Showing posts from category: construction
Declining vacancy rates seen as offering some hope of a possible pick up in construction down the road. Costs climb as much as 3.6% in year, while employment falls 3%.
Rising materials prices and higher wages set by new labor agreements are causing New York construction costs to rise for the second year in a row after a decrease in 2009.
Two industry analysts, consulting firm Rider Levett Bucknall and Engineering News-Record, both reported year-over-year increases in construction costs this year, with 2.13% and 3.55%, respectively. These numbers follow a 1.94% in 2010.
Those rises in local costs are similar to the national average, which suggests that rising material costs are driving the increases more than labor. Some of the biggest increases came as the price for steel rose, up 1.6% over the latest month alone, and cement, which rose 0.6%.
New York, as always, is one of the most expensive cities to build in, averaging $290 per square foot for Class A office space, putting it well above Los Angeles, Boston and Washington but behind Honolulu and San Francisco.
Richard Anderson, president of the New York Building Congress, which represents builders, said he doesn’t expect the cost increases to have a significant effect on development in the city or construction unemployment rates.
“The most determining factors in development are not construction cost increases,” Mr. Anderson said. “It’s the lack of job growth in the city that has historically been the major driver [for adding space].”
New York lost 3,400 construction jobs, 3% of the total, over the last year. That was one of the biggest losses in the country, according to the Associated General Contractors of America. Nationwide, construction employment actually increased in 146 of the 337 metropolitan areas and declined in 145.
This summer, construction-labor negotiations affected almost half of the labor agreements in the city. Developers and the Real Estate Board of New York were looking for labor pay cuts and givebacks. Despite some measure of success, there were wage increases built into most of the agreements. These will most likely prompt another construction cost increase next year.
“Construction costs are affected by demand, coupled by the costs of labor and material,” Mr. Anderson said. “In every one of those cases we expect the pressure to increase. The vacancy rate is going down, and the office space is being absorbed. The ingredients are there for a significant increase in office development, but people are wary of going forward with all of this uncertainty.”
Part of the uncertainty comes from contractors being squeezed as the pricing on their bids is rising more slowly than the costs of labor and materials, according to Rider Levett Bucknall.
“There will be some contractors who are so desperate for work that they will bid projects with either no ‘fee’ or even a slightly negative ‘fee’ just to win projects and stay in business,” said Julian Anderson, president of the Rider Levett Bucknall Americas. “For the New York market, it will increase the likelihood of less financially robust general contractors and sub-contractors failing and will mean more disputes around claims for change orders.”
Source: Crain’s NY Business
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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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
Reduction of 20% pledged for construction of over 500 affordable-housing units at planned block-long project on Eleventh Avenue; similar deal eyed for Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards.
New York construction unions have reached an agreement to cut the wages of members working on a massive residential project on the far West Side by 20%, sources said. The project, which will include more than 500 units of affordable housing, is being developed by the Gotham Organization Inc.
Meanwhile, Forest City Ratner Cos. has applied to the unions for similar wage cuts as it prepares to begin construction of its first residential tower at the long-planned Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. There, at least 50% of the approximately 400 residential units will be affordable.
The unions, in conjunction with contractors, began cutting wages and changing work rules for certain projects back in 2009 as part of an effort to lower construction costs and jumpstart projects brought to a standstill by the recession. It was just such an agreement that was a critical element to moving forward with Forest City’s Frank Gehry-designed residential tower downtown. At one point, the developer had proposed capping the 76-story tower at roughly half its height, but that never happened. It opened earlier this year.
Typically, the union offers concessions that lower labor costs by 10% to 15%. However, unions make steeper cuts for developers building affordable housing or residential projects in the outer boroughs because they tend to command lower sale prices and rents. Additionally, non-union labor has made greater inroads into those sectors than in major commercial projects in Manhattan.
Spokesmen for the Building & Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, a union trade group, and Forest City declined to comment. Gotham President David Picket couldn’t immediately be reached.
In the last several weeks, Gotham has reached a deal to secure a $530 million construction loan from a group led by Wells Fargo to build what is known as Gotham West. The four-building complex will consist of about 1,240 residential units and take up almost an entire city block bounded by West 44th and West 45th streets and Tenth and Eleventh avenues. Construction on the project, which will also include a parking garage and 17,000 square feet of retail, is expected to begin in the third quarter of this year, according to the company’s website.
The Gotham development will include a 31-story tower located on Eleventh Avenue with about 700 units. Adjacent to the tower, another mid-rise building will house 297 affordable-housing units available to low-, moderate- and middle-income families. Further east, toward Tenth Avenue, two 14-story buildings will be situated atop a platform over the Amtrak tracks and will include an additional 243 units of affordable housing.
The loan would be another sign of improvement for the beleaguered construction industry, which suffered horribly as development came to a virtual standstill during the recession. Lately there have been numerous signs of life in the industry. Just last month, Boston Properties announced it had secured law firm Morrison & Foerster as an anchor tenant for an office building on West 55th Street and would resume construction on the property, which was halted during the recession.
Source: Crain’s New York Business
Cool benches under one of the many futuristic silver buildings which have popped up recently in West Chelsea.
The anticipation of the second section of the High Line has more in common with that of summer blockbusters than urban renewal projects. With two million visitors last year, the elevated park has garnered praise usually reserved for Manhattan’s original icons. The park was even featured in an episode of “Family Guy” late last year, featuring a Sketch-up like rendering of the hunkering Standard Hotel straddling the elevated walkway whose terminus disappears in a wash of low rise brick buildings.
Due to its overwhelming popularity and appeal, the park has, as some have pointed out, become more than a dynamic urban project — it’s become a brand, and one with remarkable influence in shaping the future of Manhattan’s real estate and elsewhere.
Aerial View, from West 30th Street, looking West toward the Empire State Building. ©Iwan Baan, 2011
Phase II of the High Line keeps all of the original features of the elevated promenade that flipped the Olmstedian park on its head, while introducing some new baubles, including a wide glass screen framing traffic criss-crossing 26th street below and a “cut-out” view of the deck’s substratum, where the trademark concrete planks are stripped away to reveal the platform’s substructure.
There’s also the “flyover” (above), a catwalk ascending above the main path into a “shady canopy of sumac and magnolia trees, allowing an undulating terrain of shadowy groundcover to fill in below”—a narrative apparently warranting donors’ name—and what will probably be the park’s most welcomed addition, a long, unobstructed lawn for lounging or picnicking.
Philip A. and Lisa Maria Falcone Flyover, aerial evening view at West 26th Street, looking South. ©Iwan Baan, 2011
But more has changed since the opening of the first section of the High Line. The architecture looming over the sides of the park has grown increasingly flashy, with starchitects and others being called in to furnish silver-screen backdrops to the spectacle. Of course, Gehry’s IAC building is nearby, accompanied last year by Jean Nouvel; further along, Neil Denari’s HL23 glistens like some Jetson-age aluminum bombshell. And Renzo Piano is set to make his mark at the foot of the High Line’s main entrance with typically ascetic designs for the new extension of the Whitney Museum.
The rapid production of such marketable architectural clout, along with the openings of countless art galleries, chic eateries, and high-end shopping have attributed to the construction of the High Line Effect. The dream is that this gleaming model of gentrification can be reproduced ad absurdum, given the tangentially right conditions, the involvement of fashionable architects, and, the most important ingredient, the procuring of salvageable decaying urban infrastructure. Cities far and wide, from Chicago to Philadelphia, Jerusalem to Rotterdam, have expressed interest in building their own elevated parks, going so far as to contacting Field Operations to consider plans (no doubt, willfully derivative) for their respective cities.
The original conception of the High Line project surely holds the most promise and the most applicable lesson to all venturing cities and urbanizing areas, that is, untapping the potential hidden within the obsolescent and the forgotten made possible through the tireless efforts of a stubbornly committed group of people dedicated to preserving and improving their city.
A ribbon of grass lawn just above 23rd Street
Source and more photos: Architizer
High Line Website
Beacon Capital Partners signs 99-year lease to erect a 350,000-square-foot building with office and retail space at 330 Hudson St. It’s the second big deal in two months for Beacon.
Link to building site here
Trinity Real Estate signed a 99-year lease with an affiliate of Beacon Capital Partners to build an office building at the stalled development site at 330 Hudson St.
It is Beacon’s second investment in New York City in two months. In May, it signed a contact to buy between 70% and 80% of landmarked 195 Broadway from L&L Holding and its capital partner, GE Pension Trust, sources familiar with the transaction said.
Financial terms of Beacon’s deal with Trinity were not disclosed. The Boston-based real estate investment firm is planning an approximate 350,000-square-foot office building, including about 20,000 square feet of retail space at its base. Plans call for incorporating the site’s existing eight-story former warehouse into the new building, according to a Thursday statement by Trinity.
The proposed building is “as-of-right” and requires no zoning changes.
“We are delighted to welcome a company with the strength, experience and track record of Beacon Capital Partners to Hudson Square,” said Jason Pizer, president of Trinity Real Estate, in a statement. “They are committed to moving forward expeditiously on this key property, and we are confident the development will add immeasurably to the quality, vitality and excitement of this dynamic community.”
Several years ago Trinity leased the building to Tribeca Associates, which had planned to build a hotel on the site. However, Trinity took the site back last year after a nasty legal battle.
“With several new hotels in the area, the current proposed office/retail mix is clearly the most attractive and compelling development option,” Mr. Pizer said. He also pointed out that recent leasing activity throughout the portfolio offers another strong indication of Hudson Square’s promising future.
Meanwhile, Trinity had been negotiating for Pearson, the British media giant, to move into 330 Hudson St., sources said. It is unclear if those negotiations are still continuing.
Pearson would be a good fit for Trinity, which has turned its holdings in Hudson Square, just north of the Holland Tunnel entrance, into a mecca for media and creative firms. Pearson, whose holdings include Penguin Books and Financial Times, has offices in at least two buildings in New York: 1330 Sixth Ave. and 375 Hudson St.
Beacon, whose local holdings include 1211 Sixth Ave., was established in January 1998 and has sponsored seven investment vehicles with $11 billion in capital since its inception. Sources have said it is considering selling 1211 Sixth Ave.
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Beacon Capital Partners, Financial Times, GE Pension Trust, Jason Pizer, L&L Holding, Pearson, Penguin Books, Tribeca Associates, Trinity Real Estate
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Demand for architectural design fell in April to the lowest point of the year.
The Architecture Billings Index, which indicates construction volume, decreased marginally to 47.6 in April from 50.5 in March, according to American Institute of Architects data released Wednesday.
The benchmark for the index is 50. Anything above that indicates an increase in architectural billings and anything below indicates a decrease. The AIA surveys a panel of member firms monthly, asking if billings increased, decreased, or stayed the same. The national association then weighs the responses for the index.
April was the first month in 2011 the index swung below 50.
The sharp decline in demand for architectural services has analysts scratching their heads. Kermit Baker, chief economist at AIA, said he is unsure whether to attribute the drop to an industry-wide reversal in demand for design or a bump in the road.
“The fact that most construction projects funded under the federal stimulus program have completed their design work, the anxiety around the possibility of a shutdown in the federal government in April, as well as the unusually severe weather in the Southeast had something to do with this falloff,” Baker said. “However, the majority of firms are reporting at least one stalled project in-house because of the continued difficulty in obtaining financing.”
Baker also echoed Redwood Trust CEO Martin Hughes’ sentiment when he said financing continues to be the main roadblock to recovery. Hughes testified before the Senate Banking Committee Wednesday.
The new projects inquiry index also experienced a sharp drop in April, falling to 55 from 58.7 a month prior, according to AIA.
The regional buildings index was highest in the Northeast at 51.2, followed by the Midwest at 51.1, the South at 48.3, and the West at 47.7. The index was the highest in the multifamily residential sector (53.9) followed by the commercial/industrial sector (49.9), the institutional sector (45.9) and the mixed practice sector (45.2).
Uptick in business has them cautiously optimistic about a rebound
Some of the larger architectural firms in Aspen and Basalt have hired additional employees this spring after cutting up to half of their staffs during the recession.
Poss Architecture and Planning, Harry Teague Architects, Cottle Carr Yaw Architects and Design Workshop’s Aspen branch have each hired three or four workers in recent weeks. Partners in each firm said business is up this spring and they are bringing on additional workers to help with projects on the books.
“This year is just different from last year in a positive way,” said John Cottle, a partner with Cottle Carr Yaw Architects.
However, the owners of each of the firms said they remain very cautious about the business outlook because there is so much uncertainty beyond the next year or so. Bill Poss said 2007 and 2008 were the best years in his firm’s 35-year history. He doesn’t expect business to return to that level in some time. On the other hand, any uptick in business over 2010 is welcomed.
“Last year was pretty bad,” he said.
Architectural firms are somewhat like a canary in the coal mine for the construction industry. Projects they work on translate into work for contractors and subcontractors six months or so later. Poss said he is constantly being quizzed by friends in the construction world who want to know if his business is picking up.
The answer isn’t a simple yes or no. His firm is working on a large hotel in North Carolina that had been temporarily placed on hold when the recession hit. It is an encouraging sign that the owners have felt the economy has recovered enough that they are moving ahead with the design, Poss said. “That’s about a 12-month deal” for his firm, he said.
Poss is getting more calls this year than last year from property owners in the Roaring Fork Valley who are considering building homes. While the interest is encouraging, he noted that “nobody’s pulled the trigger, so to speak.”
Consumers of architectural services, like consumers of all types, are shopping for the best prices. His firm has reduced its prices, which required it to cut costs. That meant laying off employees after the recession struck, and cutting salaries for the remaining staff.
Poss said he and his partners recently hired three more drafting people and interns and are considering hiring a fourth person. Even so, the firm isn’t anywhere close to where it was three years ago in terms of the staff count when it employed 56 people. That fell to about 22 at the lowest point and is now creeping back toward 30 workers, he said.
Poss said business has always been cyclical. He has experienced a downturn every five to seven years. This downturn was different because it was so severe and long. He said laying off so many employees was unpleasant because it had so many consequences.
“I had to lay off 30 families, not just individuals,” he said.
Harry Teague, another longtime veteran architect in Aspen, said it has been common over the years for the staffs of architectural firms to expand and contract, depending on the firm’s number of projects. Employees who were laid off from one firm could usually find work with another.
“The roller coaster is not particularly unique to this time” he said.
What was different in this cycle is that business dropped off for virtually all firms at once, according to Teague. That was tough because people who were laid off had a tough time finding new jobs with different firms.
Teague said his firm’s work is also picking up this year so he has hired four people, boosting the total to 12. He described the positions he hired for as a mix of architects, project managers and designers as well as interns.
Teague’s firm is working on a project at the Aspen Music School campus on Castle Creek Road, including the replacement of a building that can no longer be used. His firm is also designing a school in Crestone, Colo., a home in Telluride and a home in the Roaring Fork Valley. He is also the architect for a river center proposed by the Roaring Fork Conservancy in Basalt. That project is scheduled to be reviewed by the Basalt Town Council and Basalt Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday.
Overall, Teague said, it does feel as though the level of activity is increasing.
Cottle said his firm is staying busy with a combination of local, regional and even international projects, a combination of residential and commercial.
“Aspen is stronger than most of the other places where we work,” he said.
The firm is receiving more calls of inquiry so far this year compared to the last couple of years, he said. Cottle is encouraged because potential clients are exploring a variety of projects and seem serious about moving ahead.
The firm recently added four positions, one permanent and three tied to current projects, Cottle said. It’s too soon to tell if business has truly turned around, so he and his partners will remain cautious with their projections and with their hiring. Cottle said they don’t want to get in a position of hiring workers for permanent positions only to lay them off again. That’s rough on everybody, he said.
Cottle Carr Yaw employed 38 workers from 2000 through the end of 2008 and intentionally didn’t expand beyond that point. They laid off roughly half the staff during the lean last couple of years and are back to 20 employees with the recent hires.
Kurt Culbertson, chairman of the board for Design Workshop, said the firm hired two entry-level workers and two mid-level experience workers in its Aspen office within the last six months. The position were for landscape architects. They are looking to fill another two positions.
The firm — which also has offices in Denver, Tahoe, Austin, Salt Lake City, and Asheville, N.C. — works on everything from resort planning to residential gardens. The Aspen office is benefiting from an increase in business overseas as well as domestically and in the Roaring Fork Valley, according to Culbertson. He said some potential clients are even looking into real estate development, which has been on hold for the last couple of years.
Culbertson said the Aspen office of Design Workshop reduced its staff by about half after the recession.
“It hasn’t been fine times,” he said.
He’s been with the firm through five recessions, this one being the worst. The name of the game is living to fight another day.
“You can’t hire people back if you’re not in business,” Culbertson said.
Via The Aspen Times
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Basalt Town Council and Basalt Planning and Zoning Commission, canary in the coal mine, chairman, construction industry, Cottle Carr Yaw Architects, Design Workshop, Harry Teague Architects, John Cottle, Kurt Culbertson, Poss Architecture and Planning, recession, Roaring Fork Valley
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eVolo magazine has run a tidy little competition for the last five years, inviting architects to innovative new skyscraper typologies. Today, the winners of the 2011 Skyscraper Competition were announced and we’ve got a recycling wind turbine, an energy- and water-harvesting horizontal tower, and a re-imagining of the Hoover Dam.
Jury members included SOFTlab principals Jose Gonzalez and Michael Svizos, architecture critic John Hill, Mitchell Joachim of Terreform One, CarloMaria Ciampoli of Live Architecture Network, and a host of other working and teaching architects (see the full list here).
FIRST PLACE: ‘LO2P Recycling Skyscraper’ by Atelier CMJN (Julien Combes, Gaël Brulé)
“The idea behind this skyscraper is to recycle the old cars and use them as building material for the new structure. The building is designed as a giant lung that would clean New Delhi’s air through a series of large-scale greenhouses that serve as filters. Another set of rotating filters capture the suspended particles in the air while the waste heat and carbon dioxide from the recycling center are used to grow plants that in turn produce bio-fuels.”
“The idea behind this skyscraper is to recycle the old cars and use them as building material for the new structure. The building is designed as a giant lung that would clean New Delhi’s air through a series of large-scale greenhouses that serve as filters. Another set of rotating filters capture the suspended particles in the air while the waste heat and carbon dioxide from the recycling center are used to grow plants that in turn produce bio-fuels.”
SECOND PLACE: ‘Flat Tower’ by Yoann Mescam, Paul-Eric Schirr-Bonnans, and Xavier Schirr-Bonnans
Imagined for medium-size cities where vertical skyscrapers do not fit the skyline, the flat tower is a “new high-density typology that deviates from the traditional skyscraper. The medium-height dome structure is perforated with cell-like skylights that provide direct sunlight to the agricultural fields and to the interior spaces. The dome’s large surface area is perfect to harvest solar energy and rainwater collection.”
THIRD PLACE: ‘Reimagining the Hoover Dam’ by Yheu-Shen Chua, United Kingdom
This project merges the programs at the current Hoover Dam — viewing platform, a bridge, and a gallery – into a “single vertical super structure.”
There a long list of honorable mentions, and we’ve highlighted below some especial favorites (clockwise from top left):
‘Sports Tower’ by Sergiy Prokofyev and Olga Prokofyeva, Ukraine
‘RE:pH Coastscraper’ by Gary Kellett, United Kingdom
‘White Cloud Skyscraper‘ by Adrian Vincent Kumar and Yun Kong Sung, New Zealand
‘Seeds of Life Skyscraper’ by Mekano (Osama Mohamed Elghannam, Karim Mohamed Elnabawy, Mohamed Ahmed Khamis, Nesma Mohamed Abobakr), Egypt
‘Waste Collector Skyscraper’ by Agata Sander and Tomek Kujawski, Poland
‘Hopetel: Transitional High-Rise Housing’ by Asaf Dali, United States
Via Architizer.com
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Hoover Dam, New Delhi, skyscraper
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Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP (SOM) has been awarded the masterplan commission for FTP City in Danang, Vietnam. SOM’s preliminary plan for a sustainable new high-tech community at the edge of the city has been applauded by local authorities, including the Head of Planning and the People’s Committee of the City of Danang. SOM is now working closely with these authorities to finalise the project’s design and ensure its delivery.
The plan has been commissioned by FPT, an up-and-coming national IT and telecommunications company with over 10,000 employees. Covering an area of over 180 hectares, the plan incorporates a wide range of uses organised into a series of distinct districts, including a Town Centre, a Business District, and a series of residential neighbourhoods. The plan also incorporates a new University Campus for FPT University – specialising in information technology, software development and e-services. The campus will also contain a research institute and training centre for FPT employees, allowing new technology to be developed further and put directly into practice.
SOM’s concept is formed on key principles to reduce energy needs and carbon emissions by promoting best practices in mixed-use development in an emerging local context of luxury resorts and single-use residential communities. Instead, FPT City will promote a diverse living community with integrated local services accessed via sheltered and shaded walkable streets. In addition to a web of natural greenways, the plan also incorporates a wide network of smart infrastructure. As a major national IT provider, FPT will ensure the delivery of state-of-the-art communications and information technology to every business and household in the community.
The design also brings to life part of a strategic regional river corridor initiative to be implemented between Danang and Hoi An, a national tourist destination, by establishing a new riverfront eco-park. The waterfront park engages a large existing lake at the river’s edge and will be designed to restore, protect and enhance the wildlife habitat along its entire length and around the lake’s perimeter.
Via World News Architecture
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