Construction has begun on the U.S. Institute of Peace headquarters in Washington, D.C., designed by Moshe Safdie and Associates. Image: Courtesy the Endowment of the U.S. Institute of Peace. Extra Large Image

Boston · 2008.0903
IA Interior Architects has promoted Mark Forth, AIA, LEED AP, to managing director of the firm's Boston, Massachusetts, office. Forth joined the firm in October 2007. He was previously managing principal of Mark Forth Architect, Inc. in Melrose, Massachusetts. His portfolio includes a range of corporate, commercial, hospitality, and retail projects, including the Hotel Commonwealth and Eastern Standard restaurant in Boston, and ongoing museum exhibit design work for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Museum.

Johannesburg · 2008.0903
International multidisciplinary firm RTKL Associates Inc. has revealed its winning design for an extensive renovation of Sandton City Shopping Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa. RTKL will direct the planning and conceptual design of the R1.77 billion ($226 million) project, including a 30,000-square-meter (320,000-square-foot) addition to the mixed-use facility, which currently includes over 300 shops, an 11-screen movie theater, restaurants, an office tower, and a hotel. New architectural veils will extend from the commercial towers to decrease solar radiation and glare, shade internal courts and atria, and shelter roof gardens. Completion of the phased redevelopment is planned for early 2012.

El Cajon · 2008.0902
Construction has begun on a new parking structure and adjacent 3,200-square-foot (300-square-meter) public safety office at Grossmont College in El Cajon, California. Los Angeles-based International Parking Design (IPD) is the architect for the project, and the San Diego office of McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is the builder. The three-level, 403,000-square-foot (37,400-square-meter) parking structure, which will accommodate 1,431 vehicles, will feature sections of metal trellises with stucco and brick veneer attached to the external facade. Two pedestrian bridges will connect it to the main campus. Completion is slated for July 2009.

San Francisco · 2008.0901
The inaugural Slow Food Nation event was recently held in San Francisco, California, from August 29 to September 1, 2008. San Francisco-based architecture and urban design firm SMWM designed the master plan to transform Civic Center Plaza for the sustainable food event.

The marketplace featured a central Victory Garden planted on the lawn in front of City Hall, as well as a farmers' market, food bazaar, "soap box," picnic lawns, and two tap-water stations designed by SMWM. The garden was designed and built by the Garden for the Environment's Victory Garden 08+ Program, CMG Landscape Architecture of San Francisco, and City Slicker Farms of Oakland. The event was attended by 60,000 people.

Cocodrie · 2008.0901
Hurricane Gustav hit the United States on September 1, 2008, near Cocodrie, Louisiana, 70 miles (115 kilometers) southwest of New Orleans, as a Category 2 hurricane. Storm-related deaths in the U.S. Gulf Coast region number in the dozens. Many more deaths in the Caribbean have been attributed to the storm, which bore down on Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and Cuba prior to U.S. landfall.

The storm downed trees and power lines, damaged buildings, and left more than one million households along the Gulf without power. In New Orleans, flooding was limited, and the levees held up despite being far from fully repaired since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. The storm is also estimated to have damaged 25 to 40 percent of Louisiana's sugar cane crop. Almost all oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico was shut down prior to the storm, and the extent of damage to offshore oil platforms and rigs, and to refineries, remains uncertain.

Damage assessments continue throughout the region as evacuees return to the area. Preliminary U.S. insurance industry estimates of damage to insured properties have ranged up to $10 billion — a number that would put the storm within the top ten costliest mainland U.S. tropical cyclones since 1900.

Washington, D.C. · 2008.0814
Construction is underway on the U.S. Institute of Peace headquarters and public education center (rendered above) in Washington, D.C. Moshe Safdie and Associates, based in Somerville, Massachusetts, designed the building with a series of wing-like roof elements made of steel frame and white translucent glass. The project will also feature a curving foundation and landscaped plaza.

Located on one of the National Mall's last available sites, across from the Lincoln Memorial, the 154,000-square-foot (14,300-square-meter) headquarters will include office and conference space, a training center for professional conflict managers, and a 20,000-square-foot (1,900-square-meter) education center with multimedia exhibits. The Institute expects over 500,000 visitors a year.

The New York City office of Buro Happold is the mechanical, structural, and electrical engineer. Wiles Mensch Corporation of Reston, Virginia, is the civil engineer. Bethesda, Maryland-based Clark Construction Group, LLC is building the project.

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