Archinect - News

Concerns after high winds cause windows to shatter on San Francisco towers

2023-03-29T12:47:00-04:00

A city official in San Francisco is calling for extensive reports into the integrity of facades in the city’s downtown after a recent storm caused windows from multiple high-rises to be damaged.

According to the San Francisco Department of Buildings and Inspections, four buildings in downtown San Francisco suffered glass failure during a high-wind storm last week. The Millennium Tower suffered one broken window, as did 1400 Mission and 50 California, while the Salesforce East building suffered one broken window on every floor from floors 11 through 30.

As a result of the glazing failures, shards of glass were scattered across Mission Street, posing a hazard to pedestrians below. City officials have since directed building managers to secure impacted windows and commission professionals to ensure all buildings are safe, stable, and secure.

In the meantime, San Francisco supervisor Aaron Peskin told ABC7 ...

Ambitious construction startup, Katerra, finally folds after a challenging run

2021-06-02T14:12:00-04:00

An executive told employees on a video call that the firm didn’t have enough money to pay severance packages or unused paid time off, a person who attended the meeting said. The executive said the effects of Covid-19, as well as rising costs of labor and construction materials, contributed to its latest cash crunch.

Katerra, a closely watched startup founded 6 years ago, had a vision to reinvent the massive construction industry. After a few years of challenges and bailouts from investors, they've announced this week that they will shut down.

The CEO of SoftBank, Masayoshi Son, indicated that Katerra and WeWork were among the investment firm's biggest failures to date. Greensill, one of Katerra's lenders and another major investment of SoftBank's, also recently announced bankruptcy, making it even more difficult to save the company.

Katerra will be cutting thousands of jobs, possibly without severance or owed time-off pay, and is expected to abandon construction jobs previously contracted to Katerra.

To follow the rise and fall of Katerra, check out the related articles below...

First solar road fails to live up to expectations

2019-07-24T15:17:00-04:00

The world’s first solar road in Normandy, northern France, which opened in 2016, has failed to meet expectations. The 2.8 square km of solar panels is in part damaged beyond repair and the 1km road did not produce the power the manufacturer Wattway had promised. Panels were worn out by traffic and joints between the panels were shattered.

After less than three years in operation, the high-profile 1-kilometer trial stretch of the world's first photovoltaic road in northern France has failed to meet expectations.

Instead of delivering the promised 790kWh per day, the first year's actual daily power output was only half that amount, with a total of 149,459 kWh during that year. Only 37,900kWh were generated since the beginning of this year.

According to Energy Reporters, the project's manufacturer, Wattway, which also installed dozens of other, smaller solar roads, admitted that "our system is not mature for inter-urban traffic."

The Holland Tunnel holiday decorations have people very annoyed

2018-12-12T13:05:00-05:00

The Port Authority's holiday decorations for the Holland Tunnel toll lanes have commuters outraged. For one local motorist, the failed attempt at festivity is so annoying that he even started a Change.org petition to have the display altered. As of Wednesday morning, over 1,200 supporters have signed on.

The issue is less to do with the decorations themselves, and more about their obviously incorrect placement. Workers adorned the Jersey-side tolls' signage with wreaths and a tree. But, instead of placing the tree ornament over the appropriately shaped letter 'A,' it was positioned over the letter 'N,' much to everyone's chagrin.

The clearly off-kilter display has Cody Windelspecht, who created the petition calling for its alteration, describing the arrangement as an "OCD Nightmare."

"I look at it and it makes me itch. It gives me anxiety and anger—why wouldn’t they just put [the tree] in front of the A?" he told the New York Post, adding that one guy he talked to "avoids the Ho...

A new proposal for Miami's collapsed bridge by Dover, Kohl & Partners

2018-04-09T15:43:00-04:00

Last week, street planners Victor Dover and Kenneth García of the Miami firm Dover, Kohl & Partners published a proposal for redesigning the area. The pair criticized not only the “accelerated bridge construction” technique used in the FIU-Sweetwater UniversityCity Bridge, but the fundamental design of the street it once spanned.

Following the Miami FIU bridge collapse three weeks ago, investigations have been conducted on what went wrong. Looking ahead to reconstruction, the Miami based design firm Dover, Kohl & Partners proposes a new pedestrian friendly design for Eighth Street. Focusing on greater harmony between pedestrians, bikers, public transit, and cars, the firm's goal is to make the entire area safer and more appealing.

The design calls for reducing the eight-lanes of traffic down to five, a middle section designated to public transportation, with bike lanes and trees added along the roadway. Rather than rebuilding the pedestrian bridge, multiple street level crosswalks would be added for residents and students. The firm does not expect this design to be pursued, however their aim is to put forth a solution to a problem they see across the country.

Collapse of UK's second largest construction firm, Carillion

2018-01-16T15:22:00-05:00

A major British construction company is going into liquidation after failing to secure a financial lifeline. Carillion (CIOIF), which employs 43,000 people around the world, said in a statement Monday that rescue talks with stakeholders including the British government had collapsed. "We have been unable to secure the funding to support our business plan, and it is therefore with the deepest regret that we have arrived at this decision," Carillion Chairman Philip Green said in the statement.

With thousands of workers in the UK and Canada, the construction company also builds high speed rail infrastructure, is involved in power distribution projects, and performs road maintenance, hospital management and other government services.

Carillion has hundreds of contracts with the UK government. It was reported to BBC that the government was working on a contingency plan since last year in preparation of Carillion's failure.

Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index, commented, "It has been more than surprising, possibly even negligent, that the U.K. government continued to dish out contracts to Carillion even though their future has looked uncertain for some time."

Come Fail With Us

2017-11-21T18:56:00-05:00

The museum showcases failures to provide visitors a learning experience about the important role of failure for innovation and to encourage organizations to become better at learning from failure.

This December, corporate flops will be showcased when the Museum of Failure comes to Los Angeles. Don’t let the name fool you. The Museum of Failure is a celebration of history’s failed products and services and the lessons learned from them.

Exhibited at the A+D Architecture and Design Museum in the Los Angeles Arts District, the Museum of Failure welcomes visitors to enjoy an experiential journey of failures-past beginning December 1 through February 4, 2018.

welcomes visitors to enjoy an experiential journey of failures

The Museum of Failure will treat its visitors to a shrine of history’s epic fails by some of the world’s best known companies. Marketing catastrophe that was Bic for Her? Yup. The two-wheeled, self-balancing transport innovation, Segway? Better believe it. These, along with artifacts spanning from the 17th century right up to the present day, including the frozen beef lasagna by Colgate, demonstrate the types of failures the museum will showcase.

Image: Museum of...

Plans for DC's Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge upgrade are revealed

2017-08-17T14:18:00-04:00

The Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge sits across the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. Named after the prominent American abolitionist, the bridge was built in 1950 and today, makes crossing the river possible for 77,000 daily commuters.

Over the decades, the bridge has deteriorated faster than maintenance can keep up with, as is quite common among America's aging infrastructure. Despite a $27 million renovation in 2007, large corrosion holes in the structural beams necessitated its complete replacement and in 2012, city officials announced plans to replace and realign the bridge.

After initial bridge designs were rejected by the National Capitol Planning Commission and the United States Commission of Fine Arts for being "uninspired," DDOT has now revealed a much bolder look for the suspension bridge.

Mayor Muriel E. Bowser on Thursday unveiled the design of the new Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge. (DDOT)

Consisting of three sets of parallel white arches, the 1,600 foot lo...

Masdar abandons its dream of becoming the first zero-carbon city

2016-02-23T14:33:00-05:00

Masdar City, when it was first conceived a decade ago, was intended to revolutionise thinking about cities and the built environment. Now the world’s first planned sustainable city – the marquee project of the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) plan to diversify the economy from fossil fuels - could well be the world’s first green ghost town. As of this year [...] managers have given up on the original goal of building the world’s first planned zero-carbon city.

Masdar City previously in the Archinect news:

Berlin's $6 billion airport drama

2015-07-28T15:22:00-04:00

The architecture and engineering teams fought to keep up. As the terminal ballooned from 200,000 to 340,000 square meters (dwarfing Frankfurt’s 240,000 and just shy of Heathrow Terminal 5’s 353,000), they parceled out the work to seven contractors. That soon grew to 35, and they brought in hundreds of subcontractors, says Delius. [...] At the very moment Merkel and her allies are hectoring the Greeks about their profligacy, the airport’s cost, borne by taxpayers, has tripled to €5.4 billion.

What's causing the Bay Bridge's steel to corrode so rapidly?

2015-06-15T14:45:00-04:00

This relatively low-tech method is among a battery of tests that materials scientists are using to determine why several anchor rods securing the newest portion of the San Francisco Bay Bridge, the region’s busiest, failed their earthquake inspections. The first alarms sounded in 2013, when seismic tests found 32 faulty rods. They’d been sitting in a large pool of water, corroding.

Previously:

Copenhagen could ax its pioneering city bike program by month's end

2015-04-17T19:20:00-04:00

In 2013, Copenhagen—a city of ebullient cyclists—launched the mother of all city bike schemes. Its white bikes were fitted with motors and GPS-enabled tablets—expensive, but designed for a place whose people and visitors truly believed cycling was the best way forward. Now the city that pioneered its first shared bikes in 1995 is facing a stark possibility: no bike share scheme at all.

Ten years on, Athens 2004 gives Greece little to cheer

2014-08-11T18:50:00-04:00

It was billed as a chance to transform Greece's image abroad and boost growth but 10 years after the country hosted the world's greatest sporting extravaganza there is little to celebrate at the birthplace of the modern Olympic Games. [...] For Greeks who swelled with pride at the time, the Games are now a source of anger as the country struggles through a six-year depression, record unemployment, homelessness and poverty. Greece has struggled to generate revenue from the venues.

Officials Set Fire to House Teetering Over 75-Foot Cliff

2014-06-13T15:48:00-04:00

A $700,000 home was teetering over the edge of Texas' Lake Whitney — until officials set it on fire. The home, which had been gradually crumbling into the lake for weeks, was set on fire shortly after 10 a.m. local time after authorities deemed it the safest and cheapest option. Officials had considered pulling the home closer to land using a giant net — deemed unsafe — or letting it fall into the lake on its own — too expensive to clean up.

Apollo theatre collapse due to 'old' materials

2014-03-24T13:54:00-04:00

Seventy-six people were injured when part of the roof came down during a performance of The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Night-Time in December. BBC Radio 4's You and Yours has seen a letter from Westminster City Council saying hessian wadding embedded in the ceiling was getting weaker over time. The material's deterioration led to the collapse, the council said.

Previously: London theatre collapse: scores injured at Apollo in West End

London theatre collapse: scores injured at Apollo in West End

2013-12-19T17:38:00-05:00

More than 81 people have been injured, seven seriously, when part of a theatre in London's West End collapsed onto a packed audience during a performance. Fire crews had to rescue people from the Apollo theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue, which was showing a performance of the hit show The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.

UPDATE: Apollo theatre collapse due to 'old' materials

Failed Architecture | A research project into urban failure.

2013-09-16T20:01:00-04:00

Failed Architecture is a research platform that aims to open up new perspectives on urban failure – from what it’s perceived to be, what’s actually happening and how it’s represented to the public. Supported by a website, travelling workshops and a series of lectures, the research collective seeks to develop ongoing and open conversations with experts in the field of architecture and planning and the public at large.

Infographic: Failure by Design

2013-08-20T18:39:00-04:00

Everyone makes mistakes. But when seemingly minor blunders are made in designing and building structures, the results can be catastrophic. Read about some of the more infamous architectural failures in history, and what we have learned from those mistakes.

[via NewSchool of Architecture + Design]

After $6.4 Billion, San Francisco Bridge Remains a Mess

2013-08-19T17:05:00-04:00

The eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was supposed to be the crowning glory of the bridge-builder’s art, gracefully echoing the rolling hills surrounding San Francisco Bay. Yet as the project heads for a Labor Day opening after $6.4 billion and 15 years, the country’s most daringly iconic highway bridge stands as a poster child for those who think major infrastructure projects are wasteful.

Previously: Bolts along Bay Bridge bike path fail

Bolts along Bay Bridge bike path fail

2013-05-29T15:37:00-04:00

Crews that built the railing committed what experts called a basic mistake - they welded the bolts in place firmly in their slots rather than leaving a small amount of room to accommodate a natural expansion of the bicycle path that happens in hot weather. As a result, scores of the 1-inch-diameter bolts have been sheared off along the 1.2-mile bike path on the southern side of the span's skyway section.

City Sessions

2011-08-24T14:00:59-04:00

A digital dialogue about the practice of tactical urbanism and socially active design.