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After several years of planning and proposals in different cities, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, funded by the “Star Wars” filmmaker George Lucas, is breaking ground today on a new building here that its leaders predict will take about four years to complete.
Designed by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects, the museum will occupy a corner of Exposition Park, an urban hub near the University of Southern California that already contains three museums [...].
— The New York Times
Image courtesy of Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.After protective fencing went up last month at its Exposition Park site in South Los Angeles, the $1-billion Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, designed by MAD Architects, finally broke ground today. View full entry
The US construction industry may lose more than 28,000 jobs if Donald Trump’s plan to raise tariffs on imported steel and aluminium goes ahead, a pro-free trade think tank has warned. [...]
While Trump claims tariffs would create jobs in America’s steel and aluminium sectors, a Washington, DC, thinktank, Trade Partnership, warned that such a policy would “reverberate throughout” the economy, costing more jobs than it would gain as it pushed up the cost of the metals.
— Global Construction Review
Unswayed by warnings from top economists, industry groups, and members of his own party, Donald Trump today signed two tariff proclamations at the White House that will erect 25% and 10% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports respectively. While the administration claims that the import tariffs... View full entry
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) President Carl Elefante, FAIA, and EVP/Chief Executive Officer Robert Ivy, FAIA, released the following statement today in response to the Administration’s plan to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. "The Administration’s announcement of... View full entry
Fifteen Hudson Yards, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Rockwell Group, has now topped out and stands over 900 feet tall. This is the first tower within the 28-acre NYC site with for-sale residencies. Sales for the 285 condominiums have now surpassed 50%, with the... View full entry
Using lidar-equipped robots, Doxel scans construction sites every day to monitor how things are progressing, tracking what gets installed and whether it’s the right thing at the right time in the right place. You’d think that construction sites would be doing this by themselves anyway, but it turns out that they really don’t, and in a recent pilot study on a medical office building, Doxel says it managed to increase labor productivity on the project by a staggering 38 percent. — IEEE Spectrum
"You could send in some humans with lidar backpacks, but that would be more expensive," IEEE Spectrum explains. "The company is also using drones in a limited capacity right now, since they require human supervision, but it’s easy to imagine how much more efficient this process could get as... View full entry
One year after Los Angeles unexpectedly won the right to host the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, the spaceship-like project is now ready to push dirt in Exposition Park. Protective fencing now encircles the site of filmmaker George Lucas' $1-billion legacy project, which replaces two parking lots at the intersection of 39th Street and Vermont Avenue. The eventual four-story, 115-foot-tall building will feature[...] Lucas' 10,000-piece collection, a library, two theaters, classrooms, and offices. — urbanize.LA
Image courtesy of Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.Exposition Park in South Los Angeles has already a number of high-profile construction projects going on (new MLS soccer stadium and Coliseum makeover to host the 2028 Summer Olympics) or on the books, and the $1-billion Lucas Museum of Narrative... View full entry
Construction of the world's tallest skyscraper in Jeddah is going ahead, the head of the consortium behind the $1.5 billion project said, despite the detention of some businessmen backing the plan in Saudi Arabia's crackdown on corruption. [...]
Construction has reached the 63rd floor and the superstructure - the concrete shell and the cladding - is to be completed next year, Jomah said, adding that delays in some areas were inevitable because of technical challenges.
— Arabian Business
Progress on the soon-to-be tallest structure on earth has been troubled for a while, with the main contractor (and partial owner) Saudi Binladin Group going through a financial rough patch and, more recently, several project officials and royal family members being targeted by the country's... View full entry
In a 10-1 vote, the Austin City Council took the first step toward a boycott of any company that designs, builds or finances President Donald Trump’s $25 billion proposed border wall between Texas and Mexico. [...]
Four companies already have been tapped to design and build wall prototypes, including Texas-based Sterling Construction Company, Inc.
— KXAN
The Texas state capital is just the latest of several local and state governments having either passed or proposed legislation that would ban companies involved in designing, building, or financing Donald Trump's proposed border wall with Mexico from being considered for other public contracts. View full entry
The Margaret McDermott Bridge was supposed to be open to pedestrians and bicyclists by now, but the arches over the Trinity River remain closed partially over concerns about broken cables.
The issue centers around problems with the cables -- and their resistance to heavy winds -- that connect the arch to the base of the Dallas bridge, which was designed by famed architect Santiago Calatrava and his firm.
— Dallas News
The $113-million (partially) Calatrava-designed Margaret McDermott Bridge carrying Interstate 30 is part of Dallas' ambitious Trinity River Project. "City officials are hoping to open the bridge to pedestrians and cyclists in March," Dallas News writes. Meanwhile the finger-pointing between... View full entry
Construction spending for nonresidential buildings is projected to increase 4 percent this year and continue at that pace of growth through 2019. While the commercial construction sectors will generate much of the expected gains this year, by 2019 the industrial and institutional sectors will dominate the projected construction growth. [...]
However, in the face of a supportive economy, construction spending on nonresidential buildings disappointed last year.
— AIA
The American Institute of Architects has published its latest Consensus Construction Forecast, and it's looking quite rosy. Despite labor shortages and rising material costs that continue to have an impact on the construction industry, the report — supported by the last few editions of the... View full entry
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.
— money.cnn.com
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... View full entry
Harvard University recently celebrated the topping out ceremony of its new John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Designed by Behnisch Architekten's Boston office, the 497,000-square-foot, six-story complex at Harvard’s Allston campus will house teaching and research... View full entry
When it comes to large-scale residential buildings, a complex set of economic, urban, and regulatory systems sometimes seem to have left little room for architectural exploration. Architects often struggle to find a point of entry for inserting their creative perspective in a way that would... View full entry
We can build homes to sit above flood waters so people can ride out the Harveys of the future, but it won’t be easy or cheap. [...]
More than a million people live in the 100- and 500-year flood zones across the Houston area, and hundreds of thousands more do in other U.S. cities, including Miami and New York. Harris County’s move conforms with the advice of building engineers, climate experts, and the insurance industry.
— Citylab
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. — Pappas Post
Image: Greek Orthodox Church in AmericaThe 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... View full entry
