Archinect - News

Studio Gang's 'Best Nest' a few eggs short

2011-04-15T17:13:00-04:00

According to those reports, the project’s price tag has soared to $27 million from an initial estimate of $7.6 million. But that is not an apples-to-apples comparison. All it reveals—surprise— is that city officials low-balled the project’s overall cost when they announced that Gang and her firm, Studio Gang Architecture, had bested 107 entrants from nine countries in a design competition for the center.

The Ford Calumet Environmental Center— darlingly nicknamed the 'Best Nest'— was officially unveiled on Earth Day in 2004. Seven years later, the project has yet to materialize into anything despite a 2006 completion date. Perhaps merely a political stunt, on-his-way-out Mayor Daley had wanted to make Chicago “the greenest city in America." With Daley gone, this 'pet project' is getting a revaluation due to a $10,000,000 funding gap.

Jeanne Gang's business partner, Mark Schendel, had previously given a figure of $17,360,000 that included numerous updates and improvements when documents were completed in 2008. However, this figure ignored land acquisition costs, future construction costs and furnishing the building which is expected to add another $10,000,000 of heft.

Department of Environment Commissioner Suzanne Malec-McKenna has given a few numbers on current funding for the project— $10,000,000 from the city, $3,000,000 from the state, $1,000,000 in grants and $6,000,000 ...

Calatrava's bridge in Dallas shot down, back as zombie

2011-04-13T21:33:00-04:00

"But I do believe that in these economic times, it doesn't make sends for us to spent extra tax dollars, public funds, taxpayer money on elaborate architectural construction when we have real infrastructure needs..."

But don't fret just yet! Calatrava's previous contract was mostly paid for his earier work. The Dallas Morning News reported that the city voted to accept $5,000,000 in anonymous donations in addition to the $2,100,000 funds left unpaid to Calatrava combined with a $3,500,000 in city bond money– giving Calatrava a total of $10,700,000 for a new contract to build a bike and pedestrian component to a new redesign of the bridge, the I-30 Margaret McDermott Bridge.

Reported by the Dallas Observer, Hunt "suggested removing the signature features and instead building a 'plain vanilla' bridge, thereby lowering the cost to $222 million, and then applying the $92 million toward that amount, reducing TxDOT's funding commitment to around $130 million."

Finally, the cost of the original Calatrava design is reported to have been originally as $500,000,000 but reduced down to $314,000,000– Texas' congressional representatives had secured $92,000,000 leaving a bill of approximately $222,000,00...

RMJM: On the subject of Carribean castles and furloughs

2011-04-12T15:55:51-04:00

The firm, which designed the Scottish Parliament building, has been hit in recent months by the departure of 80 staff from its Hong Kong office, as well as senior personnel from its US operations, amid reports of unrest over late payment of salaries.

RMJM, Robert Matthew Johnson Marshall, of Edinburgh, Scotland has found itself in a precarious situation. According to the Scotsman, the firm is in a bit of a pickle with late payments of salaries at its Hong Kong office. Despite the firm receiving a £5,000,000 cash and a £3,000,000 loan bailout from its owner, the Morrison family, it has had trouble collecting on debts from its clients and maintaining cash flow.

With all the attention on RMJM's financial woes, it may have had drawn some unwanted attention to aspects of RMJM's projects. Namely, the project New Providence Island in Nassau, Bahamas-- a $3,400,000,000 mega-resort-- has questionable Chinese involvement. Architectural Record reports that, "In 2009, China State Construction Engineering Corp. agreed to buy a small stake in the resort. China State then hired its subsidiary, China Construction America Inc. (CCA), to serve as the general contractor and construction manager." In addition to the Chinese firm hiring a Ch...

"On Shaky Ground" -- California Watch reports 'systematic failures' in state's school construction

2011-04-12T01:55:15-04:00

Top management with the Division of the State Architect – the chief regulator of school construction – for years did nothing about nearly 1,100 building projects that its own supervisors had red-flagged. Safety defects were logged and then filed away without follow-up from the state.

In the wake of the arrest of AI Weiwei, his objections and criticism regarding school construction safety in China were not taken lightly by anyone including the Chinese people and the Chinese government.

A similar case is unfolding in the State of California. California Watch is covering a multitude of reports regarding lax and or missing inspections, missing safety certificates, unethical conflicts of interest and at least one state inspector having a felony conviction in a construction safety case.

The California Watch report breaks down the overall state of affairs in three categories: 'lax oversight,' 'troubled inspectors' and 'repair money blocked.'

Lax Oversight: At least 20,000 projects in the State of California have not received their final safety certifications making that six out of ten schools having at least one certified building project.

"As the state architect’s office relaxed its oversight, the office became closely aligned with the industry it regulates. Government of...