Foster + Partners, the London-based practice founded by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Norman Foster, is laying off between 300 and 350 people due to the worldwide economic slowdown—a move that will reduce the company's workforce by nearly a quarter. The firm also is closing its Berlin and Istanbul offices, according to a spokesperson. “A number of our international clients have fallen victim to the current economic climate, said the firm’s chief executive, Mouzhan Majidi, in a formal statement. “After the eventual necessity to make reductions the company will still be at a similar size to that of 18 months ago.” The
With government projects getting a boost through the economic stimulus package while many private sector plans remain in limbo, the playing field for finding new work is quickly changing.
At least one New York rooftop is about to get a lot more productive. This spring students from Parsons The New School for Design will put the finishing touches on bronXscape, an urban rooftop garden and outdoor kitchen in the Bronx for young adults transitioning out of foster care. Completed under The Design Workshop, the school’s elective design-build studio course, the project tops a new building run by the Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter, a nonprofit organization that will provide low-income housing and education for 46 residents.
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
RSS