Correction appended July 13, 2009 Construction of a new, $107-million U.S. District Courthouse on a long-dormant block in rapidly redeveloping downtown Austin will soon get under way thanks to federal stimulus funds. Funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act also allowed the project’s original construction timetable to be moved up. Image courtesy White Construction Company The building was designed by Atlanta-based Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, with Paige Southerland Paige serving as a local consultant. Related Links: Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Designs Courthouse Austin's Tallest Building Halfway There How Architects Can Land a Government Contract The Final Stimulus Bill,
Architects from eight firms, ranging from a young New Orleans collective to world-renowned Gehry Partners, currently are racing to finish schematic designs for Make It Right. In mid-March the organization, founded by actor Brad Pitt to rebuild 150 houses in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward after Hurricane Katrina, tapped the firms to contribute additional designs to the effort. Their visions will be released June 20. In addition to Gehry Partners, the firms include William McDonough + Partners, Atelier Hitoshi Abe, Los Angeles–based Kappe Architects/Planners, the Chilean studio Elemental, and three New Orleans firms—Bild Design, buildingstudio, and Waggoner & Ball Architects.
What could become the nation’s first standard for high-performance buildings moved a step closer to adoption earlier this month with the release of a third draft for public comment. The latest version of Proposed Standard 189.1 has stricter energy conservation provisions and reflects input from a broader cross-section of experts, according to its developers. National laboratories currently are using energy modeling to determine how much more savings could be generated with the latest version of the standard compared to previous drafts. “I would anticipate [savings to go] up at least another 5 percent,” says Kent Peterson, chair of the development
In an example of a firm doing more with less, in April RMJM announced the launch of a sports design studio. The studio is based in the company’s Hong Kong office and is overseen by new hire John Pauline. Pauline had lead all of PTW Architects’ projects for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, including the Watercube, and served as a competition venue planning specialist to that host city’s organizing committee. RMJM is no stranger to sports venues—the firm designed the 2.9-million-square-foot Beijing Olympic Green Convention Centre, and it is vying to design facilities for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. Pauline
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the completion of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York—a landmark structure often condemned by artists but extolled by architects. It also marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Wright, who had unfortunately missed the opening on October 21, 1959. He passed away six months prior at the age of 91.
Correction appended May 13, 2009 A fire has charred part of an opera house designed by Zaha Hadid currently under construction in Guangzhou, China. It is the second major building blaze in the country this year. While the fire appears to have caused minimal structural damage, investigators are still trying to determine the extent of damage to the 753,000-square-foot, steel-and-concrete complex. There were no injuries or casualties, according to a spokesman for Zaha Hadid. Photo courtesy Architecture BBS A fire has charred part of an opera house designed by Zaha Hadid currently under construction in Guangzhou, China. Related Links: New
The winners of the tenth edition of the National Design Awards were announced April 30 by the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. The recipients were selected from nominations submitted by a nationwide committee of more than 2,500 designers, educators, and others with links to design professions. Winners will be honored at a gala in New York on October 22.
Continuing the rollout of federal agencies’ economic-stimulus plans, the Interior Department’s National Park Service has released its $750-million list of projects to be funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The list, published on April 22, totals 766 projects, including work on buildings, monuments, trails, and water and sewer lines. Photo courtesy Ken Thomas/Wikipedia The Ellis Island site, in New York, will receive $8.8 million. Related Links: The Final Stimulus Bill, Sector by Sector HUD Releases Plans for Stimulus Grants How Architects Can Land a Government Contract Special Section: Construction Stimulus California receives the largest allocation, $97.4 million for
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced how it will divide $980 million that the economic-stimulus legislation—the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—provided for Community Development Block Grants. The CDBG aid will be split among about 1,200 state, city, and county governments. CDBGs, established in 1974, can be used for many different purposes. Over the program's history, the most popular uses have been affordable-housing rehabilitation and upgrades to infrastructure such as streets, sewers, and community centers. But for the stimulus CDBGs, HUD says in a technical guidance document released May 5 that it “strongly urges grantees to use funds
Michael Kaufman, AIA, describes a scenario many architecture firms in the Midwest are facing: Projects already under construction are continuing, but the market has slowed. “I don’t think there really is a hot market right now and that’s what is really troubling to me. Virtually everywhere there is retrenchment,” says Kaufman, a partner at Goettsch Partners, a Chicago-based design firm. He’s predicting a 30 percent drop in revenues at his firm compared to record results in 2008. Photo courtesy Goettsch Partners In Chicago, construction of a 25-story expansion to the Blue Cross-Blue Shield tower is progressing despite the downturn. Goettsch
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