Today, the United States Artists Foundation announced the 50 winners of its annual award program. Each winner, including five in the category of architecture and design, will receive a $50,000 grant. United States Artists is an advocacy group dedicated to supporting America’s artists working across diverse disciplines. The organization launched in September 2005 with $22 million in seed funding provided by a coalition of leading foundations—Ford, Rockefeller, Prudential, and Rasmuson. This initial investment enabled the organization to pilot the program, which is now in its fifth year. For a full list of winners, visit the organization’s Web site. Photo courtesy
Italian architect Paolo Soleri became famous for Arcosanti, the urban laboratory he built in the Arizona desert in the early 1970s. His first major design, however, was a bridge for an exhibition in the late 1940s. It was never constructed. Other bridge concepts also were never realized.
The Copenhagen-based architectural firm of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), featured in Record’s Vanguard issue (December 2009, page 52) has expanded its partnership as of December 1.
Construction's unemployment rate continued to to rise in November, climbing to 19.4% from October's 18.7%, while the nation's overall jobless rate declined slightly, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported. Job creation has become a prime topic in Washington, as congressional Democrats work on new measures aimed at bringing more people back to work. Infrastructure spending is emerging as one component of those possible measures. Construction Unemployment Rate, Last 13 Months 2009 November 19.4% October 18.7% September 17.1 August 16.5 July 18.2 June 17.4 May 19.2 April 18.7 March 21.1 February 21.4 January 15.3 2008 November 15.3 December 12.7 Note:
In an effort to accelerate the development of cost-effective, sustainable concrete, Masdar, the developer of the planned carbon and waste-neutral Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, is holding a concrete mix design competition. The first prize is $150,000, for a sustainable concrete production method. The second prize is $50,000 for the lowest-carbon- footprint concrete mix. This is the first of several competitions to help Masdar, an initiative of the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co., achieve its goals for sustainability at Masdar City, says Omar. M. Waqfi, Masdar's specifications manager. "We are pushing and challenging people on all aspects [of sustainable development],
Cubellis, a top-earning international architecture and engineering firm headquartered in Boston, has closed. The 23-year-old firm, which has 12 offices, including one in Dubai, told its employees of the shutdown the day before Thanksgiving, according to the Boston Business Journal, which first reported the news. In 2008, the firm came in 60th out of the U.S.’s 250 most-successful firms, with revenues of $51 million, according to a survey by Architectural Record. The immediate cause of the closure was Sovereign Bank’s denial of a key line of credit, which made the firm unable to pay the salaries of its 170 employees,
A coalition of 23 construction organizations has endorsed a new document meant to aid project teams on green-building projects. The “ConsensusDOCS 310 Green Building Addendum,” released on November 11, is intended to define, clarify, and establish the relative roles and responsibilities needed to successfully deliver a green-building project, explains Brian M. Perlberg, executive director and senior counsel with Virginia-based ConsensusDOCS. Founded in 2007, ConsensusDOCS is a national coalition of associations representing diverse interests in the construction industry, such as designers, owners, contractors, subcontractors and surety professionals. The groups work together to develop and promote standard-form construction contracts. The new green-building
RSS
