Archinect - News

Opening of the anticipated International African American Museum pushed back due to climate control problems

2022-12-22T17:32:00-05:00

The International African American Museum (IAAM) in Charleston, South Carolina, will postpone its scheduled opening date next month due to unresolved climate control issues in its new building. The museum was expected to open on 21 January 2023 and now expects to open sometime in the first half of next year, according to a statement released on 16 December.

Construction of the Moody Nolan and Pei Cobb Freed & Partners-designed International African American Museum (IAAM) began in the fall of 2019 after nearly two decades of planning. In April, a request for additional funding was submitted to the city of Charleston in order to complete the genealogy center that’s planned for the museum. The board apparently had known about the HVAC issues for some time and is now planning a new special exhibition in the interregnum.

“I was as excited about this opening as everyone else,” museum President Tonya M. Matthews told supporters via email. “I am an overachiever and I am ambitious. I honor and respect things like deadlines, but this is a huge responsibility and we will do what we need to make sure that we present this museum and the stories we tell in an extraordinary light.”

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.

Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opening date pushed back again to 2025 due to supply chain issues

2022-09-22T12:13:00-04:00

The opening of MAD’s highly-anticipated Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has been delayed until the year 2025 over apparent issues in the construction supply chain, according to a report published yesterday in the LA Times.

In an interview with the paper, the museum’s director Sandra Jackson-Dumont indicated that, while construction was still moving forward “in all areas,” an inability to obtain the necessary geofoam filling elements, light fixtures, and elevator components has coupled with existing on-site safety-related delays to bump its debut again by another two years.

The museum’s opening had already been pushed back due to Covid-19 protocols after first breaking ground in 2018.

Previously on Archinect: Delays push back opening of the MAD-designed Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

As ARTNews reported, this is a problem that has also affected the OMA-led expansion of Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Gallery and the $60 million overhaul of the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, CT. Supply chain issues ...

A nationwide shortage of garage doors leaves new residential construction projects stuck open

2022-02-18T14:56:00-05:00

A single house under construction in America today faces all kinds of problems, starting with a run on lumber, then bricklayers in demand, subcontractors with Covid, appliances on back order and plumbing fixtures out at sea. [...] The home-building industry is having the most difficult time in decades meeting demand, the sum of many pandemic complications. But this moment reaches peak absurdity with garage doors.

Architects have been active in calling to attention some of the extreme challenges put to them by the pandemic economy. Particularly, construction of new buildings has been affected by the cost and availability of lumber and other important building materials, which have risen by about 20% for most contractors between FY 2020 to 2021.

Garage doors are holding up the inspection process primarily due to the standard-fare safety mechanisms that automatically prevent the doors from closing if anything (or anyone) strays into their sensors. The delays have pushed the average construction timeline back by months. A study from John Burns Real Estate Consulting cited by the Times stated that garage doors are third behind only home appliances and light fixtures on a list of products that rely more on imported components and complex supply chains.

“It used to take us 20 weeks to build a house,” Brookfield Properties development group CEO Adrian Foley told the Times. “And now it takes us 20 w...

Architect Duo Dickinson on the hazards of practicing in the pandemic economy

2021-12-22T18:39:00-05:00

Months of isolation made people rethink the way they wanted to live. That meant their buildings would change. That meant construction, and architects became useful again, after being abandoned. But the craziness of a new era has made all builders and architects simultaneously empowered by their new in-demand status while fully threatened by costs and availability of all the products and people necessary to build.

Earlier in the year, labor and supply chain issues had caused markets in steel and timber to skyrocket, delaying many commercial and residential projects industry-wide, in addition to triggering what some think will be a boom in demand once the pandemic subsides.

However bright the prospects are for some people, architect Duo Dickinson sees recent gains as part of a cycle which has become “insane and dangerous.”

Related Duo Dickinson feature article on Archinect: Everything Is Changing: But Not Architecture’s “Deep State”

“If the past is prologue, this boom shall soon bust,” he wrote. “The anecdotes of recent months are great in the construction world, but the articles and studies have not kept up with a chaotic time. In my little corner of this world, the last season has seen four of my clients dip their toes into building and use my firm to scope out the time and money involved, and when inflated numbers and indeterminable schedules were revealed, they simply opted out, even though...

estudio Herreros' Munch Museum to open in October

2021-08-02T19:45:00-04:00

Spanish architecture practice estudio Herreros' long-awaited Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway is opening its doors on October 22, 2021.

Since the selection of estudio Herreros to design the museum after receiving the top prize in the Munch Museum competition in 2009, the project has faced delay after delay starting with political hurdles regarding its design and location. Additionally, the museum was set to open in the spring of 2020 but was halted due to delays in the delivery of fire and security doors and the failure of the indoor climate system to meet required standards. The Covid-19 pandemic pushed back the opening even further.

Previously on Archinect: Munch Museum opening in Oslo pushed back

The Munch Museum features the most extensive collection of works by famed Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, with over 26,700 pieces being showcased. The collection was donated to the city of Oslo upon Munch’s death. The artist’s most well-known work is The Scream.

The 13-story, 60-meter-tall ...

Opening of Tadao Ando's He Art Museum in China delayed due to coronavirus fears

2020-02-03T19:22:00-05:00

The He Art Museum (HEM) announced today that it will postpone its launch originally scheduled for 21 March due to uncertainties stemming from redoubled efforts to contain the 2019 novel coronavirus, or 2019-nCoV. The new private project in Shunde district of the city of Foshan in Guangdong Province is backed by Midea electronics founder He Jianfeng with a 16,000 sq m double helix structured building designed by Tadao Ando.

The privately-owned He Art Museum (HEM) in Foshan City, China commissioned Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando in September 2015 to design its new gallery spaces and started construction in December of the same year, according to the museum's website.

Tadao Ando sketch © He Art Museum

"The architectural design highlights Tadao Ando’s challenge on 'dynamic geometry,' where the dual-spiral staircase and the courtyard done in cast-finish concrete will be unveiled for the first time, capturing the attention of the world," explains the museum's project description the Ando design.

"The architecture is presented in various types of 'circles,' ranging from its overall design to the details of its craftsmanship. These 'non-concentric circles' stacked together expand outwards provide tension and rhythm to the architecture, hence, achieve a dynamic equilibrium in this stable structure."

Tadao Ando sketch © He Art Museum

"By integrating traditional history and culture with modern and c...

Munch Museum opening in Oslo pushed back

2020-01-30T14:29:00-05:00

The opening of the long-awaited Munchmuseet (Munch Museum) in Oslo has been postponed until the autumn due to delays “in the building process managed by the council”, says a spokeswoman for the museum.

The anticipated June opening of the new Munch Museum in Oslo appears to have been pushed back to fall instead.

"Citing delays in the delivery of fire and security doors, as well as a failure of the indoor climate system to meet required standards, the spokeswoman says the museum is now 'adjusting plans accordingly,'" reported The Art Newspaper.

View this post on Instagram

HOLISTIC THINKING. Our double skin façades promote integrated sustainable design solutions deploying energy reduction, singular indentity and user comfort. @munchmuseum #munchmuseet photographed by @adriagoulaphoto

A post shared by estudioHerreros (@estudioherreros) on Sep 25, 2019 at 5:00am PDT

Spanish architects estudio Herreros won the international competition for the building in 2009 with their entry "Lambda."

AECOM halts work on Faraday Future's $1-Billion Nevada factory

2016-11-22T15:05:00-05:00

Faraday Future’s future is looking bleaker. After the electric car start-up failed to pay millions of dollars in bills, its contractor Monday halted work on Faraday’s $1-billion North Las Vegas, Nev., car factory. [...] The contractor is Aecom, the Los Angeles-based engineering giant. [...] Faraday failed to pay $21 million due to Aecom in September and owed $25 million in October and $12 million in November, according to Aecom.

Faraday Future previously in the Archinect news:

Opening of New York Wheel now delayed until 2018

2016-08-22T14:30:00-04:00

The first spin around the giant New York Wheel has been pushed back by a year. The 630-foot Ferris wheel coming to the Staten Island waterfront was scheduled to open in late 2017. But its developers announced that has been delayed until April 2018 to give more time to test the structure's safety. [...] Construction of the $580 million project is still expected to finish next year.

The New York Wheel previously on Archinect:

Leaking water delays opening of World Trade Center Transit Hub's luxury shopping mall

2015-11-16T15:54:00-05:00

A persistent water leak is among the problems that have delayed the opening of the mall, which was supposed to be operating by now, to the first half of 2016. It is the latest setback to bedevil the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, the $3.7 billion rail terminal that will also house Westfield’s $1.4 billion shopping center. [...] The latest twist involves water penetration around the construction site of 3 World Trade Center, an office tower abutting the hub, which began in late summer.

Related on Archinect:

Eli Broad’s Art Showcase in Los Angeles, Still Unfinished, Sues Over Delays

2014-06-03T21:42:00-04:00

The flagship museum of the billionaire financier and art collector Eli Broad, still under construction, has filed a $19.8 million lawsuit against a German company for what it describes as delays in fabricating the building blocks for its unusual latticed facade.

5 months before the World Cup, half the venues aren't finished

2014-01-27T14:13:00-05:00

Less than five months before Brazil's World Cup kicks off, 6 out of 12 venues are still unfinished -- including a complex in the northern city of Manaus, where construction workers have died and pay for laborers is an issue. Fifa has warned Brazil's World Cup 2014 host city of Curitiba that it could be excluded unless work speeds up.

Previously: Three killed after partial stadium collapse at 2014 World Cup venue

ECB Headquarters: Skyrocketing Costs for Skyscraper Project

2013-11-08T14:09:00-05:00

Estimated costs for the European Central Bank's new headquarters in Frankfurt have more than doubled. As has been happening with so many major projects in Germany, its construction has been plagued by poor planning, oversight and execution -- and endless delays.

Previously: Starchitect Trio: The Men Behind Germany's Building Debacles

MOCA architecture show, funded by Getty, could face cancellation

2013-05-02T12:46:00-04:00

The exhibition was planned as an exploration of the last 25 years of Los Angeles architecture, with work by Frank Gehry, Thom Mayne, Michael Maltzan, Barbara Bestor and many younger architects. It was funded in part by a Getty Foundation grant of $445,000. No other single show in the PSTP series received a grant as large, according to a Getty press release. A 272-page catalog, co-published by Rizzoli, is already complete.

Facing delays in finishing the installation of the show, the show will be canceled, or, at best, delayed.

Zaha Hadid's Broad Art Museum opening delayed

2012-01-25T15:07:00-05:00

"All of our subcontracts are based on a fixed price and, because (the manufacturer) had difficulties supplying the proper glass, there is no cost impact to the university," Bollman said. He couldn't give a new date for the building's completion. University officials will be talking with the glassmaker over the next two weeks, he said. After that, he'll know more.

9/11 Museum Is Delayed

2011-11-22T16:28:18-05:00

The planned 2012 opening of the Sept. 11 museum at the World Trade Center is in jeopardy amid a dispute over hundreds of millions of dollars in unexpected costs related to redeveloping the site, people familiar with the matter said.