Target Faux Pas
Concrete Verdict Set in Stone
Cracked concrete at Yankee Stadium. (New York Times)
The citywide concrete crackdown continued yesterday as jurors delivered a guilty verdict against Testwell Laboratories and its owner, V. Reddy Kancharla, who were accused of falsifying concrete test reports for a range of high-profile projects including Yankee Stadium and the Freedom Tower. The question of whether Kancharla and his company committed the more serious charge of enterprise corruption, which carries a possible prison sentence of 25 years, is still being examined by the jury, according to the Times. Read More
Big Moola for NOLA
A preliminary scheme for Charity Hospital's replacement.
On the heels of the Saints’ victory, the Big Easy had another big win this week, this time in the form of a $474.8 million FEMA payment. But preservationists have been dealt a major blow in their fight to save 70-year-old Charity Hospital in New Orleans, along with a tract of historic homes and structures in the city’s Mid-City district. For the past four years, Louisiana state officials have been at loggerheads with FEMA over the extent of Hurricane Katrina’s damages to Charity, which has been shuttered since the storm. On Wednesday, a federal arbitration panel ordered FEMA to pay nearly all of the requested replacement costs for the state-owned hospital. The ruling was a triumph for city and state officials who argued that Charity was more than 50 percent damaged by the hurricane and therefore eligible for replacement, instead of repair. Read More
Drawing Attention
Jean Tschumi's Nestlé Headquarters (Courtesy Artinfo.com)
Just when we thought the season of giving was behind us, Bernard Tschumi has brought out one last gift for MoMA. The architect announced yesterday that he would donate 43 of his father’s architectural drawings to the museum, making it the only non-European institution with a collection of Jean Tschumi originals. Read More
In Moe We Could Trust
Richard Moe announces his retirement. (National Trust)
National Trust for Historic Preservation president Richard Moe announced today that he will retire in the spring of 2010. Moe, 72, is the longest-serving president in the organization’s 60-year history. The legacy of his 17-year tenure will likely be his push to bring historic preservation into the mainstream by revitalizing urban historic districts and promoting the environmental importance of saving aging buildings and structures.
“It has been an enormous privilege to be associated with the National Trust over these years,” Moe said in a statement on the National Trust’s website. “It has been the most fulfilling professional experience I have ever had.” Moe went on to say that his departure will present an opportunity for the Trust to seek a generational change at a time when its financial base and its programming are on solid ground. Read More
Man of Metal
Moneo
Last night Rafael Moneo, Madrid-based architect and Harvard Graduate School of Design professor, kicked off Columbia’s third annual conference on architecture, engineering, and materials with a keynote lecture on his Northwest Corner Building, a new interdisciplinary science facility between Chandler and Pupin halls.
This year’s conference is titled Post Ductility: Metals in Architecture and Engineering, and though Moneo’s building isn’t scheduled to be completed until the fall of next year, there may not have been a better time to discuss its materials or its contribution to the campus. Unfinished, the building can be seen as the engineering marvel that it is, with 300 tons of structural trusses enabling it to float above the gym beneath it. (Here’s a video we posted of them being installed.) Read More
A Crane Regulation Too Far?
March 16, 2008 (MSNBC)
As decades-old federal crane and derrick regulations continue to go under review, Engineering News-Record reports that New York Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri fears the city’s rules may be overruled when the less stringent federal regulations are finally enacted. LiMandri testified on March 18 at a four-day Occupational Safety and Health Administration hearing in Washington, D.C. “Reliance on this industry to regulate itself would be a fundamental mistake,” he said. Read More
Grand (Central) Slam for MTA
Trump holds court above Grand Central. (AIA Archiblog)
Donald Trump’s Grand Central Tennis Club may see its last baller this spring. According to the Daily News, the tony courts, long frequented by politicians, celebrities, and tennis pros, will be closed to make way for a new rest area for Metro-North conductors and train engineers. Trump has leased the space from Metro-North for 30 years, paying $4 a square foot, about 4% of the average Grand Central going rate. Read More
Hottest New Building in New York
This is only a test. (Daily News)
If you thought the 2009 NYC Firefighter “Hunks” Calendar was hot, take a look at the FDNY’s newest training tool: the nation’s only high-rise fire simulator. Unveiled last Thursday at the FDNY’s High Rise Operations Symposium, the $4.2 million simulator on the department’s Randall’s Island training facility mimics conditions the city’s firefighters face when battling fires several stories up. Funded largely by actor Denis Leary‘s The Leary Firefighters Foundation, the brick building contains mock elevators, a smoke system and standpipes, according to the Daily News. A video and more photos after the jump. Read More
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