Tall Order

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat has named the David Rubenstein Forum at the University of Chicago as the Best Tall Building Worldwide in its annual award program.  “With the United Nations projecting nearly 70 percent urbanization by 2050, the demand is growing for healthier, more sustainable, and socially just urban environments—tall buildings and other smart, resilient approaches…

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Concrete Excellence

The eighth annual American Concrete Institute Excellence in Concrete Construction Awards recognized one Canadian and four U.S. projects, among a field of 14 in seven categories.  The program was created to honor the visions of the most creative projects in the concrete industry, while providing a platform to recognize concrete innovation, technology and excellence across the globe. To be eligible…

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Carbon (fiber) embodiment

The CPC entry was among 133 organizers booked in the 2022 bauma Innovation Award Construction, Climate Protection, Digitalization, Mechanical Engineering and Research categories. The competition is a joint project of VDMA Construction – Equipment and Plant Engineering and bauma host Messe München, plus the Federation of the German Construction Industry, German Construction Confederation and German Building Materials Association. Companies and…

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A ‘Concrete’ Mystery

Researchers have enlisted the resources of one of the world’s leading X-ray facilities at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Ill. to help discover what lies inside German-born artist Wolf Vostell’s “Concrete Book #83.”  The results of the X-ray scans, which will be published in an unnamed journal, hope to uncover a short book by…

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Back to School

Students at Ransom Everglades School (Coconut Grove, Fla.) and Longwood University (Farmville, Va.) returned to award-winning precast/prestressed concrete buildings this school year: a STEM center and residence halls, respectively. Both projects were recognized in the 2022 Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute Design Awards program. PCI-certified precast concrete producer and specialty engineer Gate Precast of Kissimmee, Fla., was behind the lightweight but formidable…

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Master of Concrete tribute

A development team recently rebranded the MacMillan Bloedel building in Vancouver, B.C. as a namesake for design architect Arthur Erickson (1925-2009), who executed the Modernist work for a client that was once Canada’s largest forestry products company. At 27 stories, the “MacBlo” building was the city’s tallest upon its 1968 completion. It became a national heritage landmark due to its…

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Community catalyst

Lafarge Canada has teamed with BGC Ottawa (formerly the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa) to build the new Taggart Parkes Family Clubhouse, donating upward of 500 cubic meters of ECOPact low-carbon ready mixed concrete for the 15,000-square-foot facility. The recent grand opening ceremony marked a special milestone for the thousands of children and youth in underserved neighborhoods in the…

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Transamerica Pyramid at 50

New York luxury real estate developer SHVO recently announced a $250 million renovation of San Francisco’s iconic Transamerica Pyramid Center, its 850-ft. namesake structure one of the world’s premier architectural precast concrete installations. Over a 1971-1972 window, Western Art Stone staged production about 10 miles from the site, delivering 3,920 exposed white quartz aggregate elements spanning 360,000 sq. ft. of…

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Beneficial Bunker

St. Louis general contractor/construction manager Tarlton Corp., in partnership with Morton, Ill. concrete and masonry contractor Otto Baum Company Inc., recently completed a cast-in-place proton therapy vault for an OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center clinic in Peoria, Ill.  With wall sections up to 25-ft. thick, the $5.5 million structure is Tarlton Concrete Division’s second such mass feat in the…

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Mo-Sai: Brutally resilient

A 165-room Hilton Tapestry Collection property opening this month in Connecticut, Hotel Marcel New Haven, reimagines architect Marcel Breuer’s Armstrong Rubber Company headquarters. Opened in 1970, the Brutalist style building combines architectural precast with cast-in-place concrete and structural steel. Precast elements exhibiting intricate geometry and texture, including more than 500 recessed window pieces, exemplify quality associated with Mo-Sai Institute licensees.…

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