UNITED STATES
The two long-awaited pavilions designed by Ben van Berkel and Zaha Hadid to honour the Chicago Plan on its 100th anniversary have opened in Chicago’s Millennium Park. However, due to setbacks and delays Hadid’s structure was only partially finished. Despite being an aluminum carcass, Hadid’s structure did not disappoint the public. “The aluminum skeleton of Zaha’s pavilion is breathtaking and the crowd loves it”, said Sallie Gaines, a spokesperson for the Burnham Centennial, said. Both pavilions are due to close in October but organisers are considering extending the exhibition and displaying the Hadid pavilion at another site next summer.
OMAN
Bovis Lend Lease is alleging it was not paid for its work on a $25.2 billion project in Oman and is suing the developer for up to $1.9 million. Bovis provided project management on the first phase of a Foster + Partners designed, 5,841-home residential project near the capital Muscat between 2005 and 2008. Bovis is the latest in a long list of firms experience difficulty in getting paid in the Middle East. The contractor has filed a writ against the developer, which is also called Blue City, claiming it did not receive several payments.
UNITED KINGDOM
The kitsch British pier may be about to enjoy a renaissance. British broadsheet, the Guardian, is calling to local councils near Southend to be brave and renovate the town’s Grade II-listed pier. Chiefly built to catch the sun, the walkway is “full of potential” and if the council is brave enough to commission “bold, imaginative architects” the world’s longest pier could soon become the world’s busiest pier.
UNITED STATES
HOK’s Los Angeles office, with Parsons Brinckerhoff, has won the commission for a major new transit center in downtown Anaheim that is forecast to become a hub for California’s future high-speed rail network, as well as for Amtrak, commuter rail, and other regional transit lines. The $180 million, 16-acre project will include a 6,131sq m station and the masterplan for a mixed-used area around it. The complex is due to begin construction in 2011 and open in 2013.
GLOBAL
It’s been long-held in international climate policy that as long as the world can keep the increase in average global temperatures below two degrees Celsius, drastic climate change and irreversible damage could still be averted. However, new research shows that this target may no longer be within reach. Today’s levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are high enough to cause a global increase in temperature of between 2 and 2.4 degrees Celsius. "Drastic and immediate" emissions reductions would be "impossible," the paper presented in Brussels argues. Read more.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,631262,00.html#ref=nlint
