Archinect - News

Skanska and BIG complete curving terracotta-colored tower in Houston

2024-02-21T11:43:00-05:00

A team led by Skanska and Bjarke Ingels Group has completed a major new office tower in Houston, Texas. Named 1550 on the Green, the 28-story tower is part of a three-block master plan by Skanska, designed by BIG, with interiors by Michael Hsu.

Image credit: Skanska USA Commercial Development, Inc.

The 375,000-square-foot tower is primarily devoted to office accommodation, with ground floor space dedicated to hospitality. Other amenities in the scheme, per the project’s official website, include a 7,000-square-foot fitness center and a 9,400-square-foot tenant-exclusive rooftop event space.

Image credit: Skanska USA Commercial Development, Inc.

Externally, the tower adopts a multi-tiered, curved structure overlooking Discovery Green park. “Vines that will eventually creep along the terracotta-colored tower are meant to help the building blend into the surrounding park,” the Houston Chronicle writes about the tower. “The building's curve allows even tenants on lower levels to view Disc...

Skanska, AECOM, and SOM announce the completion of Penn Station's Long Island Rail Road concourse renovation

2023-07-10T17:47:00-04:00

Skanska, AECOM, and SOM have announced the completion of Penn Station’s $414 million Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) concourse renovation. The project, which began in January 2021, set out to modernize and widen LIRR’s 33rd Street train hall corridor, all while maintaining the station’s daily operations and train service.

"In order to best accommodate and enhance the commuting experience for the 600,000 passengers that utilize LIRR’s 33rd Street corridor daily, deciphering a path to improving the station’s circulation and traffic flow without disrupting daily train service was paramount,” said executive vice president of Skanska’s East Coast civil operations, Michael Viggiano. “We’re thrilled to be celebrating the completion of this project and to have played a crucial role in reconstructing one of New York City’s most highly trafficked transit hubs.”

The design-build project included the design and construction of the concourse, with a widened corridor, raised ceiling heights, upgrade...

Skanska to lead $150 million Williamsburg Bridge overhaul

2022-10-17T11:53:00-04:00

The New York City Department of Transportation has selected Swedish construction concern Skanska to lead a $150 million rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Williamsburg Bridge, the city and firm announced last week.

According to Skanska, the project will include “structural steel repairs throughout the bridge superstructure, inclusive of floor beam repairs, a transit hanger retrofit and temporary jacking system, gusset plate repairs, truss bottom chord repairs, top and bottom lateral bracing strengthening, overhead truss diagonal replacements, intermediate towers repairs and transit stringer repairs.”

The 119-year-old span has been rehabilitated several times throughout its history, including most famously a miraculous $250 million effort in 1988. Skanska's work will be funded in part by the Biden Administration’s newly-announced first round of Bridge Investment ...

Santiago Calatrava's Greek Orthodox church at World Trade Center site to restart construction

2020-01-07T16:26:00-05:00

Two years after a lack of funds halted construction of a marble-clad Greek Orthodox church at New York's World Trade Center site, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Greek Orthodox officials announced plans Thursday to resume construction with the goal of finishing the rebuilding by the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The troubled Santiago Calatrava-designed St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine at the World Trade Center appears to have received the blessing from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo after the project fell victim to acute cost overruns and had to eventually halt construction in December 2017.

Rendering of the proposed church. Image: Santiago Calatrava/Greek Orthodox Church in America

Under the leadership of the newly formed Friends of St. Nicholas organization, church leaders aim to finish the building by September 11, 2021, the twentieth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

"The new entity has been formed to ensure that the sacred space is completed as expeditiously as possible and can begin welcoming visitors from around the world," explains a statement issued by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America after Cuomo's meeting with Archbishop Elpidophoros on Thursday. "The Friends of St. Nicholas will aim to resume construction with a two-year target to complete th...

L.A.'s 6th Street Bridge: Built by (some) women

2019-12-11T13:36:00-05:00

The 6th Street Bridge team of 170 includes 15 women — the most on any commercial project in Los Angeles and nearly double the Department of Labor’s participation goal of 6.9% female crew members.

The Los Angeles Times reports on the relatively high proportion of women construction workers helping to build the Michael Maltzan Architecture-designed 6th Street Bridge in Los Angeles. The bridge is being constructed via a joint venture between Skanska and Stacy and Witbeck. Skanska recently redesigned some of its construction site protective equipment to make the items safer for women to use

According to Bureau of Labor statistics cited in the article, the construction industry represents a rare bright spot for women with regards to pay equity, where women make 100.8% as much as men do.

Describing the number of women who are working on the project, Rosa Garcia, a carpenter on the project, told The Los Angeles Times, “There’s been jobs where there’s been 800 guys and one female — and I’ve been the only female. This is the first project that I walked on to where I couldn’t believe how many women I saw.”

Skanska USA introduces new carbon footprint calculator

2019-10-07T11:11:00-04:00

Skanska USA has introduced a new open-source database tool, the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (“EC3”), which estimates and evaluates the carbon emissions contained within a variety of construction materials...The searchable database is based on environmental product declaration (EPD) data and has a list of more than 16,000 materials...categorized by performance requirements, design specification, project location, and global warming potential.

The new technology enables owners, contractors, and designers to calculate a project's carbon footprint, reports Construction Dive. Currently in pilot testing, the tool "has helped participating projects to achieve embodied carbon reductions of up to 30% with little to no cost impact.

AirTrain price tag rises to $2 billion as LGA overhaul takes shape

2019-07-02T19:13:00-04:00

“These are expensive projects. There’s no question. But if we are to reap the benefits of mass transit, we have to provide mass transit that is attractive to individual travelers and their families,” said Rick Cotton, the executive director at the Port Authority, without explaining the rise in cost. “Experience shows that rail mass transit is the most attractive alternative, and we’re committed to provided that.”

While the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey works to implement an $8 billion overhaul of LaGuardia Airport, costs for a planned AirTrain link connecting the airport to regional mass transit continue to grow.

According to AM New York, when first proposed in 2014, the two-mile monorail was projected to cost $450 million to build. Now, five years later, the cost has ballooned to $2.05 billion, a 356-percent increase. Officials have not explained the reasons behind the sharp increase, but have indicated that most of the increases will come out of the Port Authority's coffers.

Rendering depicting the forthcoming concourse set to open fall 2019. Image courtesy of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office.

If completed as planned, the two-mile AirTrain line could connect the Willets Point Long Island Rail Road and the No. 7 subway to the airport, establishing the first public transit link to LaGuardia.

The cost increase comes as new renderings are unveiled for the LaGuardia Airport expansio...

New Miami Frost Science Museum faces lawsuit from contractor Skanska over unpaid bills

2018-04-25T16:14:00-04:00

The Frost Science Museum has been open for nearly a year, and it’s already been visited by almost 1 million people. But it’s not finished, and the nonprofit and the general contractor are fighting over who should pay to complete the work. The museum faces a lawsuit from its main contractor claiming the nonprofit unfairly held back payments and left construction work undone as budget strains forced it to cut costs in the final months of building the mostly tax-funded $300 million project [...].

"Frost is already in litigation with its original contractor, Suffolk Construction, which the museum fired in 2014, two years after starting one of the most complicated construction projects in the Southeast," the Miami Herald reports.

Grimshaw Architects designed the ambitious museum complex in downtown Miami after winning the architectural competition in 2007.

Calatrava-designed Greek Orthodox church at World Trade Center site runs into funding issues, halts construction

2017-12-18T15:33:00-05:00

Construction at the site of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox National Shrine at Ground Zero in New York City has been halted by the main construction company because the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has defaulted on payments, according to a letter sent by the company to its subcontractors working at the site.

Image: Greek Orthodox Church in America

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America acknowledged the payment issues and responded in a statement: "In light of recent financial difficulties at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, and in order to make certain that all operations and funds are being correctly managed, this difficult yet necessary step has been taken. The Archdiocese is confidently hopeful that construction will recommence in the very near future and has been assured by Skanska —the construction company responsible for building the church— that they are looking forward to the rescinding of this temporary suspension to continue working together in cooperation with the Archdiocese for the completion of the building project."

Image: Greek Orthodox Church in America

SHoP-designed Brooklyn tower – now world's tallest modular building – opens its doors

2016-11-22T14:32:00-05:00

After four years of delayed construction, financial missteps, and lawsuits, Forest City Ratner and Greenland U.S.A. are finally welcoming tenants into 461 Dean Street, currently the tallest high-rise in the world constructed with modular units. The 32-story tower on the edge of Prospect Heights and Park Slope offers sweeping views of brownstone Brooklyn, but its lengthy construction saga highlights the issues developers face when they build with modular construction in New York City.

The groundbreaking (but not trouble-free) development previously in the Archinect news:

Work finally resumes at Brooklyn's modular prefab tower

2015-01-15T15:02:00-05:00

The world’s tallest proposed modular tower may actually reach its full potential. Developer Bruce Ratner has finally resumed work on his 32-story residential building next to the Barclays Center after a five-month hiatus stemming from a dispute with construction giant Skanska over the pre-fabricated design. As a result of that legal fight, Ratner gained control of Skanska’s factory in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where modules for the proposed tallest modular tower were made.

Previously: