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The American Road & Transportation Builders Association’s 2024 Bridge Report survey has found 221,800 bridges in need of repair and 76,175 bridges that should be replaced across the country. The accounting, released in late August, claims that some 36%—or nearly 221,800 spans—require... View full entry
Post-Champlain Towers South tragedy condo building crackdowns are coming and now Florida could be facing its biggest real estate “crisis” in decades, NBC reports. Prices have dipped nearly 40% in some areas after a rash of new laws offloaded proactive maintenance costs onto the HOAs... View full entry
To date, only 30% of the tower has been repainted. Adding more than 100 weekly operations to monitor the lead increased annual running costs from €50m to €92m—and may reach a staggering €130m. The unions have also denounced the state of infrastructure, which sees tourists with tickets still queuing for up to three hours. — The Art Newspaper
In February, the Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (or SETE), which operates the tower announced losses nearing $2 million as a result of the weeklong strike. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has sparred openly with both France’s culture and tourism ministers about the tower’s lacking... View full entry
Plans for the contemporary replacement of some of the stained glass windows inside Notre Dame Cathedral’s damaged interior have sparked a considerable outcry from the public a year before the Parisian landmark is set to begin reopening in the wake of the destructive 2019 fire. Calls for a... View full entry
When it opened in 2008, the loftily named Bronx Hall of Justice was billed as the crown jewel of New York’s court system — the biggest courthouse in the state, sheathed in glass and housing enough courtrooms to handle dozens of criminal and civil cases each day.
All these years later, the verdict is that it’s more like a broken-down jalopy.
— The City
Numerous problems including flooding, failed fire alarms, shattered glass windows that appear out of nowhere, and floor collapses stemming from a built-over underground stream have befallen the Rafael Viñoly-designed Bronx Hall of Justice for more than a decade. The courthouse building has... View full entry
The Washington Monument will again welcome visitors up to its observation deck, where, from more than 500 feet in the air, visitors can see national landmarks including the U.S. Capitol, Washington National Cathedral, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial.
But first, you have to go through security.
— NPR
After undergoing a 3-year renovation, including elevator upgrades and adding a new glass-and-steel security screening center designed by Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners, the 555-foot-tall obelisk reopened to the public on Thursday, September 19th. View full entry
One of Europe’s most visited sites, with about 12 million tourists a year, is in dire need of repairs. Centuries of weather have worn away at the stone. The fumes from decades of gridlock have only worsened the damage. “Pollution is the biggest culprit,” says Philippe Villeneuve, architect in chief of historic monuments in France. “We need to replace the ruined stones. We need to replace the joints with traditional materials. This is going to be extensive.” — Time
Notre Dame faces major repairs as the historic Cathedral's structure decays due largely to pollution. Funding for the repairs needed were difficult to raise as the cathedral is owned by the French government, yet their arrangement allows the Catholic archdiocese of Paris to use it for free. Both... View full entry
Fungal biofilm and water sealant failure have added a black patina to the Salk Institute's iconic teak paneling, making the material vulnerable to decay. In order to save what is considered to be one of the world's finest architectural projects (and coolest structural alignment of the sunset save... View full entry
Legally, sidewalk repair is the responsibility of homeowners, but historically, enforcement of upkeep has been thin. [...]
“[sidewalks] should be part of the money we spend on transportation ... because people who walk are transporting themselves on their feet.” [...]
The liability is actually two-tiered: The property owner is responsible if someone sues after an injury due to poorly maintained sidewalks, but the city has secondary responsibility because sidewalks are public infrastructure.
— nextcity.org
Related on Archinect:Sidewalks, New York's "most desirable real estate"Not all sidewalks are created equal in D.C.Why Los Angeles is struggling to fix thousands of miles of sidewalksHumanizing street design with 'shared space'Antonia Malchik on the end of walking in America View full entry
The city estimates that some 4,500 of its total 10,750 sidewalk miles are in disrepair. According to a 2007 USC study, the city repaired a grand total of 64 miles of sidewalks, or 1.4 percent of damaged sidewalks, improving the city’s backlog to 72 years.
The reasons for this civic embarrassment go back even longer than 72 years. They are twofold. One is political, the other arboreal.
— nextcity.org
Sited at the heart of France's main business district at La Défense, the enormous and impressive Grande Arche was always more than a monument to the triumph of humanitarian ideals over military glory. [...]
A quarter of a century on, however, the crumbling state of La Grande Arche de la Défense might be a metaphor for France's struggling economy. [...]
The government has now promised €200m (£160m) worth of "important renovation work" [...] to begin in October and last for two years.
— theguardian.com
More than 150 cracks have been repaired, rainwater leaks have been sealed, and the 130-year-old Washington Monument is set to reopen Monday for the first time in nearly three years since an earthquake caused widespread damage.
The memorial honoring George Washington has been closed for about 33 months for engineers to conduct an extensive analysis and restoration of the 555-foot stone obelisk that was once the tallest structure in the world.
— blogs.wsj.com
The fabricator for the 12,000 steel panels — no two alike — abruptly shut down midway through the job.
The panels have occasionally dripped rusty orange blossoms onto the sidewalk.
And lately, iron workers have replaced hundreds of bolts that anchor the panels to the building’s structure. Engineers determined that weaker ones were originally installed, raising concerns about the structure’s integrity.
— nytimes.com
The ancient Colosseum in Rome is slanting about 40cm lower on the south side than on the north, and authorities are investigating whether it needs urgent repairs. — guardian.co.uk