Chong Partners Architecture, a San Francisco-based firm with 2006 revenue of $42.4 million and nearly 200 employees, is the latest North American acquisition by Stantec, the publicly-traded Edmonton, Alberta–based engineer-architect. Terms of the transaction, completed yesterday, were not disclosed. “The addition of Chong Partners is a significant step towards building a national architecture presence in the United States similar to what we have been able to achieve in Canada,” Tony Franceschini, Stantec president and CEO, said in a statement. He added that Chong offers significant hospital and health care facility design to Stantec’s capabilities. It also expands the size of

Editor’s note: You may read the news digest below or listen to it, plus other news headlines from ArchitecturalRecord.com, as a podcast by clicking this link. Click the play button to begin | Click here to download “From pariah state to Côte d’Azur,” is how The Times of London, in a September 11 article, described Libya’s newly unveiled $3 billion plan to develop 180 miles of its northeast coastline into an ecologically sensitive tourist hotspot. The Guardian, preferring on September 12 to employ the correct color rather than metaphor, noted that “green is big in Libya.” The massive scheme will

Editor’s note: You may read the news digest below or listen to it, plus other news headlines from ArchitecturalRecord.com, as a podcast by clicking this link. Click the play button to begin | Click here to download The city of St. Petersburg, Russia, which UNESCO has listed as a world heritage site since 1990 thanks to its well-preserved baroque and neo-classical skyline, is at risk of having this designation revoked if current plans for the proposed Gazprom skyscraper move forward. Designed by RMJM, the glass and steel tower for a Russian petroleum company would rise 984 feet—far taller than the

The nine projects that won the 2007 Aga Khan Award for Architecture, announced yesterday, range from a sustainable residential tower in Singapore, to a village school hand-built by local craftspeople in Dinajpur, Bangladesh.

Editor’s note: You may read the news digest below or listen to it, plus other news headlines from ArchitecturalRecord.com, as a podcast by clicking this link. Click the play button to begin | Click here to download On the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, August 29, USA Today summed up New Orleans’ ongoing recovery this way: while some neighborhoods “have rebuilt themselves using private funds, insurance money and sheer will,” publicly funded efforts “have moved much more slowly.” The New York Times, in an August 28 article, had a similar view of the city’s architecture: “No grand designs. No inspired

Editor’s note: You may read the news digest below or listen to it, plus other news headlines from ArchitecturalRecord.com, as a podcast by clicking this link. Click the play button to begin | Click here to download Most of New Orleans will be spared flooding if the Army Corps of Engineers completes $7.6 billion in levee and floodgate improvements by 2011, according to projections and maps released this week. The enhancements are designed to protect the city against the failure of its pumping system during a 100-year storm, equivalent to Hurricane Rita, the Times Picayune reported on August 22. Calling

The American Institute of Architects’ Architectural Billings Index (ABI) rose more than four points in June for a total score of 59.3—its highest level since last summer. Institutional projects accounted for much of the gain. ABI data comes from surveys sent to 300 mainly commercial firms. Studies suggest a correlation between the ABI and construction levels nine to 12 months in the future.  

The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, better known as the Gateway Arch, made headlines last month when internal trams carrying roughly 200 people became stalled for several hours after a cable snapped and the power failed. No one was hurt in the incident, which was soon eclipsed by far more serious engineering failures, but it reminded people of the memorial’s unique design by architect Eero Saarinen and structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel. Photo Courtesy Jefferson National Expansion Memorial / National Park Service The Gateway Arch in St. Louis “It’s such an impressive structure and makes such a statement you

Editor’s note: You may read the news digest below or listen to it, plus other news headlines from ArchitecturalRecord.com, as a podcast by clicking this link. Click the play button to begin | Click here to download Three proposals for San Francisco’s Landmark Transbay Transit Center and Tower, unveiled last week, are drawing lots of public comments—so many, in fact, that the Transbay Joint Powers Authority’s Web site briefly crashed as a result of all the traffic, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote on August 14. In addition to submitting comments online, some 1,000 people saw an exhibit of the proposals