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Chances for architectural greatness are rare. When they come around, we best grab them. Such is the opportunity Chicago has before it with one of the five plans for a new global terminal at O’Hare International Airport. — Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune architecture critic, Blair Kamin, comes out in clear support of the Norman Foster-led finalist entry to the $8.5B Chicago O’Hare 21 Terminal Expansion competition: "That plan, from a team led by London-based Foster + Partners architects, promises to be everything an airport... View full entry
A city-appointed evaluation committee heard presentations from the architects on Tuesday and Wednesday, yet the city is declining to make public the identities of the committee’s members. Worse, the committee will prepare a report, but that report won’t be made public. — Chicago Tribune
The highly anticipated international design competition to expand Chicago's O'Hare International Airport has released their shortlist of five proposals from heavyweights Foster + Partners, Studio Gang, Calatrava, SOM, and Fentress. Amidst chatter on the merits of each, questions have been raised... View full entry
Some work continued on Thursday at a partly-built $13 billion Mexico City airport that the new president is scrapping, even after the government announced construction had been halted. [...]
The head of the government-run agency responsible for the project, Gerardo Ferrando, said the only construction still underway was to preserve what had already been built, such as drainage works, slabs of foundation and a partly-built tower.
— Reuters
NAICM aerial visualization. Rendering: Dbox.It's unclear what should happen now with the partly built new Mexico City International Airport which, some argue, was about one-third complete. "Construction work is officially suspended on that airport, and negotiations on the early termination of the... View full entry
Gondalas designed to move up and down the top of the Tulip tower are at risk of confusing air traffic control systems, according to technical experts at London City airport.
Construction on the 305-metre (1,000ft) tower must not go ahead until an assessment has been carried out into its potential impact on radar systems at the airport six miles to the east, officials told the authority considering whether to grant planning permission.
— The Guardian
After its big reveal in November, planning for the 1,000-foot-tall The Tulip observation tower by Foster + Partners has been halted by officials to study the impact the attraction's moving glass spheres high up in the sky will have on radar systems at the nearby London City airport, pointing out... View full entry
After receiving bids from twelve groups that included some of the planet’s top architectural talent, Chicago has narrowed its search down to five teams hoping to design a $8.5 billion terminal expansion of O’Hare International Airport. — Curbed Chicago
The list of five finalist teams includes some of the big-name bidders that responded to Chicago's O’Hare 21 Terminal Expansion Project RFP back in September: Fentress-EXP-Brook-Garza Joint Venture Partners Foster Epstein Moreno JV Joint Venture Partners Santiago Calatrava LLC Skidmore, Owings... View full entry
Voters in Mexico have rejected completion of partly built new airport for Mexico City, opposing it by a 70 to 29 percent margin.
Mexico’s President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday he will respect the referendum, effectively ending the $13 billion project which is already about one-third built.
“The decision taken by the citizens is democratic, rational and efficient,” Lopez Obrador said. “The people decided.”
— The Washington Post
It's looking like the end of the runway for the partly built new Mexico City International Airport designed by a conglomerate comprising Foster + Partners, FR-EE (Fernando Romero Enterprise), and NACO (Netherlands Airport Consultants). While the public vote clearly disapproved of the $... View full entry
Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveiled several new details about the upcoming transformation of [JFK Airport,] most notably the creation of two new terminals that will replace some of the existing terminals, and rise on the northern and southern end of the complex. The cost of this revamp has gone up from the $10 billion estimate that accompanied the first announcement about the redevelopment in early 2017 to the current estimate of $13 billion. — Curbed NY
The architect of the unbuilt Chicago Spire is among the designers vying for the massive O’Hare International Airport expansion project.
The Zurich-based firm of Santiago Calatrava, whose projects include an airport in Bilbao, Spain, and the over-budget World Trade Center transportation center in New York, was one of 12 teams that responded to the city’s Thursday deadline to submit qualifications for the $8.7 billion expansion [...].
— Chicago Tribune
According to the Chicago Tribune, the list of teams bidding for the $8.7 billion Chicago O'Hare International Airport expansion includes big-name firms such as SOM, Perkins+Will, Bjarke Ingels Group, Santiago Calatrava, Gensler, HOK, Fentress Architects, JAHN, Epstein, and Studio Fuksas. View full entry
MVRDV has recently completed The Imprint, a new 2-building art and entertainment complex next to Seoul’s Incheon Airport. Featuring a nightclub in one building and indoor theme park in the other, the windowless structures are part of the larger Paradise City complex of 6 buildings next to South... View full entry
Greenland Wuhan Center, designed to surpass the Shanghai Tower and become China’s tallest building, will be falling short of its planned 636 metres (2086 feet) height, after the local government prescribed a 21 percent reduction in height for the central China supertall, according to an account in local media outlet the Paper. — mingtiandi.com
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture won the competition back in 2010 to design China's tallest, and the world's 4th tallest, building. The supertall was originally designed to reach 126 floors, however construction halted in August last year stopping at the 96th floor. The height reduction... View full entry
Duangrit Bunnag, the renowned local architect who won the bid to design Suvarnabhumi airport's second terminal, has denied plagiarising the work of a Japanese architect.
"I didn't copy anyone else's work. Those who follow my work will know that I created a similar image in my previous designs, such as for a hotel in Sri Lanka," Mr Duangrit told The Standard, a local online news portal.
— bangkokpost.com
Duangrit Bunnag's firm DBALP Consortium, along with Nikken Sekkei, EMS Consultants, MHPM, MSE and ARJ Consortium, were recently announced as winners of the Suvarnabhumi Airport Terminal 2 Project design contest. Focused on expanding the Thailand airport, the competition design sparked online... View full entry
Mexican President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Friday he would let voters decide whether to continue construction of Mexico City’s new airport, throwing into doubt the country’s biggest public-works project and billions in investment and debt.
The airpot, designed in part by U.K. architect Norman Foster, is about one-third complete. About $5.2 billion has been spent on the infrastructure project, the biggest of the administration of current President Enrique Peña Nieto.
— wsj.com
After softening his original stance on cancelling the new Mexico City International Airport, president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has now opened up the project's fate to the public. The partially built infrastructure project by Foster + Partners and FR-EE now hangs in the balance of... View full entry
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico’s next president, is no longer seeking an immediate suspension of Mexico City’s new $13 billion airport, according to a member of his economic transition team.
Abel Hibert, who attended a planning meeting with Lopez Obrador and about 100 aides from the transition team on Tuesday evening, said it was clear that there’ll be no immediate demand to President Enrique Pena Nieto to suspend construction of the airport, at least until a review of the contracts.
— Bloomberg
Canceling the new Mexico City International Airport project due to alleged corruption and wasteful spending was one of the campaign promises of socialist (then) candidate, and now president-elect, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The tone appears to have softened now to not completely alienate... View full entry
Autonomous 16-passenger vehicles would zip back and forth at speeds exceeding 100 mph in tunnels between the Loop and O’Hare International Airport under a high-speed transit proposal being negotiated between Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s City Hall and billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk’s The Boring Co., city and company officials have confirmed.
Emanuel’s administration has selected Musk’s company from four competing bids to provide high-speed transportation between downtown and the airport.
— Chicago Tribune
Musk's Boring Co. beat out established engineering firms, including Mott MacDonald and JLC Infrastructure, even though it has famously been in business for less than two years and only has a test tunnel near the company's headquarters in the Los Angeles area to show for as construction experience. View full entry
Bombardier Rail Technologies, ACS Infrastructure Development, Balfour Beatty, Fluor Enterprises and HOCHTIEF PPP Solutions North America have all been chosen to deliver a $4.9bn project to design, build and install an automated people mover system at Los Angeles International Airport. [...]
The system will run on a 3.6km elevated dual-lane guideway and will serve six newly-built stations, creating connections between the airport, public and private transportation, and a new car rental facility.
— Construction Global
