Category : Construction & Design

David J. Burney, FAIA, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Design and Construction, announced the selection of 26 architecture firms in the latest round of the City’s Design + Construction Excellence program. The program recruits world-renowned and emerging architects to design the City’s new public buildings and other capital construction projects.

Lenore Janis, president of Professional Women in Construction hailed the construction of 7 Bryant Park as game-changer on the New York City landscape. “Clearly, 7 Bryant Park will enhance New York City’s landscape and economic vitality. We are glad to see so many key women playing major roles in its formation and are delighted to honor the women and the men heading the project,” said Janis as she opened the ceremony honoring the tower as PWC’s Project of the Year. During a reception held at The Yale Club, Tommy Craig, senior managing director for the project’s developer, Hines, said, “We have a deep faith that in building projects you have to start with the right people. Our world is dominated by the concept of teamwork. The people working on the project are emblematic of the ideals we believe in.”

Private sector construction employment in New York City rose 2.4 percent in 2012 while wages have remained virtually unchanged, according to a New York Building Congress analysis of New York State Department of Labor employment statistics. New York City construction employment for all of 2012 averaged 114,875, up from an average of 112,192 jobs in 2011. The overall jobs numbers have remained in a very narrow range for three consecutive years (112,383 construction jobs recorded in 2010). The modest upward trend in construction employment has continued in the initial months of 2013.

Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri kicked off the Department’s 9th annual Construction Safety Week with the 2013 Build Safe/Live Safe Conference at the New York Marriott Downtown at the weekend. More than 400 construction professionals and government regulators attended the daylong conference where the Department announced the results of Operation: Low Rise, a two-month long inspection sweep of low-rise construction sites throughout the City.

The New York City District Council of Carpenters’ Delegate Body ratified a new five-year collective bargaining agreement last week that provides a 16.6% wage and benefit increase over the life of the contract.

Hidrock Realty Inc. and Robert Finvarb Companies (RFC), the joint venture that purchased the parcel at 133 Greenwich St., has selected Courtyard by Marriott to flag their upcoming 317-key hotel.

The city is calling upon New York’s design and architectural communities to create an impregnable community in the storm-battered Rockaways. They want the brightest and best to plan a new 80-acre community called Arverne East that will stand up to the worst Mother Nature can throw at it. And the best designs will serve as a blueprint for how to best developer waterfront communities.

AECOM Technology Corporation, the global technical and management support firm, announced this week that its $150 million fund will make direct investments in real estate and public-private projects.