The New York State Capitol was designed by a succession of architects, including H.H. Richardson and Leopold Eidlitz. Constructed in stages between 1870 and 1900, the building features Second Empire and Richardsonian Romanesque elements. Sporadic...
The State House was constructed in three phases. The original Federal/Georgian building was designed by Charles Bulfinch and completed in 1798. In 1896, a renaissance revival Annex with yellow brick and marble features was added onto the back of...
In response to a mandate from the Office of the President, UC Berkeley and the other UC locations need to assign risk ratings to all campus buildings per the university’s seismic policy and assure that all occupied buildings comply with the...
Looking to expand in San Francisco’s Design District area, Equity Residential undertook developing Showplace Square in hopes of attracting employees at the nearby tech companies. The nearly seven-acre development brings 840 apartments in...
With an aging Public Works/Highway Department (DPW) building that could no longer accommodate the Town of Millis’s public works storage, maintenance, and administrative needs under one roof, the town was faced with deciding whether to...
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research is one of the largest federal research facilities in the country. The multibuilding complex comprises laboratories and research space, a library, an...
4901 Searle Parkway was constructed in 1941 as the G.D. Searle & Co. headquarters and is, along with its 1958 and 1965 additions, now part of the Illinois Science and Technology Park. American Landmark Properties (ALP) acquired the...
The earliest section of the Billiou-Stillwell-Perine House was constructed in the early 1660s by Pierre Billiou at a time when Staten Island was part of part of the Dutch colony known as New Netherland. Thomas Stillwelll added to the home in the...
This new residence was constructed on a property overlooking Lake Michigan and including an existing 20 ft retaining wall along the bluff. The owners wanted to enhance sight lines to the lake by constructing a pool adjacent to the retaining wall...
With five stories devoted to the art of coffee, the Chicago roastery is Starbucks’s largest store. The building, located on Chicago’s famed Magnificent Mile, was previously occupied by a large retail tenant and underwent a complete...
Excavation and heavy civil construction in urban environments directly impact abutters and existing adjacent structures. Noise and dust create nuisance concerns, while demolition, excavation and dewatering can cause earth movement and structural...
All parking garages under the jurisdiction of the New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code must undergo a periodic condition assessment to help ensure structural integrity and user safety. This is a recent mandate resulting from a...
Brooklyn Basin is a multi-billion-dollar real estate development of the former Port of Oakland 9th Avenue Terminal located along the Oakland Estuary. The centerpiece of the development is the 10 acre shoreline park which includes a 1,200 foot...
The wharf at the Fore River Shipyard was built for shipbuilding circa 1960; recently, it was home to the USS Salem, a permanently-moored retired US Navy heavy cruiser that served as a museum. True to its intended purpose, the wharf is a robust...
New construction in metropolitan areas has direct impacts on immediate neighbors and abutters. While noise and dust are generally nuisance concerns, demolition, vibrations, excavation, and dewatering can cause structural damage to...
There is a significant amount of AWWA C303 bar-wrapped pipe (BWP) and C200 steel pipe water transmission mains installed across the United States. While condition assessment of aging BWP lines has typically not received as much attention as some...
A well-designed, constructed, and maintained building facade protects the building interior from water leakage, air infiltration, and energy loss. However, environmental exposure and time can degrade facade components. Facade deterioration can lead to a range of issues from compromised performance to potential falling hazards.
A new rule in New York now requires that all parking garages under the jurisdiction of the New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code undergo a periodic condition assessment to help ensure structural integrity and user safety. Owners of parking garages must retain a professional engineer to perform the inspection and submit a report to the local authority having jurisdiction to obtain an operating permit.
Steeplechase Pier, located in Coney Island, Brooklyn, was damaged by Hurricane Sandy in late 2012. During reconstruction of the pier in 2013, the mooring “spud” of a construction barge failed and the barge rammed into the pier, seriously damaging it. Their article outlines the response to investigate this damage and develop repairs, details the challenges of completing an investigation that determined the condition of the piles, and discusses how the aggressive schedule to reopen the pier ultimately determined the chosen repair scheme.
Damaged and deteriorated building facades are a serious public safety concern. The damage also affects the appearance and structure of buildings playing significant roles in San Francisco’s culture and history. When facade elements fail, there is a chance the component could fall — putting people and property at risk. As a result, many cities, including Boston, Chicago, and New York, have adopted facade ordinances.