. Existing site features, such as nearby trees, were untouched, reinforcing the conceit that you’ve just surfaced into an arcadian garden. A discrete audio system plays recorded sounds from the other side of the world—“cows from the pampas of Argentinas, commuters rushing among transit through New York City, the maritime life of Stockholm, and layers of history so audible among the streets of Berlin”—transporting visitors far from China to Western Europe or South America.
Topotek1’s installation at the 2011 Xi’an International Horticultural Exposition presents the question, “what if we did dig a tunnel to the other side of the world.”
Source: Architizer Blog
RMW Architecture and Interiors of San Francisco earns $813,864 contract; threat looms of possible voter referendum to fight construction.
The site on Machin Avenue where the City Council has approved construction of a new city office building.Credit Brent Ainsworth
Two months after deciding to build a new downtown administrative office to house city of Novato employees, an architectural firm has been hired to get started with drawings and computer mockups.
A building of approximately 23,000 square feet is to be constructed at the existing parking lot on Machin Avenue at Cain Lane, across from the Novato Police Department. About 60 employees would work there, from planners and engineers to parks officials and the city manager, Michael Frank. The cost is expected to be about $15 million, and the bulk of money comes from funds formerly owed to the city’s general fund by the Novato Redevelopment Agency. A bond sale this spring was deemed successful, allowing for the financing of the new building.
Several people at Tuesday’s Novato City Council meeting acknowledged the stiff cost of those architectural services — $813,846 — and one businessman threatened to get a voter referendum going to put the city offices before a public vote. But the five-member council voted unanimously to award the contract to RMW Architecture and Interiors of San Francisco and expressed excitement about taking another step toward consolidating city assets in a “civic center” atmosphere.
“It will really have a lot of synergy and makes a lot of sense,” Mayor Madeline Kellner said after the vote, mentioning the proximity of the city offices to Novato City Hall and the Novato Police Department.
RMW emerged atop a list of 10 firms vying for the job, and three finalists were interviewed on June 13.
“It’s a great opportunity we see here, and we’re anxious to get started working on it,” said RMW Principal Bart McClelland. “We understand there are a lot of issues to get into very quickly.”
Most city employees have worked at 75 Rowland Way since the downtown cluster of bungalows were deemed unusable in 2006. The lease at Rowland costs the city about $750,000 a year, and that figure was a driving force in prompting the staff and council to move forward with finding a new permanent home.
Councilwoman Pat Eklund requested that story poles be installed to give Novato residents an idea about the mass and height of the building. McClelland said story poles are useful to a point, but computer imagery — including 3D animation — also can be an effective way to give people and idea what it’s like to walk around a new building. How to distribute such computer models is still to be determined.
Longtime Novato resident and business owner Henry Hautau said a group is considering a gathering of signatures to place a referendum on the ballot that would take the issue to a public vote. The owner of Finnegan’s Marin, Hautau said spending $15 million to $16 million on the building is irresponsible at a time when the city is laying off employees and cutting back services. He said taking downtown parking spaces away does not make any sense.
“I am greatly offended and confused by your decision to build offices downtown,” he said. “… It’s financially wasteful.”
Gail Wilhelm, a former Novato City Council member, counterattacked after Hautau’s comments, which she described as “a last-minute Hail Mary that is offensive, disrespectful and frankly dishonest.” She said centralizing city employees in a new Old Town complex has been in the works for 25 years and was “thoroughly aired and thoroughly investigated.” She said there is a list of 600 signatures in support of downtown offices.
In their comments, the council members agreed with Wilhelm’s stance. Jeanne MacLeamy reminded that the city employees used to work in 11 buildings, many of which were red-tagged by the fire marshal after “they were held together by termites holding their hands.” Carole Dillon-Knutson said it was the fourth or fifth time a proposal for a downtown office building had come before the City Council.
“This was the only site, after looking at so many sites, that worked,” Denise Athas said.
Kellner said it was not an overnight decision and due diligence took place.
“It’s Novato’s time,” Kellner said.
Activity in first half of year soars 40% over 2010 level and in May and June sets a new record; in good news for tenants, rent increases are still seen as modest.
Leasing activity in Manhattan in the first half of the year totaled 17.6 million square feet, the best six-month performance in 13 years and a 40% surge from the corresponding period of 2010, according to Cushman & Wakefield Inc. Meanwhile, activity in the last two months of the quarter was the strongest on record.
In yet another bullish sign, absorption—which measures the net change of occupied space in a given time—was a positive 3.2 million square feet. That marked the first time that measure has been positive for the first six months of the year since 2007.
“Leasing activity has been pretty impressive,” said Joseph Harbert, Cushman & Wakefield’s chief operating officer for he New York metro region.
All that activity helped shrink the overall average vacancy rate to 9.4% by the end of last month from 10.8% in the same period last year.
The surprising news for landlords—and the good news for tenants–was that despite the surge in deal volumes, the overall asking rents grew a mere 2% to an average of $55.52 a square foot.
“Increases are modest compared to the activity,” said Mr. Harbert. “This is still a relatively good [leasing] opportunity for tenants.”
Brokers at Cushman’s quarterly press briefing suggested several reasons for the disparity. One noted that the 9.4% vacancy rate still favors tenants and that once it hits 8%, which is widely considered a point where there is negotiating equilibrium between landlords and tenants, rents should shoot higher.
Another suggested some landlords were keeping quality space off the market, waiting for the market to further improve so they could fetch even richer numbers. Yet, a third suggested that the economy was still shaky enough where landlords didn’t want to quibble over price, especially not with credit-worthy tenants looking to lease significant blocks of space.
Some sub-markets in Manhattan are already seeing major increases. Mr. Harbert said rents in the Plaza District, the tony enclave favored by hedge funds and financial firms, were growing at twice the pace of the average, up 20% from the market trough.
Rents in the downtown market advanced more than in the other two business districts–midtown and midtown south. They jumped 4.2% to $39.38 a square foot. The market got a big boost from Condé Nast signing a 1 million square foot deal at 1 World Trade Center.
Source: Crain’s New York Business
