Today, President Barack Obama is expected to sign the $787-billion economic stimulus bill, officially called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Final congressional action came late on February 13 in the Senate, where three Republicans joined 55 Democrats and two Independents to pass the bill by a vote of 60-38, the minimum majority needed for approval. In the House, the legislation passed by a vote of 246-183; no Republicans voted in favor of it. While difficult to tally, it is estimated that roughly $130 billion of the bill is earmarked for construction-related spending. Below are some highlights. TRANSPORTATION: $49.3 billion

Image courtesy of the New Museum Urban China editor, Jiang Jun Image courtesy of the New Museum New Museum curator, Benjamin Godsill Cities are four-dimensional universes. Places and spaces at once, they’re always too big to fully grasp, and they’re always changing. If the contemporary apex of this incomprehensibility is anywhere, it’s in China, where cities are blurs of government control and ground-level commotion. They’re huge and sprawling, overpopulated, misunderstood, and growing fast. And a new show at the New Museum in New York packs all that into one room. Jiang Jun edits the Shanghai-based magazine Urban China, and his

In its latest response to the evolving market needs, Autodesk recently presented 2010 versions of its architecture, engineering, construction and geospatial products, as well as civil design software for transportation and utilities. The new versions are designed to ease the adoption of building information modeling (BIM). The most ubiquitous change, as presented in a Web conference showcasing the new products, is the replacement of tool bars with ribbons that organize context-sensitive tools under tabs. Each tab is organized around workflow functions such as “creation, “annotation,” and “collaboration.” The ribbons are used across the full suite of 2-D and 3-D products.

The construction industry should brace for a steep drop in business over the next six months, according to the latest Consensus Construction Forecast, released in January by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The semi-annual forecast, which is compiled in conjunction with top economists, predicts that there will be an average 11.1 percent drop in non-residential construction spending in the first half of 2009. The rate is more than 10 times that of the last six months of 2008, when non-residential construction output was forecasted to dip 1.2 percent, for the first decrease in years. In the current forecast, which

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced the 2009 winners of its Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture, along with the recipients of its Honors for Collaborative Achievement. The 2009 Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture is given for architectural achievement or advocacy in three categories: public-sector architects, private-sector architects with a notable portfolio of public facilities, and public officials or other individuals who have expanded the public’s awareness of design excellence. The award for public-sector architect went to Roger Boothe, AIA, the director of urban planning for the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Boothe is a graduate of the

A mammoth economic-stimulus measure has advanced on its long, winding path through Congress, with the Senate’s approval on Feb. 10 of a $838.2-billion package that was pared back from an earlier version. The cuts that were needed to win enough votes to pass the bill included about $27 billion in construction funds. That left the final Senate bill with about $133 billion for construction programs, compared with about $160 billion in the bill as it cleared committee. The major construction casualty came in school-construction aid, where lawmakers deleted all $19.5 billion the original bill had recommended for K-12 and college

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced the 2009 winners of its Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture, along with the recipients of its Honors for Collaborative Achievement. The 2009 Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture is given for architectural achievement or advocacy in three categories: public-sector architects, private-sector architects with a notable portfolio of public facilities, and public officials or other individuals who have expanded the public’s awareness of design excellence. The award for public-sector architect went to Roger Boothe, AIA, the director of urban planning for the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Boothe is a graduate of the

A mammoth economic-stimulus measure has advanced on its long, winding path through Congress, with the Senate’s approval on Feb. 10 of a $838.2-billion package that was pared back from an earlier version. The cuts that were needed to win enough votes to pass the bill included about $27 billion in construction funds. That left the final Senate bill with about $133 billion for construction programs, compared with about $160 billion in the bill as it cleared committee. The major construction casualty came in school-construction aid, where lawmakers deleted all $19.5 billion the original bill had recommended for K-12 and college

The Copenhagen-based firm Tegnestuen Vandkunsten has been awarded the 10th Alvar Aalto Medal. The prize is administered by the Finnish Ministry of Education, the Finnish Association of Architects, the Museum of Finnish Architecture, the Finnish Society of Architecture, and the Alvar Aalto Foundation. Since its creation in 1967, the award has been given approximately every five years for “significant achievements in creative architecture.” This is the first time the award has been given to a firm, rather than an individual. Low-cost housing and social housing have been a focus of Tegnestuen Vandkunsten since its inception in 1970. Founded by four

The Senate has approved an $838.2-billion economic stimulus bill by a 61-37 vote. The margin was slightly higher than the 60-vote minimum needed for approval, as Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both of Maine, and Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter, joined all 58 Democrats and Independents to vote for the bill. The Senate package now must be reconciled with the estimated $819.5-billion stimulus measure that the House passed on January 28. The House bill has about $160 billion for construction programs; the Senate’s contains about $130 billion. The Senate bill’s passage is not necessarily good news for architects, as it no