Archinect - News

Historic flooding shuts down Dubai, Oman

2024-04-18T19:20:00-04:00

CNN is reporting on the chaotic situation in Dubai as record rainfalls this week have nearly incapacitated the metro, making for some unreal scenes at both its airport and city streets after about 10 inches fell in under 24 hours. Lightning and high winds have also caused damage to several structures.

Timelapse of massive storm in Dubai that caused a biblical flood.#DubaiFlooding #dubairain pic.twitter.com/31dhquZNjH
— BlueGreen Planet (@BluesWaltair) April 18, 2024

This is the largest amount of rain the region has received in 75 years. A lack of adequate floor prevention infrastructure has caused Copenhagen to adopt so-called "sponge city" concepts after a similarly devastating 2011 cloudburst event, and engineers and planners in the Middle East region may follow suit as such events are increasing due to climate change.

At least 18 people have been reported killed in the flooding thus far.

Henning Larsen plans new mixed-use civic center for Toronto

2024-04-18T13:33:00-04:00

Henning Larsen has debuted its plans for the Etobicoke Civic Centre (ECC) in Toronto, a mixed-use design within the city’s redeveloped Etobicoke Civic Centre Precinct that contains government offices and council chambers, child care center, library, public health clinic, recreation centre, and retail spaces aside a new 47,000-square-foot public square.

This project includes approximately 264,000 square feet of below-ground space and another 210,000 square feet of offices defined by a series of nine exponentially taller green-roofed buildings supported by a 300,000-square-foot podium.

Image rendering courtesy of Adamson Associates Architects, Henning Larsen and PMA Landscape Architects

The podium contains the majority of its public functions (an art gallery, healthcare component, the library, a fitness center, and multi-faith ceremony rooms). Adamson Associates and PMA Landscape Architects are also included in the design team. Construction for the project commenced this month with a c...

Cobe, Dorte Mandrup, JAJA, and Tegnestuen Vandkunsten to lead new mixed-use housing development at Copenhagen's South Harbor

2024-04-12T13:41:00-04:00

Cobe is joining fellow Danish architecture firms Dorte Mandrup, Tegnestuen Vandkunsten, and JAJA, alongside Sweco engineers, to deliver a new mixed-use residential district in Copenhagen’s South Harbor. The one-million-square-foot design is set to include 1,000 new units of housing (25% of which are considered affordable) designed to help key the Danish building sector's vital green transition.

Each of the buildings will be constructed in line with the Reduction Roadmap initiative, an analog of the Paris Agreement, as well as the Planetary Boundary for Climate Change and a German DGNB platinum certification. Wood will be used as a primary building material throughout the structures, which are connected via canals, bridges, and new green areas.

Rendering courtesy Cobe

Cobe is also under tender to deliver the newly redesigned Danish parliament buildings and public entrance in Copenhagen and has nearby completed another mixed-use housing tract called Paper Island at its Inner Harbor, w...

Congress moves closer to passing law funding recreation spaces in underserved communities

2024-04-11T11:46:00-04:00

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Outdoors for All Act, which seeks to address the lack of adequate recreation space in underserved communities. The bill, which is yet to pass the U.S. Senate, would establish a dedicated source of funding for the existing Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program.

Overseen by the National Park Service, this program funds the delivery of new parks, the renovation of existing recreation facilities, and the development of infrastructure to support outdoor education and public land volunteering. The program gives priority to projects in underserved communities.

Related on Archinect: ASLA New York honors state's best landscape architecture at 2024 Design Awards. Image credit: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates

“Research confirms what our bodies and nature already understand — more time in outdoor spaces increases well-being,” said Torey Carter-Conneen, CEO of the American Society of Landscape Architects, which has advocated for the bill...

NYT survey finds 309 bridges across the U.S. vulnerable to ship strikes following Baltimore disaster

2024-04-09T12:19:00-04:00

In the wake of last month’s fatal collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, the New York Times has published an assessment of other vulnerable spans across the country in danger of similar catastrophic failures due to the precarity of critical elements and various structural deficiencies.

According to the report, a total of 309 bridges are at risk of collapsing from a direct hit by an errant ship as was the case in Baltimore and nearly repeated in an incident last week at the Verrazzano Bridge in New York City.

Of those 309 surveyed, 193 bridges that service a significant number of motor vehicle traffic (10,000 or more cars per day) face dangers stemming from a lack of protective barriers at their pier supports and caissons. Among the largest are the Lewis and Clark Bridge in Washington state and the Crescent City Connection in New Orleans.

Recently on Archinect: Transportation Secretary Buttigieg admits ‘we don't fully know’ scope or extent of Francis Scott K...

Oliver Wainwright on Disney's 'dream or nightmare' Storyliving community

2024-04-09T11:58:00-04:00

With revenue from cinema and streaming falling in recent years, income from Disney’s “experience” division is soaring, and property development is the next logical step. Disney tried it before in Florida, first with utopian plans for Epcot (the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow), followed by the quaint town of Celebration, but Storyliving takes the branded living experience to the next level.

Writing for The Guardian, critic Oliver Wainwright reflects on plans for a major Disney-themed development at Rancho Mirage in the California desert.

As we reported initially in 2022 and in a follow-up last year, the 2,000-home Storyliving by Disney scheme will include a midcentury-influenced member's clubhouse named for the fictional Parr family from the company’s “The Incredibles” franchise, where users can engage with Disney-themed art lessons and experience dinners inspired by Disney stories.

Related on Archinect: Disney unveils further details for planned Cotino community in the Coachella Valley. Image courtesy Disney Parks

In his latest article, Wainwright views the development through the lens of the Architecture of Stage Realities exhibition taking place at Arc en Reve in Bordeaux. The exhibition "paints a portrait of Walt Disney as a natural-born developer, a cartoonist who understood not only how to lure people into his magical worlds but how to keep them coming back," Wai...

Boston reprioritizes Planning and Development Agency as reformers push to eliminate structural inequality

2024-04-03T19:07:00-04:00

The Boston City Council passed a measure Wednesday to shift planning authority away from the Boston Planning and Development Agency, a body that's reshaped much of the city in the 20th century and has faced criticism for the power it wields over building and urban renewal. The newly minted Boston Planning Department will assume many of the responsibilities, property and staff currently under the old agency, which will retain oversight of large developments.

As per WBUR, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has been adamant about phasing out the current planning system during her time in office, calling it "an anachronism plagued by lack of transparency and misguided priorities."

Other critics have amplified her call, arguing that it inculcates structural racism. As a 2020 Boston Globe article stated: "The quasi-governmental agency referees Boston’s major real estate development, a sector that one agency board member described [...] as overwhelmingly white and male. The BPDA has been criticized in recent years for the cost of housing and what some view as overdevelopment."

The city is in the midst of several reforms aimed at increasing affordable housing and decarbonizing its built environment and needs to plan a massive flood barrier to protect against the effects of climate change by 2070.

LAX Automated People Mover construction won't be completed until 2025

2024-04-01T11:45:00-04:00

KTLA is reporting that construction setbacks on the long-awaited Automated People Mover transit system at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) have delayed the project until at least the end of 2025.

According to the local outlet’s analysis of a new Fitch Ratings report, “The Automated People Mover system is 96% complete but increasing construction delays and a ‘strained relationship’ between the contractor and Los Angeles World Airports, which owns and operates LAX, have kept it from being completed.”

The news comes after five years of construction on the $5.5 billion transportation component of the airport’s larger $14.5 billion first phase of upgrades. Completion was originally expected last year. Once it is finished, the 1.2-million-square-foot station will connect the rest of the 2.25-mile-long tract to Terminals 3, 4, and 5 and form the bookend of a system that will serve approximately 30 million people a year.

Related on Archinect: Final LAX Automated People Mover statio...

Gensler and SHAPE unveil next phase of Atlanta’s Centennial Yards development

2024-03-27T11:05:00-04:00

The next phase of Atlanta’s major Centennial Yards development has been unveiled. Designed by Gensler and SHAPE (Studio H Architecture Planning Environments), the sports-entertainment district will span 470,000 square feet, holding entertainment, retail, restaurant, and hotel functions on a 7.5-acre site.

The urban form of the district takes inspiration from Downtown Atlanta’s industrial past, designed to “reflect the site’s railroad history with clean lines and flat pedestrian pathways throughout.” In contrast to the area’s surrounding high-rise buildings, the district will comprise lower-tiered buildings with green terraces along various elevations.

Image credit: Gensler

“Our approach to revitalization is to catalyze and anchor the urban core by creating a pedestrian-oriented crossroads of East and West Atlanta,” said Gensler Atlanta Co-Managing Director Kevin Songer about the scheme. “Centennial Yards Entertainment District will engage locals and visitors alike by enhancing walkab...

Sasaki will design new comprehensive master plan for Taliesin West

2024-03-26T16:54:00-04:00

The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation has announced its selection of Sasaki Associates to create a new comprehensive master plan for Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Plans for a new campus will guide the development of any new projects on the 620-acre campus (a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site) in line with the Foundation’s Taliesin West Preservation Plan from 2015. Their aim is to re-establish the site as a cultural destination for "future generations."

The site, which Wright settled with his third wife Olgivanna in the 1930s, had included a school that almost shuttered due to financial difficulties before reversing its decision and relocating to two sites in Paradise Valley at the start of the pandemic.

Photo credit: Andrew Pielage

The firm says: "The comprehensive plan for Taliesin West represents a significant step in ensuring the long-term preservation and vitality of this architectural masterpiece. By engaging with the site’s history and ecology, Sasaki’s plan will guid...

LA City Council places Dodger Stadium Gondola project on hold pending further reviews

2024-03-25T11:48:00-04:00

The contested plan to build an aerial gondola tram line from downtown LA to Dodger Stadium has been placed on hold after city council members voted last week to halt the Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit (LA ART) for the time being.

Local outlet ABC 7 was first to report on the council’s decision to pause the approvals process “until further studies can be conducted on its potential impacts.”

Opponents of the project had lobbied against its invasiveness and potential for displacement in communities that have been historically marginalized through gentrification. Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who introduced the measure, said: “We owe the public a real analysis of the issues and evidence-based solutions around Dodger Stadium.” The Los Angeles Department of Transportation will now hire a special consultant to conduct the assessments.

(An unrelated assembly bill, meanwhile, is being advanced that would compensate displaced families who fell victim to the construction of Dodger Stadiu...

Foster + Partners, Sasaki, and actor Idris Elba float plans for a 'smart city' island development in Sierra Leone

2024-03-19T13:34:00-04:00

Foster + Partners is working on a new smart city design with actor Idris Elba for a coastal island off the shores of Sierra Leone. The news was reported by the BBC on Sunday, when the plan was revealed for the first time after five years of planning.

Sasaki Associates will collaborate with the firm, Elba, and his business partners at the Sherbro Alliance Partners (or SAP). Their plan is to preserve nature areas on the 230-square-mile Sherbro Island (which has roughly ten times the land area as Manhattan) while enacting a new "eco-city" capable of supporting up to one million residents.

The outlet reports the project is to be financed through a public-private partnership and that the island will "be designated a special economic zone with a separate legal and economic system from the rest of Sierra Leone." Some online commentators have compared it to Disney World, the crypto-funded Akon City in Senegal, or the new planned community in Northern California that’s backed by a group of...

Zaha Hadid Architects unveils major waterfront master plan in Oman

2024-03-15T11:52:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has designed a waterfront master plan for downtown Muscat in Oman.

Under the plans, named the Al Khuwair development, the existing administrative and industrial areas will become an urban district with an expected population of 64,500.

Image credit: X UniverseCG, courtesy of MoHUP

The district will comprise five areas: a marina, a recreational waterfront with beaches and sports facilities, a canal walkway, a cultural quarter, and a Ministry campus. Residential areas will be incorporated throughout the master plan alongside arts, culture, and leisure facilities within mixed-use developments.

Image credit: X UniverseCG, courtesy of MoHUP

Building on Muscat’s history as a port city, the development will be anchored by the marina, which will include public green spaces along the waterfront and dining, retail, hotel, and residential developments. Elsewhere, buildings within the existing Ministry campus are expected to be retrofitted and reused through a program of re...

Disneyland’s $1.9 billion campus expansion moves toward approval

2024-03-14T11:54:00-04:00

The LA Times and other local outlets are reporting on the progress made by Disney towards eventually realizing an expansion of the existing plot of Disneyland, a move billed as generating multiple community benefits for the city of Anaheim.

The $1.9 billion DisneylandForward project does not call specifically for any new construction and will be executed within the resort's existing 500-acre campus. According to an assessment of the plan from the Disney Tourist Blog, “DisneylandForward is the company’s pitch to the public and City of Anaheim for more flexibility in the master plans from the 1990s in order to give the company greater autonomy over what to build and where.”

In line with founder Walt Disney's vision for a constant expansion of the resort, the plan presents the potential for both an "immersive new theme park" and a "new kind" of entertainment district possibly containing a hotel and cluster of retail, dining, and entertainment plots to be created in the east and west co...

For World Engineering Day, these six bridges stand as examples of the complexities underneath every design

2024-03-04T20:06:00-05:00

Today is World Engineering Day, and to celebrate it, Archinect has curated a few outstanding bridge projects we’ve included in our recent news coverage to highlight critical pieces of infrastructure at an important time for civil and structural engineering in the Americas and abroad.

The six highlighted bridges provide examples of remarkable design standards and engineering practices while, in some instances, setting records and starting off new precedents for incorporating alternative materials, the conditions of a circular economy, aesthetic variance, building science, low-carbon construction methods, and more.

Strait of Messina Bridge from the Stretto di Messina SpA and Webuild (Sicily, Italy)

Rendering courtesy Webuild

What will become the world’s longest suspension bridge design when completed has been stalled in the project pipeline since 2003. Now, with the constant stop-and-start cycle behind it, the seven-year project will advance toward a likely construction start later th...

Weiss/Manfredi, Hood Design Studio, and Moody Nolan to design new Amsterdam Avenue enhancements at Lincoln Center

2024-03-04T16:32:00-05:00

The new Amsterdam Avenue face of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts will be designed by a team that includes Weiss/Manfredi, Hood Design Studio, and Moody Nolan, the beloved New York City cultural institution announced Monday.

The revitalization plan entails first a radical overhaul of Damrosch Park, which will be transformed into a dynamic new outdoor area for artistic performance and public gatherings. All three firms will impart their extensive experience in public realm designs that has recently included work on the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina and master plan of the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum in Los Angeles, respectively.

East side of Amsterdam Avenue, north of 62nd Street. Photo by Lawrence Sumulong

The design will take shape in response to a participatory planning process that drew the opinions of over 3,400 New Yorkers and surviving former residents of San Juan Hill, the neighborhood that was demolished to make way for the 14-y...

NEOM updates progress on The Line and other satellite developments

2024-02-28T18:32:00-05:00

Progress on the Oxagon, Sindalah, and the 110-mile-long The Line centerpiece developments in Saudi Arabia’s NEOM megaproject has been documented in a new update released this week.

Aerial photos combined with drone footage displaying their construction progress surfaced on NEOM social media accounts with a note about its tangibility to naysayers skeptical of the $500 billion vision of the country's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Video: NEOM/YouTube

It follows previous video updates from January and October of 2023. Since then, several additional developments (including Leyja, Epicon, Aquellum, and Siranna) have been announced.

Image: NEOM/YouTube

The first construction phases will reportedly be completed by 2030, with the British firm Atkins retained to oversee delivery of The Line, which is by far its largest and most technically challenging portion.

Image: NEOM/YouTube

Around 60,000 workers are reported to be on each construction site combined. The Saudi state has spent $5.6 ...

Dodger Stadium gondola plan gains LA Metro Board approval

2024-02-24T08:00:00-05:00

The LA Metro Board of Directors has given their final go-ahead for a controversial gondola project in Los Angeles that would offer an alternative transportation route from downtown Union Station to Dodger Stadium to baseball fans by the start of the 2028 Summer Olympics. The board voted unanimously in favor of the final version of the plan’s Environmental Impact Report on Thursday.

As was pointed out by LAist, the proposal still needs approvals from Los Angeles City Council, Caltrans, and California State Parks to begin construction. The Metro’s decision came with a steep set of 31 conditions, which include a fund for affordable housing plus marketing opportunities and other concessions directed to small business owners in Elysian Park and Chinatown.

The proposal is marketed as being able to transport a total of 5,000 people per hour on a 7-minute ride with three stations along a 1.2-mile path. The Dodgers say this will reduce traffic by 3,000 cars for each of their 81 home games pe...

Populous advances new downtown ballpark district proposal in Kansas City

2024-02-22T12:51:00-05:00

The Kansas City Royals are advancing a scheme for a new downtown stadium district designed by Populous in a neighborhood called the Crossroads.

Slotted into a 17.5-acre site at the confluence of Grand Boulevard, Locust Street, Truman Road, and 17th Street, the development would offer a connector to the nearby South Loop Link project from OJB Landscape Architecture and BNIM. The proposal calls for an experience-laden "Arts District" to be enacted alongside the new ballpark, with a new hotel, shops, a residential component, and shopping also included.

Rendering courtesy of Populous

The site currently includes some undeveloped plots and small businesses adjacent to the Power & Light District. The franchise had previously floated plans for a new stadium (sans entertainment district) in either the East Village or North Kansas City. Cost estimates for the project are between $1–2 billion.

Rendering courtesy of Populous

Populous CEO Earl Santee told reporters: "This is my 23rd major league ...

The political reason behind London’s ‘weird’ skyline

2024-02-15T11:30:00-05:00

The dominance of starchitect-led high rises in London is the result of the UK’s subjective planning system, according to a new opinion piece in The New York Times. Taking aim at the city’s “weird” skyline, business and economics columnist Peter Coy argues that “developers hire star architects because doing so gives them a better chance of winning approval for taller, more profitable buildings.”

Related on Archinect: The City of London skyline is expected to add these eleven towers by 2030. Image credit: City of London Corporation

“London has a jarring profusion of odd skyscrapers with funny names or nicknames,” Coy explains. “There are the Shard and the Scalpel, which are pretty elegant. The (mostly) well-liked Gherkin, which looks like a glass pickle. The wedge-shaped Cheese Grater. And the widely loathed Walkie-Talkie, a bulbous cartoon of a building that “looms thuggishly over its low-rise neighbors like a broad-shouldered banker in a cheap pinstriped suit,” to quote The Guardian....

BIG unveils design for new Freedom Plaza development along Manhattan's East River

2024-02-12T19:35:00-05:00

Plans for a four-tower scheme designed by BIG for the east side of Manhattan have been announced by developers Soloviev Group and Mohegan in advance of its commencement in Midtown.

Their transformative Freedom Plaza project will be realized on a 6.7-acre plot near the United Nations complex overlooking the FDR Drive and East River between 38th and 41st Street at First Avenue.

Rendering by Negativ

The program calls for two pairs of hotel and condominium towers connected via a skybridge, and addressing the Queens shoreline with a landscaped park and small Museum of Freedom and Democracy forming in the ground-level plaza underneath. A total of 4.77 acres of publicly accessible space will be included therein, flanked by the 1,325-unit residential component to the southern orientation. Nearly half (40%) will be dedicated to affordable housing, according to the project announcement.

Rendering by Negativ

A casino space tied to the developer's bid for one of three available gambling license...

High-speed rail line between Vegas and SoCal receives additional $2.5 billion funding

2024-01-26T11:04:00-05:00

The U.S. Department of Transportation has approved $2.5 billion for the Brightline West High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail project. As we have previously reported, the 218-mile line will connect Las Vegas to Southern California, running primarily along the I-15 median.

Electric trains on the line will be capable of reaching 186 miles per hour, fulfilling the journey in half the time to travel by car. The cost of the project currently stands at $12 billion, funded partly by an additional $3 billion allocation last month under the Infrastructure Act, and a $25 million to to the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority that will be used to construct stations on the line in Hesperia and Victor Valley, California.

Related on Archinect: U.S. Department of Transportation awards $6.1 billion in funding for high-speed rail projects in the American West. Image courtesy Brightline West

“As the first true high-speed rail system in America, Brightline West will serve as the blueprint for c...

Details emerge for billionaire-backed startup community plan northeast of San Francisco

2024-01-24T19:14:00-05:00

The once-secretive plan for a startup new community in Solano County, Northern California, is beginning to materialize as the company known as California Forever has begun publicizing details for their proposed development ahead of a potential November vote to determine its future.

Details made public with the start of a requisite petition drive showed a preliminary map, renderings, and area plan for the project, which would notably be the first large-scale demonstration of the "walkable city" concept designed entirely from scratch in North America.

Image courtesy California Forever

Billed as a future "amazing success story" by the company’s founder Jan Sramek, the development intends to construct some 20,000 new affordable residences plus a solar farm and network of public parks before 2040. The plan reportedly allows for further growth to support a population of up to 400,000. As the announcement post notes, much of the preliminary proposal is focused on creating missing middle ho...

Buro Happold and Dialog unveil new urban thermal comfort study for Toronto

2024-01-22T18:45:00-05:00

The City of Toronto recently completed a groundbreaking study of its ‘thermal comfort’ done by Buro Happold and Dialog. The work will provide valuable lessons to urban planners, developers, and other stakeholders as the country’s largest metropolitan area prepares a strategy to suitably mitigate the growing number of extreme heat days it faces in a given year.

The study will go a long way in informing Toronto’s response to heat and climate, leading eventually to the creation and implementation of new comfort guidelines included as part of a broader Heat Relief Strategy that was debuted two years ago. Toronto's City Planning Division contracted Buro Happold and Dialog to lead the study based on the former’s extensive experience with similar plans for large metro areas such as New York, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis.

“These are significant new kinds of guidance that city leaders everywhere need to help protect their citizens and support public health in an era of rapid climate change,...

UIC researchers predict nearly half of all American cities will experience 'massive' depopulation trends by 2100

2024-01-17T12:05:00-05:00

The implications of this massive decline in population will bring unprecedented challenges, possibly leading to disruptions in basic services like transit, clean water, electricity and internet access. Simultaneously, increasing population trends in resource-intensive suburban and periurban cities will probably take away access to much needed resources in depopulating areas, further exacerbating their challenges.

Almost half (43%) of the 30,000 cities surveyed recently by the University of Illinois Chicago are expected to lose population while another 40% — among the country’s larger metros such as New York City and Phoenix — will experience growth through the end of this century.

Lead author Sybil Derrible told Scientific American: “The takeaway is that we need to shift away from growth-based planning, which is going to require an enormous cultural shift in the planning and engineering of cities.” Declining birth rates, income tax burdens, rising home prices, and the effects of climate change are all pivotal factors in causing the demographic change.

MVRDV plans a new 'Green Heart' in the center of Düsseldorf

2024-01-10T20:30:00-05:00

MVRDV has released updated renderings and other details about its forthcoming Grüne Mitte (or “Green Heart”) plan that calls for a redesigned new green district in the culturally rich German city of Düsseldorf.

The firm’s plan, which entails the construction of a colorful residential component totaling 500 units (half of which are considered social housing) around a small landscaped public space from fellow Dutch designers LOLA, was the product of an intensive community input process that included members of the diverse Flingern-Süd community.

The area has been considered a "hot spot" for squatting since the end of the 1980s and features equally popular shopping spaces and a parking structure that was built only 11 years ago before the land was acquired by the developers Cube Real Estate.

Image © MVDRV

As part of that process, residents selected the Green Heart proposal from a trio of outline primers. Their solution calls for a 36% reduction in paved areas, with a new...

Cooper Robertson unveils campus master plan for the University of Maryland

2024-01-10T13:54:00-05:00

Details of a new comprehensive master plan by Cooper Robertson for the University of Maryland’s flagship campus in College Park were revealed Tuesday by the firm following its initial announcement in March of last year.

By prioritizing strategies for “holistic growth,” the university says it will be able to meet its slate of strategic development goals that include increasing institutional resilience, achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2025, improving transit options and pedestrian access on campus, making facilities improvements, enhancing connectivity between the campus and D.C. metro region, and preparing for a more diverse future.

Rendering courtesy Cooper Robertson

“This plan builds on the University of Maryland’s role as an ambitious, forward-looking, and value-driven academic institution,” Cooper Robertson partner and UMD alum Mike Aziz said. “By embracing its legacy of distinction in a modern and strategic program, the university is setting a highly sustainable and lasti...

Gordie Howe International Bridge construction: Opening delayed to September 2025

2024-01-09T17:04:00-05:00

The completion date for the delayed Gordie Howe International Bridge has been pushed back to September 2025, according to the Detroit Free Press.

A public announcement put out by the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority detailed the progress that’s been made since the project commenced in late 2018.

Since that time, the bridge’s road deck construction, stay cable installation, and Port of Entry facilities have progressed successfully. Completion of the road deck, stay cable installations, and ancillary Port of Entry outbuildings will follow in the coming year. The finalization of the operations process is then anticipated for the year after.

"After a three-year pandemic and considering the size and complexity of the Gordie Howe International Bridge project, our project team is pleased that the impact to the construction schedule is limited to only 10 months beyond the original contracted com...

Feds dole out $1 billion to get the Inglewood Transit Connector moving in LA's South Bay

2024-01-08T19:15:00-05:00

The planned Inglewood Transit Connector (ITC) in the Los Angeles area is moving forward thanks to a recent $1.09 billion investment by the federal government that will help deliver the 1.6-mile automated people mover to the rapidly changing South Bay district.

Once in place, the ITC will connect the neighborhood’s most important recent economic cogs, including SoFi Stadium and the soon-to-open Intuit Dome, with the Metro line while serving a maximum of 11,000 riders per hour. The design contractor for the project's implementation will be selected later in the year.

"This action delivers on the promise of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support communities whose transit infrastructure has been neglected for too long and who have been impacted negatively by the construction of major freeways like the I-405 in Inglewood," Senator Alex Padilla said at the announcement.

Image courtesy City of Inglewood

"For the federal government to make a $1 billion investment in a city of 9 square...

UVA architecture students present ideas for rebuilding a war-torn Ukrainian city to the U.S. Department of State

2024-01-08T14:25:00-05:00

The culmination of the 2023 Fall semester at the University of Virginia saw a contingent of students from UVA’s School of Architecture travel to Washington, D.C., to discuss ideas for rebuilding the war-torn eastern Ukrainian city of Izium upon a special invite from the U.S. Department of State.

Together with Professor Suzanne Moomaw, the cohort of 23 students who participated in the school’s Ukraine Green Recovery Lab were delegated to the National Museum of American Diplomacy in order to present their research to State Department officials, other government representatives, and the Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova.

Highlighting topography and other similarities between Izium and Charlottesville, the students presented six phases of a proposed redevelopment to those assembled. What they took away from it was a rewarding experience delivering findings that will, in turn, be presented to the people of Izium for feedback. All in attendance report to have en...