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The Tampa Bay Times is reporting on a stalled effort to repair damages caused during Hurricane Milton to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. The 35-year-old stadium was initially set for a much-needed influx of $24 million worth of funding. Instead, with a last-minute reversal and given... View full entry
A new roof would be the largest expense, according to the report, accounting for about $23.6 million, but the report states that “the primary structure is serviceable and capable of supporting a replacement tension membrane fabric roof.”
Based on the preliminary timeline in the report, it would take a little less than 13 months from the start of construction until “final completion,” with the repairs wrapping up just before a projected Opening Day in late March of 2026.
— Major League Baseball
The cost of repairs has been stated at $55.7 million. The Rays will play their home games in Tampa at George M. Steinbrenner Field (the Yankees’ Spring Training home since 1996) while repair work continues. The vexing financial fiasco is further complicated as the franchise is set to expand... View full entry
The roof at Tropicana Field, the home of the Tampa Bay Rays, sustained major damage because of high winds associated with Hurricane Milton, which made landfall Wednesday along Florida's Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm.
According to the Rays, the Trop was built to withstand winds of up to 115 mph. The roof is supported by 180 miles of cables connected by struts in what the team calls the "world's largest cable-supported domed roof."
— ESPN
The Populous design in St. Petersburg (formerly called the 'ThunderDome') has existed mostly without sustaining significant storm damage since 1990. The roof system was made from 370,000 square feet of PTFE (fiberglass) Tensile Membrane manufactured by a New York company called Birdair, Inc. ... View full entry
Various Ukrainian news outlets are reporting the recent near-total destruction of the Mykhailo Boichuk State Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts and Design in Kyiv from a Russian missile attack in the morning hours of Monday, March 25th. "During this morning's attack on Kyiv, as a result of... View full entry
Researchers based at the Drexel University College of Engineering have devised a new method for performing structural safety inspections using autonomous robots aided by machine learning technology. The article they published recently in the Elsevier journal Automation in Construction presented... View full entry
The catastrophic events have devastated countless heritage structures, archaeological areas and religious sites, many still active places of worship, across an area so vast that it encompasses ten Turkish provinces and impacts more than 13 million people.
Though less extensively reported, damage to heritage sites is most significant in the southernmost province of Hatay. The city centre of Antakya [...] has been almost completely flattened.
— The Art Newspaper
The World Bank estimates the total physical damage in Turkey to be approximately $34.2 billion. The Gaziantep Castle, a 2nd-century fortress later expanded under Emperor Justinian, and Aleppo's ancient Citadel in neighboring Syria are perhaps the most significant historic sites to be heavily... View full entry
As a result of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, at least 494 religious buildings, theological institutions, and sacred places were wholly destroyed, damaged, or looted by the Russian military.
The Ukrainian Institute for Religious Freedom presented this updated data on the impact of the war on Ukrainian religious communities on January 31 and February 1 during the Summit on International Religious Freedom (IRF Summit 2023) held in Washington, D.C.
— Institute for Religious Freedom (IRF)
The Institute for Religious Freedom reported Russia’s tactic of using churches for military bases and hiding spots. Clergy members have also been targeted as part of the longer-term goal of destroying the Ukrainian language and culture. (The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which accounts for 48%... View full entry
Eight months after Ukrainian forces retook the Kyiv suburb of Irpin from Russian occupiers, The New York Times has spoken with several architectural figures from the region on their mission to rebuild the urban landscape destroyed by war. Since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, 885 buildings... View full entry
The latest analysis from the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) on the cost of direct damage to Ukraine's buildings and infrastructure since the beginning of the Russian military invasion of the country puts the estimate at $127 billion. The report shows the largest share (39.7%) of the surveyable... View full entry
According to CNN, the unnamed need for maintenance was first uncovered in confidential reports obtained by the French periodical Marianne. Rust damage to the structure has accumulated over the years, a product of the lead contained within the paint which was originally meant to protect its... View full entry
A number of marble tiles on the floor of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, which was turned back into a mosque in 2020 after serving as a historical museum for decades, have reportedly been cracked by heavy machinery used to clean the building last week. — Artnet News
“It’s like a fairground now,” one tour guide reportedly told the Turkish opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet in reference to the change in status that occurred in 2020, when the site was reconverted into a mosque and conferred back into the auspices of the Department of Religious Affairs... View full entry
The UN’s official cultural body UNESCO has issued a new report documenting damage to an alarming amount of historic sites, monuments, and structures since the beginning of the Russian Federation’s criminal invasion of Ukraine began in late February. The organization has verified that... View full entry
Social media is buzzing about the unreal damage to the O2 Arena's PTFE-coated glass fiber roof, which tore off during a live performance in the early morning hours Friday. A spokesperson for London’s Fire Brigade told the Evening-Standard there is no “actual collapse” of the roof or... View full entry
Genesis, this is not. This is the fate of the multimillion-dollar Noah’s Ark replica and theme park in Northern Kentucky, Ark Encounter, which is suing insurance carriers over coverage for rain-related damages to the property. The company is seeking to recoup what it says were $1 million worth of repairs, as well as attorneys’ fees and costs, and an unspecified amount of punitive damages. — The Washington Post
Lawyers of the Ark Encounter — the buzzy Noah's Ark theme park in Williamstown, Kentucky that opened in 2016 — filed a lawsuit last Wednesday against the park's insurance company for breaching their coverage policy obligations, after heavy rains in 2017 and 2018 caused a landslide on the... View full entry
Actor Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation has sued the architect of scores of homes the nonprofit sold to Lower 9th Ward residents who lost everything to Hurricane Katrina.
Make it Right itself was recently sued over the homes’ shoddy construction.
The new lawsuit against local architect John C. Williams was filed Tuesday in Orleans Parish Civil District Court.
— theadvocate.com
Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation, recently facing a lawsuit of their own on delivering poorly constructed homes, is now suing John C. Williams, the architect responsible for many of the homes sold to New Orleans residents. Repairs to the water damaged homes caused by flawed... View full entry
