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The Second Avenue Subway is the stuff of legend in New York City, the locomotive who cried wolf. Plagued by funding shortages, the project has been stop-and-go since the 1920s. Now construction is back to go; in late September, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) [...] requested $1.5 billion [...]. Michael Horodniceanu, head of construction for the MTA, has stated that the long-awaited line may be ready by 2029. In the meantime, the MTA is learning about, and acting on, geology. — cafe.com
Related: NYC Can't Afford to Build the Second Avenue Subway, and It Can't Afford Not To View full entry
When we last checked in with Eli Broad’s eponymous downtown museum, its fall 2014 debut had been pushed back to some time in 2015. Today it was announced that the institution will open in fall 2015, although no precise date was given. [...]
The multi-story building, designed Diller Scofidio + Renfro, is still in the midst of construction. When it opens it will join two MOCA facilities and the Japanese American National Museum, making the northern end of downtown something of a museum hub.
— lamag.com
Previously:Los Angeles cultural boom gives city’s artists spaces they can call homeEli Broad’s Art Showcase in Los Angeles, Still Unfinished, Sues Over DelaysEli Broad's art museum, designed by DS+R, to open in late 2014 and will offer free admission View full entry
Depicting the Sancaklar Mosque, commissioned by Sancaklar Foundation and designed by EAA -- Emre Arolat Architects, this film is a semi-documentary salute to this distinguished example of modern architecture, which stands out among Turkey's Islamic places of worship dominated by historicist building typologies.
SGMStudio (Sarraf | Galeyan | Mekanik) has filmed a short documentary on EAA – Emre Arolat Architects’ Sancaklar Mosque -a building that stands out as one of the rare examples of modern architecture among Turkey's Islamic places of worship. SGMStudio’s “Sancaklar Mosque” premiered at... View full entry
Damningly described as ‘hell on wheels’, ‘malice in blunderland’, and ‘a field of dreams’; welcome to a run-down of some of the world’s most eye-wateringly over-budget projects. — Podio.com
After adjusting costs for inflation and converting into US Dollars, Podio put together a simple, nifty visualization of the world's most over-budget monuments. Unsurprisingly, Olympic and large infrastructure projects rank high, with projects like Healthcare.gov and the International Space... View full entry
First launched in 2013 after years of technological development and collaboration, French designer Philippe Starck and Slovenian wooden prefab building company Riko released the second generation of their customizable Prefabricated Accessible Technological Homes (P.A.T.H.) to the global market... View full entry
The U.S. Department of Agriculture officially launched their U.S. Tall Wood Building Prize Competition. As the first step of a new USDA and forest industry initiative, the competition...aims to showcase the architectural and commercial feasibility of advanced wood products in tall building construction in order to support employment opportunities in U.S. rural communities, maintain the health and resiliency of American forests, and advance sustainability in the built environment. — bustler.net
"Following a funding initiative announced by the Obama Administration and the U.S. forestry industry through the USDA, SLB and BSLC earlier this year, the competition invites all U.S. developers, institutions, organizations and design teams willing to undertake an alternative solution approach to... View full entry
"Robotic Building Construction by Contour Crafting" by educator Behrokh Khoshnevis of the University of Southern California was named the grand prize winner of the Create the Future Design Contest for 2014. Launched in 2002 by the NASA Tech Briefs magazine publishers, the contest was created to encourage and honor innovation from engineers, students, and entrepreneurs worldwide. — bustler.net
Contour Crafting (CC) has received attention for its ability to 3D-print complete large-scale structures. In reducing time and cost of construction, CC could also be another potential solution for, say, reliable emergency housing in a post-disaster situation or even building structures on the... View full entry
A Mexican federal agency has denied the environmental permit to allow the construction of the $105m International Baroque Museum in Puebla, less than a month after the groundbreaking ceremony.
The project, designed by the Japanese architect and 2013 Pritzker Prize-winner Toyo Ito, was deemed “not applicable” by Semarnat’s (the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources) General Directorate of Environmental Impact and Risk.
— theartnewspaper.com
Friday, September 12:Vincent Scully Prize 2014 awarded to journalist and TV host Charlie Rose: The prize was established by the National Building Museum in 1999, and is named after the famed Yale art history and architecture professor who helped establish Louis Kahn and Robert Venturi. Rose was... View full entry
The announcements of the regional winners for the Holcim Awards 2014 have begun -- with the first set of winners coming from the Holcim Awards for Europe. During a recent ceremony in Moscow, 12 projects from throughout the continent were recognized as top examples of sustainable construction that illustrate the evolving state of sustainable construction and address challenges in the building and construction industry. — bustler.net
Here's a couple of the winning projects:(Pictured above): Holcim Awards Gold 2014: Anthropic Park: Freshwater ecological reserve and remediation, Saline Joniche, ItalyMain Authors: Francisco Leiva - Grupo aranea, Alicante, Spain; Marco Scarpinato - AutonomeForme, Palermo, ItalyFurther Authors... View full entry
Work remains halted at the site of the modular residential tower next to the Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn. The building is part of the 22-acre, mixed-use development formerly known as Atlantic Yards and now branded Pacific Park. [...]
The dispute ... centers on the design and construction of the pre-fabricated units that make up the modular tower. The 34-story residential high-rise was supposed to be completed in July 2014. So far only 10 of the proposed 34 stories are finished
— wnyc.org
Heavy rains on Monday complicated rescue efforts in south China’s mountainous Yunnan province, where a major earthquake Sunday killed at least 398 people and injured more than 2,000 others [...] The magnitude 6.1 quake flattened or damaged more than 10,000 homes and other structures, again raising questions about China’s building standards and ability to respond to natural disasters. — Miami Herald
The tragic news from the Yunnan province is bringing back memories of the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, as well as the public scandal that emerged over allegedly faulty construction of schools by corrupt officials. View full entry
Istanbul is the city of transformation and contradiction. As an urbanist, I am trying to keep record and make sense of this transformation and am especially interested in its winners and losers. At the moment we live in a giant construction site, where skyscrapers, mega projects and urban renewal projects are taking place all around. There is a gold rush to real-estate development. — theguardian.com
Kite Bricks has developed "Smart Bricks" (S-Bricks) made out of high-strength concrete that can be used to make buildings rapidly, cheaply and energy efficiently.
The bricks -- which are patent pending -- are much like Lego in that they come in a variety of forms for different purposes and can easily connect together, with rows of knobs along the top of bricks that slot into voids along the bottom of other bricks.
— wired.co.uk
Check out this video explainer for the S-Bricks: View full entry
While Renzo Piano's Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens (SNFCC) is still under construction, it didn't keep the first performance from being staged last Wednesday on the site. Based on Renzo Piano's own idea, the Greek National Orchestra scored a 15-minute "dance" performance... View full entry