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Refrigerator Heaven
"The velvety surface of the in-situ black concrete skin was glowing in the light rain at the Topping Out ceremony on December 8th. Ordrupgaard Director Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark thanked the construction crew for their teamwork and superb workmanship in the realization of Zaha Hadid’s visionary design. Minister of Culture Brian Mikkelsen led the list of speakers.
The topping out, an important tradition in construction projects, is when the uppermost steel beam is put into place, which means that the structure under construction has reached its highest point. A flag and evergreens are placed on top of the structure marking the final stretch in the building’s progress."
Freedom Tower Site Poised for a Game of Inches
"Yet the waves have to be 20 feet or higher for the contest to occur, and the competition has been held in only six of the past 16 seasons. With waves of about 30 feet breaking at Waimea this morning, the surf was high enough for the contest to start at about 8:30 a.m. local time, media director Jodi Young said by telephone on what she called ``an absolutely perfect day.''
``It's amazing,'' Young said. ``There's probably about 10,000 people here. It's definitely the most people this beach has ever seen. Really it's just an absolute spectacle. The waves that are coming through are just dwarfing the houses.''
Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration has launched development strategies in over 20 New York City neighborhoods to create new offices and new housing.
Brookings
Toward a New Metropolis: The Opportunity To Rebuild America
In short, this paper finds that:
In 2030, about half of the buildings in which Americans live, work, and shop will have been built after 2000. The nation had about 300 billion square feet of built space in 2000. By 2030, the nation will need about 427 billion square feet of built space to accommodate growth projections. About 82 billion of that will be from replacement of existing space and 131 will be new space. Thus, 50 percent of that 427 billion will have to be constructed between now and then.
Most of the space built between 2000 and 2030 will be residential space. The largest component of this space will be homes. Over 100 billion square feet of new residential space will be needed by 2030. However, percentage-wise, the commercial and industrial sectors will have the most new space with over 60 percent of the space in 2030 less than 30 years old.
Overall, most new growth will occur in the South and the West. There is tremendous variation in the total amount of buildings to be built between regions. In the Northeast, for example, less than 50 percent of the space in 2030 will have been built since 2000, while in the West that figure is about 87 percent, a near doubling of built space. Fast growing southern and western places—states like Nevada and Florida and metropolitan areas like Austin and Raleigh—will see the most dramatic growth.
Though a small component of overall growth, the projected demand for industrial space in the Midwest outpaces that of the other regions, unlike the other major land uses. States with a strong industrial presence will see the largest amount of growth in industrial space even though other areas may witness faster growth. After California, which far outpaces the nation in terms of absolute square feet of new industrial construction, the next four largest producers of industrial space are all Rust Belt states in the Midwest: Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana. By 2030, 70 percent of the Midwest's industrial space will be less than 30 years old.
While these projections may seem overwhelming, they also demonstrate that nearly half of what will be the built environment in 2030 doesn't even exist yet, giving the current generation a vital opportunity to reshape future development. Recent trends indicate that demand is increasing for more compact, walkable, and high quality living, entertainment, and work environments. The challenge for leaders is to create the right market, land use, and other regulatory climates to accommodate new growth in more sustainable ways.