Welcome to MississaugaCondoLiving.ca

Designing a better environment for people to live, work, and enjoy

The Boston planning firm of Chan Krieger Sieniewicz was hired by the client team to create a Master Plan and concept design for a large, multi block parcel of land in downtown Boston currently occupied by the 1970’s vintage Government Center Parking Garage. The program of uses, areas, and massing were set during the Master Plan study. The Client Development team then invited 5 architectural firms to enter a competition to develop ideas for the architecture for the given massing. During the 3 weeks of the competition, the Gensler team re-thought the project from scratch, and proposed a completely different solution.

The Government Center Parking Structure is a large, bulky mass located between the Bulfinch Triangle and Downtown Boston at the northern end of the new Rose Kennedy Greenway. The building spans over Congress Street, dividing the two districts visually and spatially, interrupting the urban fabric of the City. The project aims to demolish the garage, replace the lost parking below grade, and add 3.3 million SF of mixed use development above to serve as the northern anchor of the Rose Kennedy Greenway.

The scope and breadth of the One Congress Street project represents an opportunity to demand a better environment for people to live, work, and enjoy. There exists now, in this moment, an opportunity to set a new benchmark for mixed-use development that is a true exemplar of sustainability in the broadest sense – environmental, social, and economic.


Source with more photos.

http://archrecord.construction.com/n...04boosters.asp

At Least 50 Tall Buildings Now on Hold
November 4, 2009

By Nadine M. Post in Chicago
A version of this article first appeared in Engineering News-Record.

Construction of at least 50 tall buildings is on hold after initiation of foundation work, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). Of the tallest 20, eight are in the Middle East, and six are in Latin America.

Projects in the U.S. also are taking a hit. Foundations are complete for the 2,000-foot-tall Chicago Spire, by Santiago Calatrava, but work has been halted. Construction also has stopped on the planned 1,047-foot-tall Waterview Tower, in Chicago. The partially complete frame stands as a conspicuous reminder of the recession.

Though the tall-building blahs have hit the Americas, Europe, and many parts of the Middle East, the building boom in China “has not stopped,” said David Scott, a principal of the New York City office of engineer Arup and former chairman of the CTBUH. Scott spoke at the council's annual conference, held October 22 and 23 in Chicago.

Only three of the 50 tallest buildings on hold are in China. And of the 100 tallest buildings now under construction, some 30 are in China. Work is still under way on the slurry wall and the bored piles for the foundations of what may become China's tallest—the planned 632-meter-tall, 5.5-million-square-foot Shanghai Tower, by Gensler. The design calls for 128 stories of retail, exhibit, office, and hotel space in what Arthur Gensler, FAIA, describes as a vertical city. Aiming for LEED Gold, the building includes sustainable features such as wind turbines and a rainwater collection system.

Another sustainable tall building in China under way is the Pearl River Tower in Guangzhou, planned at 310 meters. Construction of the 71-story building is at approximately level 40 for the main floors and 48 for the core. Though the building is designed to be 58 percent more efficient than a code-compliant building in China, it will not reach net-zero-energy use envisioned by its architect-engineer. “We don’t have enough data to give developers the confidence that [the net-zero energy systems] work,” said Russell Gilchrist, director of technical architecture in the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

Another super-tall building stuck in the foundation phase is Dubai’s planned 1-kilometer-tall Nakheel Tower. According to the architecture firm, Woods Bagot, the tower’s foundations are half complete, but the project is on hold pending a revaluation by the developer sometime next year.

At the CTBUH conference, those with experience cautioned that developing super-tall buildings is not for the faint of heart. Andy Weiss, executive vice president for the Trump Organization, whose 1,362-foot-tall, SOM-designed Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago is virtually complete, gave developers a few pointers: Begin with a large, centrally located site; prepare for a time-consuming and costly entitlement and zoning process; and pay attention to quality so the building can become an icon. And if there are multiple uses, he added, be prepared for a complex design and construction process. “Use firms with track records,” Weiss advised. Finally, he cautioned developers to be prepared for lots of publicity.


Foundations are complete for the 2,000-foot-tall Chicago Spire, by Santiago Calatrava, but work has been halted.


In Dubai, construction of the planned 1-kilometer-tall Nakheel Tower is delayed. According to the architecture firm, Woods Bagot, the tower’s foundations are half complete, but the project is on hold pending a revaluation by the developer sometime next year.


Chicago’s 1,362-foot Trump International Hotel and Tower is virtually complete.


Construction has progressed on the 800-meter-plus Burj Dubai. The tower is slated to open in December.


Work is continuing on the next, tallest building in China—the 632-meter-tall Shanghai Tower, by Gensler.


In China, construction of the 310-meter-tall Pearl River Tower is proceeding.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/1...-.html?ref=rss


Disney's Shanghai theme park plans OK'd
Last Updated: Wednesday, November 4, 2009 | 11:29 AM ET
CBC News

China's planning agency has approved the Walt Disney Company's proposal to build one of its massive amusement parks in the bustling city of Shanghai.

The facility — slated to be one of the entertainment giant's "Magic Kingdom-style" theme parks, tailored with details specific to the region — is to be located in Shanghai's eastern Pudong district, not far from the city's international airport.

"China is one of the most dynamic, exciting and important countries in the world, and this approval marks a very significant milestone for The Walt Disney Company in mainland China," Disney president and CEO Robert A. Iger said in a statement.

The Shanghai city government confirmed the approval by China's National Development and Reform Commission.

Officials in Shanghai, mainland China's main financial and commercial hub, are forecasting a boom in tourism and job creation thanks to the theme park project — an initiative Disney has been pursuing for about a decade.

The company already employs hundreds of Chinese staffers at its offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou and opened a theme park in Hong Kong in 2005.

While the Hong Kong park has suffered from disappointing attendance since its opening, officials there downplay any competition with the prospective new facility in Shanghai.

"Our country has 1.3 billion people. We can see that our country's economic development has created a very big market. It can easily accommodate two Disneylands," Rita Lau, Hong Kong's Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, told reporters on Wednesday.

Disney's other theme parks are located in Anaheim, Calif., close to Orlando, Fla., in the suburbs of Paris and in Urayasu, Japan, near Tokyo.

Gensler design a 600m tower as a gateway to Seoul

Naru tower will be an international icon that marks Seoul as the next up and coming global metropolis. It reflects both the rich history and bright future of Seoul, which defines itself as a city of technology and innovation.

Naru tower reflects the importance of the Han River to Seoul by drawing from the imagery of a traditional Korean sail. The form is created by over sizing the mechanical floors the 'stretching' the glass like a sail over this frame. The resulting atriums between this outer skin and the rectilinear inner skin are filled with lush vertical gardens that bring life and a human scale to tower.

The strategy of Naru Tower is to combine the dynamism of vertical living with the proven functionality and market appeal of rectilinear floor plates. The tower is simply and cost-effectively built up as a series of extruded rectangles. Its regularly spaced mechanical floors vary in size, providing the vertical frame over which the exterior façade is stretched in taught but delicate curves like a sail. The interstitial volumes this creates house dynamic, multilevel atrium spaces filled with lush vertical gardens that are the life of Naru tower.


Source with more photos.

Terra Architecture designs tallest tower south of Manhattan

Every major global city has a site with the potential and location to be that city’s epicenter; where the city’s most identifying landmark or trophy building should be found. One Bayfront Plaza is that site and will become Miami’s signature building. This premier location, located at 100 South Biscayne Boulevard, is situated at the south end of the widest section of Miami’s main thoroughfare, Biscayne Boulevard, overlooks both Biscayne Bay and Bayfront Park.

The site encompasses two full city blocks containing approximately 100,000 sq ft of net lot area, is bounded by Biscayne Boulevard, SE 1st and SE 2nd Streets and SE 3rd Avenue. It is directly across from the main Metromover station and is one block from I-95 entrance and exit ramps. The Miami Downtown Development Authority’s current development map locates the property at the center of Miami’s downtown commercial core. It is the ideal location is for redevelopment of what will become Miami’s largest and most prestigious office tower. The project will rise 80 stories and will reach a height of 1,049 ft to the top of the decorative spire. The views will be unparalleled.

One Bayfront Plaza project will encompass approximately four million sq ft and will include more than 1,400,000 sq ft of Class 'A' office space in the main tower, and a 850 room hotel. Additionally there will be 125,000 sq ft of retail space and a parking garage with 2,000 spaces in the pedestal base that takes in two full city blocks.

The development will serve as a catalyst to attract new investment activity and is the ideal project in size, scope, location and amenities to attract national and international business. The office tower will have large open and flexible floor plates with 35,000 sq ft each. The floors will have spectacular direct bay views.

The 850 key, world class, full service hotel will be supplemented by 125,000 sq ft of banqueting and exhibition space to serve significant conventions and meetings as well as the needs of the office and the retail component. It will be the first new hotel built north the Miami River in 25 years. The project will also provide two full levels of premium retail mall space in addition to the ground level retail areas, for a total 125,000 sq ft of retail space. The project’s retail mall will also create a parallel destination for the 12 million annual visitors to Bayside Marketplace as well as for the more than 4 million annual cruise ship passengers.

Source with more photos.

http://archrecord.construction.com/y...y_id=136969466

Architect Plans to Encase Vacant Detroit Home in Ice
10/27/2009
Associated Press/AP Online


By DAVID RUNK

DETROIT - A photographer and an architect plan to freeze one of Detroit's thousands of abandoned homes this winter, encasing it in ice to draw attention to foreclosures that have battered the region.

The project from Gregory Holm and Matthew Radune, dubbed Ice House Detroit, is the latest example of the remnants of Detroit's population loss and industrial decline serving as both artistic inspiration and canvas.

"I've been really fascinated by the whole mythology of Detroit and the structures and what they represent," said Holm, who grew up on the city's east side and lived in the suburb of Hamtramck from 1997 until moving to New York City four years ago.

Holm, 38, plans to photograph the transformation of the house, which will be sprayed with water and gradually covered in ice. In the spring, crews will salvage what building materials can be reused and demolish the home. The lot will be donated, probably for a community garden.

The Detroit area has a foreclosure rate that's among the nation's highest, and Radune said the city offers a unique backdrop for the artists' work.

"It's a project that couldn't be done in the same way in New York City and it wouldn't necessarily make the same sense," said Radune, a 32-year-old freelance architect in Brooklyn who also is a DJ. "Detroit was a place where we could make it into more than architectural installation."

Holm and Radune are working to raise $11,000 online to fund the project, mostly for costs related to demolition, and hope to soon figure out where in the city they'll freeze a home.

Detroit, which has shrunk from a population of 1.8 million in the 1950s to half that now, has tens of thousands of vacant homes and buildings.

"It's Detroit's distinctive history that makes it so resonant for this kind of work," said John Beardsley, an adjunct professor with Harvard's Graduate School of Design. "It was a go-go city that in recent years has been identified as gone.

"This is not to say that Detroit can't come back, but there is a particular poignance to this history."

One deteriorating Detroit neighborhood became the outdoor art gallery for Tyree Guyton, whose more than two-decade-old Heidelberg Project has drawn international attention. Guyton transformed the houses, streets and lots with his colorful polka-dot art and collections of stuffed animals, shoes and old appliances.

More recently, a group calling itself Object Orange painted the shells of crumbling Detroit buildings bright orange to call attention to the city's blight and decay.

Radune developed the idea for Ice House while studying architecture at Rice University in Houston. After talking it over with Holm earlier this year, they decided to collaborate. A book and film about the project also are planned.

---

On the Net:

Ice House Detroit: http://icehousedetroit.blogspot.com