The McCaffery Interests and U.S. Steel Corp.’s master plan for Chicago Lakeside, designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), has been named one of 10 finalists for the first Sustainia Award. The project was named to the Sustainia100 in July at the United Nation’s Rio+21 conference as one of 100 projects and ideas from 56 countries that represent the best ideas for sustainability in the world. The inaugural Sustainia Award will “honor the best sustainable solution,” according to organizers.
The winners of the Sustainia Award and the associated Community Award will be announced on Oct. 11 by former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger during a ceremony at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen. Selection of the Sustainia Award winner will be made by a jury consisting of Gov. Schwarzenegger, former Prime Minister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Chair Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri and EU Commissioner of Climate Action Connie Hedegaard. The Community Award winner will be chosen by the general public via voting through Sustainia’s large social media community.
Chicago Lakeside sits on a site of almost 600 acres along Chicago’s Lake Michigan shore. Formerly home to a steel mill, the land is devoid of infrastructure—creating an opportunity to develop the prime lakefront real estate as a 21st century neighborhood.
Plans include a rich mix of proposed uses, including over 15,000 residential units and more than 15-million-square-feet of retail, restaurants, commercial, institutional and research and development facilities. Open space will include two miles of new park land along the shores of Lake Michigan, extending the lakefront park system originally envisioned by Daniel Burnham in his legendary 1909 Plan of Chicago.
The “Lakeside Idea” is about bridging a brownfield industrial past to a green lifestyle future, from steel mill to innovation mill. Lakeside has assembled an international leadership team in the design of future-focused infrastructures – in water and energy conservation, transportation and personal mobility, renewable energy and digital connectivity.
The first work since the demolition of the U.S. Steel South Works more than 20 years ago began earlier this spring when construction began on the extension of Lake Shore Drive through the site between 79th and 87th Streets. The road is scheduled to be complete by December with landscaping work finished in spring 2013, helping to speed commutes for local residents and setting the stage for the initial construction of buildings within Chicago Lakeside soon afterwards. +
Related Stories
| May 16, 2011
Dassault Systèmes to distribute Gehry Technologies’ digital project
Dassault Systèmes and Gehry Technologies announced that Gehry Technologies’ Digital Project products will be integrated into the Dassault Systèmes’ portfolio and distributed through Dassault Systèmes. Digital Project is a suite of 3D BIM applications created by Gehry Technologies using Dassault Systèmes’ CATIA as a core modeling engine.
| May 11, 2011
DOE releases guide for 50% more energy-efficient office buildings
The U.S. Department of Energy today announced the release of the first in a new series of Advanced Energy Design Guides to aid in the design of highly energy efficient office buildings. The 50% AEDG series will provide a practical approach to commercial buildings designed to achieve 50% energy savings compared to the commercial building energy code used in many areas of the country.
| May 10, 2011
Google hires Ingenhoven Architects to design new Mountain View office
The current Googleplex is straining at the seams and yet the company is preparing its biggest hiring surge ever, so Google decided now’s the time to build its own office space—a first for the Internet giant. The company hired Ingenhoven Architects, a German firm that specializes in sustainable architecture, to create plans for what could be a 600,000-sf office.
| May 10, 2011
Solar installations on multifamily rooftops aid social change
The Los Angeles Business Council's study on the feasibility of installing solar panels on the city’s multifamily buildings shows there's tremendous rooftop capacity, and that a significant portion of that rooftop capacity comes from buildings in economically depressed neighborhoods. Solar installations could therefore be used to create jobs, lower utility costs, and improve conditions for residents in these neighborhood.
| May 10, 2011
Dinner is now served…atop the Lincoln Memorial?
Take a look at the temporary restaurant sitting atop Brussels’ historic Arc de Triomphe-Triomfboog. The Cube, by Electrolux, offers 18 diners a spectacular view of the Parc du Cinquantenair, and is one of two structures traveling across Europe, making stops at famous landmarks in Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, and Russia. What do you think about one of these 60-tonne structures being placed on a U.S. memorial?
| May 6, 2011
Ellerbe Becket now operating as AECOM
*/ The architecture, interiors and engineering firm Ellerbe Becket, which joined AECOM in 2009, has fully transitioned to operating as AECOM as of May 2, 2011.
| May 2, 2011
URS acquires Apptis Holdings, a federal IT service provider
SAN FRANCISCO, CA and CHANTILLY, VA– April 28, 2011 – URS Corporation and Apptis Holdings, Inc., a leading provider of information technology and communications services to the federal government, announced that they have signed a definitive agreement under which URS will acquire Apptis.
| May 2, 2011
Perkins+Will merges with Vermeulen Hind Architects, offically launches Perkins+Will Canada
Ottawa and Hamilton-based Vermeulen Hind Architects, one of Canada’s leading healthcare architectural firms, has merged with Perkins+Will. Vermeulen Hind joins Toronto-based Shore Tilbe Perkins+Will and Vancouver-based Busby Perkins+Will to create Perkins+Will Canada. The combination marks the official launch of Perkins+Will Canada, a merge that will establish the firm as among the pre-eminent interdisciplinary design practices in Canada.
| Apr 26, 2011
Ed Mazria on how NYC can achieve carbon neutrality in buildings by 2030
The New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects invited Mr. Mazria to present a keynote lecture to launch its 2030 training program. In advance of that lecture, Jacob Slevin, co-founder of DesignerPages.com and a contributor to The Huffington Post, interviewed Mazria about creating a sustainable vision for the future and how New York City's architects and designers can rise to the occasion.
