January 11, 2010 | The latest architecture business, design, and product news from around the web

TIME

Commercial real estate will be slow to come unglued

"It's a train wreck in slow motion," says a Deutsche Bank executive. Many people may be wondering why the much-predicted collapse of the commercial real estate market hasn't seemed to have happened, but unlike the residential mortgage crisis, it will likely play out over the course of years rather than weeks. Nearly two-thirds of commercial loans packaged and sold as securities are coming due but won't make the grade for refinancing. Banks are stuck wondering how to deal with short-term and construction loans that won't be paid. And "vulture investors" who help spark new activity after a crash are as yet sitting on their hands. "Because it's in slow motion, people get this sense that it's really not happening," says the Deutsche Bank executive. "It is happening."

THE WASHINGTON POST

Biomass waste-to-fuel subsidy is driving up wood prices

The Biomass Crop Assistance Program, part of the 2008 farm bill passed by Congress, is supposed to help turn industrial waste such as wood shavings into energy. But it's become a subsidy program worth half a billion dollars to the lumber business as sawmills sell their shavings and sawdust (for as much as $45 a ton) to be used as fuel. The upshot has been rising prices of raw timber and a reduction in the amount of wood waste available to makers of particle-board-based furniture. An executive with Flakeboard, which makes composite panels, says the subsidy program could "wipe us out."

ARCHITECT MAGAZINE

In Abu Dhabi, this must be the world's fastest hotel

In his Beyond Buildings blog, Aaron Betsky stops by the new Yas Hotel in Abu Dhabi, designed by Asymptote Architecture, which is built around a Formula One race track. The complex is quite a spectacle, as its two hotel buildings are joined by a gigantic gridded veil that covers them with 5,800 glass panels embedded with LEDs, making it the world's largest LED screen. "This insanely expensive invention is mainly there to be gorgeous," Betsky writes, and it sounds as if it succeeds. The building, he adds, shows "how sensuous technology can be while fusing space into the kind of coherence the computer has been promising us for more than a decade."

BILLINGS GAZETTE (MONTANA)

Some in Billings are upset with GSA's design process

A new $60 million federal courthouse is coming to Billings, Mont., designed by NBBJ. But some local officials are gnashing their teeth over the General Services Administration's delay in showing them the design, and a Montana congressman is second-guessing the construction bidding process. The GSA says it will present the design at an open house scheduled for Feburary in Billings. One architect insists that residents "have a right to determine what this building looks like." A county commissioner obliquely suggests suing the GSA to release the design. The chair of the Downtown Billings Partnership is more relaxed, saying the GSA sought public input early on. But Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.), wants to know why Mortenson Construction of Minnesota was chosen as the builder when Sletten Construction of Montana bid $8 million less.

ALLGOV.com

Who is Martha Johnson, Obama's pick to lead GSA?

And why hasn't she been confirmed yet? Johnson, whom President Obama named to head the General Services Administration this past April, has an MBA from Yale, worked at the Cummins Engine Co. as a manager and then as a finance chief for an architecture firm in Cambridge, Mass. After serving in the Clinton-Gore transition office, she ran the Office of Presidential Personnel and then became an associate deputy secretary at the Department of Commerce. She also worked in recent years at a technology consulting firm that won $4.2 billion in federal contracts, including $146 million from GSA. About the delay in confirmation: Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) is holding up her nomination because he wants a new federal office building in Kansas City, Mo., which means Johnson, who would follow the checkered tenure of the Bush appointee Lurita Doan, is the Obama agency nominee waiting the longest period for confirmation.

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Editor's Choice

Urban Architecture India

India is one of the largest countries in the world. And in the last few decades, the exodus of population from rural to urban areas has been staggering. The strain and subsequent breakdown of infrastructure, systems, and utilities creates conditions that are alarming. As architects, urban designers, and planners, we have a professional, social, and moral responsibility to force change. No topic is taboo.

About

The Architect Newswire is a daily compilation of web articles, blog posts, and other information on the business and design of architecture. Know of a great resource we might not be tapping? Saw a great story we missed? Tell us.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

On Long Island, Katrina Cottages have an affordable appeal

The Katrina Cottage, a small house designed by the New York architect Marianne Cusato as a quick, solid replacement house for the Gulf Coast region after Hurricane Katrina, is getting a serious look as an alternative form of affordable housing by officials in Suffolk County, N.Y. Members of the Community Development Agency in the town of Islip have endorsed the idea of adding Katrina Cottages to the affordable stock being built by the town. It would be particularly good for small-sized lots, says Islip's planning commissioner, not least because "[y]ou can still keep decent side yards," plus its traditional look fits well with existing neighborhoods.

SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE (INDIANA)

Indiana architect helps to take housing to North Korea

LeRoy Troyer, an architect based in Mishawaka, Ind., and chairman of the Fuller Center for Housing, a Georgia-based ecumenical Christian housing ministry started by Habitat for Humanity co-founder Millard Fuller, is leading a volunteer mission to build 50 houses for farmers in Osan-ri, near Pyongyang, North Korea. The hope is that the houses will serve as models for relieving overcrowding on collective farms, and the goal is to repeat the effort in all of North Korea's 200 counties. The houses, which will have passive-energy features, are to cost less than $25,000 each.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

If Christopher Wren could see St. Paul's today ...

He would recognize it as much the same cathedral he designed more than three centuries ago. The great St. Paul's in London turns 300 years old this year, and a $64 million cleaning and restoration job is nearly done. Wren's latter-day successor to the title of the cathedral's Surveyor to the Fabric, who maintains the building, notes that Wren never crossed the Alps to see St. Peter's or other great domed structures: "What he was doing was creating the building in his mind." The privately funded renovation work on the cathedral has taken more than a decade.

MILWAUKEE SMALL BUSINESS TIMES

A new flyash brick factory has opened in Wisconsin

Here's some of that green economy so much talked about lately: CalStar Products, based in Newark, Calif., has opened a new 63,000-square-foot factory in Caledonia, Wis., for making bricks from flyash. It is said to be Wisconsin's first new brick factory in more than 50 years. The company is taking its flyash from the coal-fired plant of Wisconsin Energy Corp. in the nearby town of Oak Creek. Conventional bricks heat to harden at more than 2,000 degrees F for up to four days. The flyash bricks made by CalStar heat at 200 degrees F for one day. The company's chief operating officer says they can be used anywhere traditional bricks could be used, and will cost about the same.

THE MIAMI HERALD

The FAA is but the first hurdle for 160-story building

The would-be developer of a 160-story, 3,200-foot-high tower in Miami, Guillermo Socarras, claims he's in talks with the Federal Aviation Administration about creating a no-fly zone around the proposed site. He says the site is Jungle Island, a tourist destination on Watson Island, across from downtown in Biscayne Bay. But the owner of Jungle Island says the two haven't spoken in a while--and seeing that the owner has $60 million sunk into Jungle Island, he says he's unlikely to pack up. A number of companies listed as being involved in the planning of the project, called Miapolis, say they haven't been active recently, though a managing principal of the engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti insists, "When this thing is launched, it will change all of Miami."

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January 11, 2010 \| The latest architecture business, design, and product news from around the web
TIME Commercial real estate will be slow to come unglued "It's a train wreck in slow motion," says a Deutsche Bank executive. Many people may be wondering why the much-predicted collapse of the commercial real estate market hasn't seemed to have happened, but unlike the residential mortgage crisis, it will likely play out over the course of years rather than weeks. Nearly two-thirds of commercial loans packaged and sold as securities are coming due but won't make the grade for refinancing. Banks are stuck wondering how to deal with short-term and construction loans that won't be paid. And "vulture investors" who help spark new activity after a crash are as yet sitting on their hands. "Because it's in slow motion, people get this sense that it's really not happening," says the Deutsche Bank executive. "It is happening." THE WASHINGTON POST Biomass waste-to-fuel subsidy is driving up wood prices The Biomass Crop Assistance Program, part of the 2008 farm bill passed by Congress, is supposed to help turn industrial waste such as wood shavings into energy. But it's become a subsidy program worth half a billion dollars to the lumber business as sawmills sell their shavings and sawdust (for as much as $45 a ton) to be used as fuel. The upshot has been rising prices of raw timber and a reduction in the amount of wood waste available to makers of particle-board-based furniture. An executive with Flakeboard, which makes composite panels, says the subsidy program could "wipe us out." ARCHITECT MAGAZINE In Abu Dhabi, this must be the world's fastest hotel In his Beyond Buildings blog, Aaron Betsky stops by the new Yas Hotel in Abu Dhabi, designed by Asymptote Architecture, which is built around a Formula One race track. The complex is quite a spectacle, as its two hotel buildings are joined by a gigantic gridded veil that covers them with 5,800 glass panels embedded with LEDs, making it the world's largest LED screen. "This insanely expensive invention is mainly there to be gorgeous," Betsky writes, and it sounds as if it succeeds. The building, he adds, shows "how sensuous technology can be while fusing space into the kind of coherence the computer has been promising us for more than a decade." BILLINGS GAZETTE (MONTANA) Some in Billings are upset with GSA's design process A new $60 million federal courthouse is coming to Billings, Mont., designed by NBBJ. But some local officials are gnashing their teeth over the General Services Administration's delay in showing them the design, and a Montana congressman is second-guessing the construction bidding process. The GSA says it will present the design at an open house scheduled for Feburary in Billings. One architect insists that residents "have a right to determine what this building looks like." A county commissioner obliquely suggests suing the GSA to release the design. The chair of the Downtown Billings Partnership is more relaxed, saying the GSA sought public input early on. But Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.), wants to know why Mortenson Construction of Minnesota was chosen as the builder when Sletten Construction of Montana bid $8 million less. ALLGOV.com Who is Martha Johnson, Obama's pick to lead GSA? And why hasn't she been confirmed yet? Johnson, whom President Obama named to head the General Services Administration this past April, has an MBA from Yale, worked at the Cummins Engine Co. as a manager and then as a finance chief for an architecture firm in Cambridge, Mass. After serving in the Clinton-Gore transition office, she ran the Office of Presidential Personnel and then became an associate deputy secretary at the Department of Commerce. She also worked in recent years at a technology consulting firm that won $4.2 billion in federal contracts, including $146 million from GSA. About the delay in confirmation: Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) is holding up her nomination because he wants a new federal office building in Kansas City, Mo., which means Johnson, who would follow the checkered tenure of the Bush appointee Lurita Doan, is the Obama agency nominee waiting the longest period for confirmation.	Sponsor Spotlight Earn FREE Continuing Education Credits Visit Architect's Continuing Education Center for information on completing your mandatory continuing education requirements. 50+ AIA certified Continuing Education courses are available FREE on architectCES.com. Interactive online test offer real-time feedback and instant certification. Learn more about earning FREE credits. Editor's Choice Urban Architecture India India is one of the largest countries in the world. And in the last few decades, the exodus of population from rural to urban areas has been staggering. The strain and subsequent breakdown of infrastructure, systems, and utilities creates conditions that are alarming. As architects, urban designers, and planners, we have a professional, social, and moral responsibility to force change. No topic is taboo. About The Architect Newswire is a daily compilation of web articles, blog posts, and other information on the business and design of architecture. Know of a great resource we might not be tapping? Saw a great story we missed? Tell us.
THE NEW YORK TIMES On Long Island, Katrina Cottages have an affordable appeal The Katrina Cottage, a small house designed by the New York architect Marianne Cusato as a quick, solid replacement house for the Gulf Coast region after Hurricane Katrina, is getting a serious look as an alternative form of affordable housing by officials in Suffolk County, N.Y. Members of the Community Development Agency in the town of Islip have endorsed the idea of adding Katrina Cottages to the affordable stock being built by the town. It would be particularly good for small-sized lots, says Islip's planning commissioner, not least because "[y]ou can still keep decent side yards," plus its traditional look fits well with existing neighborhoods. SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE (INDIANA) Indiana architect helps to take housing to North Korea LeRoy Troyer, an architect based in Mishawaka, Ind., and chairman of the Fuller Center for Housing, a Georgia-based ecumenical Christian housing ministry started by Habitat for Humanity co-founder Millard Fuller, is leading a volunteer mission to build 50 houses for farmers in Osan-ri, near Pyongyang, North Korea. The hope is that the houses will serve as models for relieving overcrowding on collective farms, and the goal is to repeat the effort in all of North Korea's 200 counties. The houses, which will have passive-energy features, are to cost less than $25,000 each. LOS ANGELES TIMES If Christopher Wren could see St. Paul's today ... He would recognize it as much the same cathedral he designed more than three centuries ago. The great St. Paul's in London turns 300 years old this year, and a $64 million cleaning and restoration job is nearly done. Wren's latter-day successor to the title of the cathedral's Surveyor to the Fabric, who maintains the building, notes that Wren never crossed the Alps to see St. Peter's or other great domed structures: "What he was doing was creating the building in his mind." The privately funded renovation work on the cathedral has taken more than a decade. MILWAUKEE SMALL BUSINESS TIMES A new flyash brick factory has opened in Wisconsin Here's some of that green economy so much talked about lately: CalStar Products, based in Newark, Calif., has opened a new 63,000-square-foot factory in Caledonia, Wis., for making bricks from flyash. It is said to be Wisconsin's first new brick factory in more than 50 years. The company is taking its flyash from the coal-fired plant of Wisconsin Energy Corp. in the nearby town of Oak Creek. Conventional bricks heat to harden at more than 2,000 degrees F for up to four days. The flyash bricks made by CalStar heat at 200 degrees F for one day. The company's chief operating officer says they can be used anywhere traditional bricks could be used, and will cost about the same. THE MIAMI HERALD The FAA is but the first hurdle for 160-story building The would-be developer of a 160-story, 3,200-foot-high tower in Miami, Guillermo Socarras, claims he's in talks with the Federal Aviation Administration about creating a no-fly zone around the proposed site. He says the site is Jungle Island, a tourist destination on Watson Island, across from downtown in Biscayne Bay. But the owner of Jungle Island says the two haven't spoken in a while--and seeing that the owner has $60 million sunk into Jungle Island, he says he's unlikely to pack up. A number of companies listed as being involved in the planning of the project, called Miapolis, say they haven't been active recently, though a managing principal of the engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti insists, "When this thing is launched, it will change all of Miami."
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