Rising high in the skies over New York City, Chicago, Hong Kong, and other great metropolises are tall towers that appear impossibly slender. Fueled mostly by market demand from wealthy clients who desire spectacular views, the design and construction of these superslim, generally residential skyscrapers also depend on engineering advances over recent decades in building materials and damping technologies as well as careful coordination by the design teams. — Civil Engineering Magazine
"Slender" towers are beginning to pop up all over the world, notably, in cities like New York, where real estate is scarce, but the desire to maximize ROI is strong. "The limited space for new buildings in places like New York City generally involves small parcels of land, which means that these... View full entry
According to author Brian Solis, digital distractions are taking a significant toll on businesses, with 36-percent of Millennials and Gen Z workers reporting to spend two hours or more each workday "looking at their phones for personal activities." And while distractions can negatively influence... View full entry
But since late last month, the scent of wood and citrus has permeated the 101st floor.
The scent was made to resemble something that does not exist at the top of one of the tallest buildings in the world: trees, all native to New York State, including beeches, mountain ashes and red maples. It has some citrusy notes, for freshness. And it has a name: “One World.”
— The New York Times
The New York Times delves into what went into creating "One World," the "sleek" and "modern" fragrance developed by scent designers IFF, the company behind Abercrombie & Fitch's "Fierce" cologne and other notable scents, for the One World Trade Center tower's observatory. Keith Douglas, managing... View full entry
Lucy Jones, founder of FFORA, a company whose "mission statement is simple, the world made accessible to all." After embracing a challenge by one of her professors at Parsons to design something that could change the world, the young designer began to talk to one of her family members who... View full entry
Architect Carlo Ratti's design studio has utilized drone technology to produce a crowdsourced work of art in Turin, Italy. Measuring in at 46 x 39 feet, the project was developed as part of UFO-Urban Flying Opera, a participatory technology and art project funded by Compagnia di San Paolo. Created... View full entry
In May, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority approved a $48.7 million contract for The Boring Company (TBC) to design and build a short underground transit system at the city’s Convention Center, using Tesla electric vehicles running through narrow tunnels. — TechCrunch
The Boring Company (TBC) has submitted construction drawings for their new tunnel system in Las Vegas. The plan is to "construct one pedestrian tunnel, two 0.8-mile vehicle tunnels and three underground stations, as well as modify and test seven-seater Tesla cars to carry up to 16 people," reports... View full entry
New Jersey's largest and oldest power company is pledging to deliver carbon-free electricity to fight climate change. To get there, the power company is shutting down its coal plants, betting big on offshore wind and working hard to keep its existing nuclear plant alive. PSEG said it won't build or acquire any new fossil-fueled power plants, including those running on dirt-cheap natural gas. — CNN Business
Announced in July, one of the oldest power companies in the U.S. is taking the next step towards addressing their involvement in battling climate change. The New Jersey power company PSEG has used fossil fuels to power their plants for the last 116 years. As the oldest power company in America... View full entry
On Friday, as construction crews added another layer of steel to the building, the skyscraper passed 772 feet, the height of Seattle’s former second tallest building, 1201 Third Avenue. Construction crews are expected to top out Rainier Square Tower at 850 feet later this month, according to a spokesperson for Wright Runstad, the building’s developer. Columbia Center, at 937 feet, is the only building taller in Seattle. — The Stranger
NBBJ-designed Rainier Square Tower will be a 1.7-million-square-foot "mix of ground-floor retail, underground parking, 722,000 square feet of office space, and 200 luxury apartments." Upon completion, it will become the seventh-tallest building on the west coast. View full entry
Fifty years since the first footsteps on the Moon, the exploration of the cosmos remains irresistible, and the ambition to establish commercial space travel and planetary settlements continues to capture the imagination. Far Out: Suits, Habs, and Labs for Outer Space celebrates the visionary ideas and ingenious solutions from architects, artists, and designers who dared to imagine life far out among the stars. — San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Entitled Far Out: Suits, Habs, and Labs for Outer Space, SFMOMA's exhibition celebrating the "booming space industry," will be open from July 20, 2019 to January 20, 2020. "Extraterrestrial conditions amplify the challenge to design for space travel, and new research and technologies are... View full entry
We want to create a resort where tourists can be entertained and enjoy sports and leisure as well as health care, by integrating innovatively the elements of leisure, recreation, stimulation, amusement and health care," said Pan Zhaofu, director of the Huangguoshu Scenic Area — CNN
According to CNN Travel, China's Guizhou Province will be home to a new walkway made of glass. Measured at 1,804 feet, the new bridge is considered to be the longest glass bridge in the world, breaking the record of another famous bridge, which is also located in China. Set to open sometime... View full entry
A proposed mixed-use development slated for a site beside the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) in New York City has BBG officials worried that the shadows created by the project’s twin 39-story towers will deprive the garden’s specimens of vital sunlight. Gothamist reports that the... View full entry
“If you’re building a greenhouse in a climate emergency, it’s a pretty odd thing to do to say the least,” said Simon Sturgis, an adviser to the government and the Greater London Authority, as well as chairman of the Royal Institute of British Architects sustainability group. “If you’re using standard glass facades you need a lot of energy to cool them down, and using a lot of energy equates to a lot of carbon emissions.” — The Guardian
As the global community continues to mobilize against the rising threat of climate collapse, cities and other entities are moving toward banning or limiting the future development of all-glass skyscrapers due to the buildings' high energy demands, according to a report in The... View full entry
For everyone working in the construction industry, meeting the needs of our society without breaching the earth’s ecological boundaries will demand a paradigm shift in our behaviour. Together with our clients, we will need to commission and design buildings, cities and infrastructures as indivisible components of a larger, constantly regenerating and self-sustaining system. — Architects Declare Australia
Australian architects are joining an international declaration recognizing the existence of a global environmental and biodiversity climate emergency. Stating that "the research and technology exist for us to begin that transformation now, but what has been lacking is collective will,"... View full entry
The focus on innovation and an increasing war for talent is causing a significant shift in the design of R&D facilities. Attracting the best talent requires expression of purpose both in the culture and the physical workplace. In the highly competitive research landscape centered around New Jersey, biopharmaceutical companies are aligning these values by moving the laboratory front and center, and putting their science on display. — Gensler
Laboratory scientists are now moving from "back-of-house areas" to more visible zones where the intricacies of lab work can be better appreciated and embraced by building users. This presents "a whole new set of design opportunities and challenges," writes Gensler Sciences Leader, Brenda... View full entry
Investment in cloud infrastructure has surged since 2015, and the market for data-center equipment is expected to grow at an average annualized rate of roughly 16% this year and next, according to Citigroup Inc.
Cloud servers, though, typically have a lifespan of only about three years, according to experts, meaning that some of the earliest equipment already has passed its use-by date.
— The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the anticipated market for scrap metal and other components used to make cloud computing infrastructure. As the cloud computing era gets underway globally, efforts to recycle the short-lived data servers that power the cloud have been complicated by... View full entry
