The looming acquisition of a software vendor that supports interoperability of competing electronic design and construction products by a leading vendor of design software is both raising concerns and welcomed. On May 31, Autodesk announced it had signed an agreement to acquire NavisWorks, which produces a universal file reader for 3D coordination, collaboration and construction sequencing, for $25 million. “The news concerns me greatly,” says Mark V. Holland, chief engineer for Omaha-based steel fabricator Paxton & Vierling Steel. “Will the application keep its original direction of being a universal reader in the building information modeling world?” Jay Bhatt, senior vice
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced the designation of 13 new National Historic Landmarks earlier this spring. This designation signifies the importance of these sites in representing the nation’s heritage. Although the list contains many historic sites, such as the Japanese internment camp at Topaz, Utah, it also includes architecturally significant structures.
The Cincinnati Art Museum announced today the four architecture firms short-listed to redesign and reconfigure its existing campus. On the list are: Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Neutelings Riedijk; Smith-Miller & Hawkinson; and UNStudio. Over its 126-year history, the museum has grown into an assemblage of seven, variously interconnected individual structures. It lacks planned spatial logic as well as a consistent style. The latest addition, completed in 2003, was by KZF. The museum’s next architect—to be selected from the four finalists later this summer—will work with it to develop a new design that will integrate the individual structures into a cohesive
To those who have visited Provincetown, Massachusetts, it would be hard to imagine a 20,000-square-foot institutional building rising up in the middle of that quaint, New England seaside town.