Archinect - News

WilkinsonEyre to design experiential $268 million London Tunnels makeover

2023-09-28T19:40:00-04:00

WilkinsonEyre has been announced as the architects of a new $268 million adaptive reuse plan that will overhaul a World War II era bomb shelter underneath High Holborn, London into a high-tech immersive tourist destination.

The plan was made possible after the government-run tunnels were made public for the first time in 70 years. Their clients, The London Tunnels Ltd., purchased the nearly mile-long tract with designs on transforming it into a digital experience-laden cavern with the potential for a bar space, restaurant, and exhibits for upwards of two million visitors per year.

The firm’s London Director, Paul Baker, said: “These secret spaces present the opportunity to tell extraordinary stories that helped shape the 20th century, alongside awe-inspiring digital immersive experiences.”

Image: DBOX courtesy of WilkinsonEyre

WilkinsonEyre’s makeover of the 7.6 meter (24.9 foot)-wide spaces will include installing curved screens, scent-emitting technology, a system of pinpoint audio...

Planning officials are getting fed up with Elon Musk's string of empty tunnel promises

2022-11-30T14:49:00-05:00

The six-year-old company has repeatedly teased cities with a pledge to “solve soul-destroying traffic,” only to pull out when confronted with the realities of building public infrastructure, according to former executives and local, state and federal government officials who have worked with Boring. Boring has yet to make good on its most ambitious pitch: that it can design tunnel-boring machines that are so fast to operate that they will drive down costs and shake up the industry.

The concerning string of incidents has led some to label Musk, now the world’s richest man, as a highly-compensated grifter. Chicago, Los Angeles, Maryland, and San Bernardino County are among the list of victims of Boring’s illusory promises, with even some of the company’s own demonstration sites becoming abandoned relics of a pursuit Musk began after losing patience with LA traffic in 2016.

Prominent financial interests keep pouring money into the entity in spite of its repeated ghosting. Several large-scale constructions are still tentatively planned. To date, its sole completed project is a 1.7-mile EV tunnel at Las Vegas Convention Center that was qualified under a local Amusement and Transportation Systems (ATS) provision, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Keeping Hong Kong flood-free

2020-07-29T17:58:00-04:00

The city's complex drainage system protects Hong Kong from once-disastrous flooding caused by seasonal typhoons. But will it be strong enough to withstand the effects of climate crisis?

CNN's James Griffiths on the challenges of building a vast rain water-draining tunnel network in one of the world's densest cities and how well it is prepared for ever-intensifying climate and security threats.

"At present, some rain is collected and reused for irrigation and flushing water, but most is still dumped back into the sea, a bitter situation for a city that imports over 70% of its fresh water from across the border in mainland China," Griffiths writes. "With rising temperatures potentially leading to greater water-insecurity around the world, Hong Kong's ability to do more with the water that literally falls upon it is more important than ever."

Seattle's massive Bertha tunnel drill is up for repair, but still faces a shaky outlook

2015-04-07T16:25:00-04:00

Megaprojects almost always fall short of their promises—costing too much, delivering underwhelming benefits, or both. Yet...cities still fall for them, seduced by new technologies and the lure of the perfect fix. A mix of factors has given Seattle a particularly acute sense of angst. The project depends on a singular piece of engineering. And Bertha’s building a highway for cars in a city where workers overcrowd buses and commuters wrap themselves in waterproof everything to bike in the rain.

Bedecked with amusingly cutesy illustrations, Bloomberg tells the exasperating tale of the giant tunnel drill dubbed Bertha, which began digging the new State Route 99 tunnel underneath downtown Seattle in summer 2013 to replace the current street-level Alaskan Way Viaduct and ideally clear up the city's waterfront for a park. Named after Seattle's only female mayor Bertha Knight Landes, Bertha is reportedly the world's biggest tunnel drill at five stories tall, built with a 25,000-horsepower motor, 260 steel teeth, and has an $80 million price tag.

Bertha near completion back in 2012 before its shipment to Seattle.

But in December 2013 after digging through about 1,000 feet, Bertha's seals busted from increasing temperatures and grit clogged up its teeth, so, it broke. Debate amongst Seattleites ensued. What the hell will happen to Big Bertha now? The project was originally scheduled to be done this November.

Last week, Washington State's contractor Seattle Tunnel Partners safely haul...

"The Hole Idea" celebrates the simple joys of creating "spontaneous architecture"

2015-04-01T15:16:00-04:00

Architectural design can be as playful as a child's imagination and still be taken seriously. Coated in a sunny yellow and candy-colored circular openings, "The Hole Idea -- Now in Technicolor" in Winnipeg is a snow tunnel that may seem like a kids-only zone at first glance, but is an engaging installation that can spark the curiosity of anyone who is trudging by in the snow. Since it was first installed in January after winning the popular Warming Huts 2015 competition, The Hole Idea has attracted visitors of all ages. The project's success continues with its recent win of an Ontario Association Of Architects Award.

Designed by Toronto-based Weiss Architecture + Urbanism, the playful concept for The Hole Idea -- which was named after a 1955 Looney Tune animation of the same name -- evokes childhood memories of Saturday morning cartoons, colorful playgrounds, and building snow forts.

The firm worked alongside Blackwell Engineering and the Canada Culvert fabrication team to complete th...

Gensler proposes "Underline" bike paths in London's abandoned tube tunnels

2015-02-05T13:47:00-05:00

Could the answer to London’s congestion be a network of subterranean cycleways? A new project from design firm Gensler suggests that maybe – just maybe – it might. Dubbed the London Underline, the project would turn London’s abandoned tube tunnels into living streets beneath the city. [...] London Underline is being taken seriously enough in some quarters. Earlier this week, it won the Best Conceptual Project gong at the London Planning awards.

Geology and the Art of New York City Subway Construction

2014-11-03T13:27:00-05:00

The Second Avenue Subway is the stuff of legend in New York City, the locomotive who cried wolf. Plagued by funding shortages, the project has been stop-and-go since the 1920s. Now construction is back to go; in late September, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) [...] requested $1.5 billion [...]. Michael Horodniceanu, head of construction for the MTA, has stated that the long-awaited line may be ready by 2029. In the meantime, the MTA is learning about, and acting on, geology.

Report highlights vulnerability of Amtrak’s NYC tunnels

2014-10-02T13:49:00-04:00

A new engineering report assessing the damage caused to the Amtrak-owned Hudson River and East River tunnels in New York City by Superstorm Sandy in October 2012 recommends a phased process of maintenance works, which will require taking individual tunnel tubes out of service for extended periods.

Editor's Picks #344

2013-12-03T18:49:00-05:00

eric chavkin penned a review of "Glen Small: Recovery Room" an exhibit at Assembly in Los Angeles, organized and curated by Archinect's own Orhan Ayyüce. MightyMike (aka Michael Locke) commented "For local (Los Angeles) fans of Archinect, there's a wonderful example of Small's work in the Franklin Hills...the Leiberman House". For his part davidd felt "This review and Small's work seems to come from an ingroup/niche point of view".

eric chavkin penned a review of "Glen Small: Recovery Room" an exhibit at Assembly in Los Angeles, organized and curated by Archinect's own Orhan Ayyüce. He concluded "Despite the flaws the works of Glen Small offer so much that another architect could base an entire career on re-doing, modifying, repeating any one of his single works".

MightyMike (aka Michael Locke) commented "For local (Los Angeles) fans of Archinect, there's a wonderful example of Small's work in the Franklin Hills...the Leiberman House, designed by Glen Howard Small, AIA c.1989 and completed by Anthony Eckelberry in 1995". For his part davidd felt "This review and Small's work seems to come from an ingroup/niche point of view".

Plus, in latest edition of the series Working out of the Box, Archinect spoke with with Microsoft Design Leads Mary-Lynne Williams and Moneta Ho Kushner.

News
Brian Henry noted a move by Ohio towards banning LEED. katscan thought "It sure is about time, I was wondering why stat...

Crossrail: Britain's biggest archaeological dig will transform London

2013-11-25T20:21:00-05:00

Crossrail is not just about engineering: artists, designers and archaeologists are all involved in the £15bn new railway. As the amazing tunnel-boring machines approach halfway, Rowan Moore dons his hard hat and goes below

How Engineers Are Building a New Railroad Under New York City

2013-05-28T15:13:00-04:00

The biggest public transit infrastructure effort in the US is almost completely invisible — unless you’re 160 feet underground. The East Side Access project will connect the Long Island Railroad to New York’s Grand Central Terminal via a massive tunnel under the East River. Actually, that tunnel was the easy part; it was started in 1969. The hard part? “We are building a brand-new railroad here,” says Michael Horodniceanu, president of Metropolitan Transit Authority Capital Construction.

Beautiful photographs by Dean Kaufman. To view more of his photos from this story, go to his website.