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University of Michigan’s Central Campus residence hall, as seen looking west from Hill Street. Rendering © RAMSA

The University of Michigan addresses a decades-long student housing shortage with a new housing-dining facility

The University of Michigan has faced a decades-long shortage of on-campus student housing. In a couple of years, the situation should significantly improve with the addition of a new residential community on Central Campus in Ann Arbor, Mich. The University of Michigan has engaged American Campus Communities in a public-private partnership to lead the development of the environmentally sustainable living-learning student community.

MFPRO+ New Projects

Shipping containers converted into attractive, affordable multifamily housing in L.A.

In the Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles, a new affordable multifamily housing project using shipping containers resulted in 24 micro-units for formerly unhoused residents. The containers were acquired from a nearby port and converted into housing units at a factory.

Adaptive Reuse

Empty mall to be converted to UCLA Research Park

UCLA recently acquired a former mall that it will convert into the UCLA Research Park that will house the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy at UCLA and the UCLA Center for Quantum Science and Engineering, as well as programs across other disciplines. The 700,000-sf property, formerly the Westside Pavilion shopping mall, is two miles from the university’s main Westwood campus. Google, which previously leased part of the property, helped enable and support UCLA’s acquisition.

Geothermal Technology

Rochester, Minn., plans extensive geothermal network

The city of Rochester, Minn., home of the famed Mayo Clinic, is going big on geothermal networks. The city is constructing Thermal Energy Networks (TENs) that consist of ambient pipe loops connecting multiple buildings and delivering thermal heating and cooling energy via water-source heat pumps.

Engineers

Engineering goes hand-in-hand with design, putting a practical lens on the architect’s vision and finding the best way to make it happen. Without a talented engineer, the project will never reach completion, and certainly will not reach the standards of functionality and sustainability that the architect and client are seeking.

Atascadero City Hall was severely damaged by the San Simeon earthquake in 2003.

Aug 25, 2014

Restoration of quake-ravaged Atascadero City Hall affirms city’s strength [2014 Reconstruction Awards]

The landmark city hall was severely damaged by the San Simeon earthquake in 2003. Reconstruction renewed the building’s stability, restored its exterior, and improved the functionality of the interior.

Cincinnati Art Museum - Longworth Wing Renovation. Building Team: emersion DESIG

Aug 25, 2014

Ranked: Top cultural facility sector AEC firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]

Arup, Gensler, and Turner head BD+C's rankings of design and construction firms with the most revenue from cultural facility projects, as reported in the 2014 Giants 300 Report.

Perkins and Will | Aug 25, 2014

Tall wood buildings: Surveying the early innovators

Timber has been largely abandoned as a structural solution in taller buildings during the last century, in favor of concrete and steel. Perkins+Will's Rebecca Holt writes about the firm's work in surveying the burgeoning tall wood buildings sector.

Kingdom Tower. Image courtesy of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill.

Aug 25, 2014

'Vanity space' makes up large percentage of world's tallest buildings [infographic]

Large portions of some skyscrapers are useless space used to artificially enhance their height, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

Aug 25, 2014

Photographer creates time-lapse video of 1 WTC using 30,000 photos

Choosing from 30,000 photos he took from the day construction began in 2006 to the day when construction was finished in 2012, Brooklyn-based photographer Benjamin Rosamund compressed 1,100 photos to create the two-minute video.

Bill O'Keeffe | Aug 25, 2014

Glazing plays key role in reinventing stairway design

Within the architectural community, a movement called "active design" seeks to convert barren and unappealing stairwells originally conceived as emergency contingencies into well-designed architectural focal points. SPONSORED CONTENT

Joe Edge | Aug 25, 2014

An easy trick for minimizing construction delays

About one out of every three construction projects is behind schedule or over budget, according to the Construction Industry Institute's Assessment of Owner Project Management Practices and Performance survey. SPONSORED CONTENT

Aug 22, 2014

Spireworks app lets users control a piece of the New York skyline

Mark Domino, the son-in-law of developer Douglas Durst, has developed an app, called Spireworks, that allows anyone with a smartphone to change the color of a building's lights.

J. Craig Venter Institutes Landmark Net-Zero-Energy Genomic Laboratory, La Joll

Aug 21, 2014

Ranked: Top science and technology sector AEC firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]

HDR, Affiliated Engineers, and Skanska top BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest S+T sector design and construction firms.

Cobo Conference and Exhibition Center Expansion & Renovation, Detroit, Mich. Bui

Aug 21, 2014

Ranked: Top convention center AEC firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]

Gensler, AECOM, and Hunt Construction top BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest convention center design and construction firms.

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