Despite the economic downturn, supertall towers continue to rise. Of the top 10 now in progress, six were designed by U.S. firms. Only one, however, is on American soil. Image courtesy Gensler Shanghai Tower (far right) by Gensler. Click on the slide show button to view images of the world's tallest buildings now under construction. As might be expected during a prolonged downturn, plans for huge new record-setting skyscrapers have been delayed or flat-out scrapped, from the 91-story Dubai Towers in Qatar to the 84-story Faros de Panama in Panama. Here in the United States, Santiago Calatrava’s Chicago Spire, which
Image courtesy Iu + Bibliowicz Architects Click on the slide show button to view more images. After years of planning, Carnegie Hall, the historic performing arts venue in Manhattan, has pulled back the curtain on a proposal to reconfigure about half of its interior space. The $200 million redesign from New York’s Iu + Bibliowicz Architects will transform space in upper stories formerly used as apartments and offices into music classrooms and practice rooms. On January 19, artistic director Clive Gillinson unveiled details of the project, which is under way and is expected to be completed in 2014. Related Links:
Christine Cipriani Wayland High School, designed by The Architects Collaborative, opened in 1960. With the exception of the field house, the complex will be razed.
Organized by the Department of Energy (DOE), the Solar Decathlon is a competition held every two years that invites university teams to design solar-powered homes, which they then construct on the Mall as part of a public expo.
A federal lawsuit filed in October 2010 against the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and other defendants, focusing on allegedly fraudulent claims of the LEED rating system, has been amended. Filed February 7th, 2011, the amended complaint has been boiled down to a claim of false advertising, and is no longer a class-action suit. As with the original lawsuit (see USGBC, LEED Targeted by Class-Action Suit), the amended version focuses on a critique by Henry Gifford, a mechanical systems consultant, that USGBC falsely claims that LEED guarantees energy savings in LEED-certified buildings. Click to enlarge + This graph from the