The New England Council of Carpenters (NERCC) has represented the interests of its members for more than 130 years.  While a long-standing regional presence, this traditional organization based in Boston also embraces modern goals for its membership of 22,000 carpenters in six New England states.  So, when the new home of NERCC and the Boston Carpenters Training Center was designed, it was important to organization leaders that it be comprised of both traditional and modern architectural influences.

Three architectural firms were challenged by the Vancouver Organizing Committee to design Millennium Water:  The Southeast False Creek Olympic Village in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for its first use as a temporary home for many of the 2,600 athletes from 82 nations competing in the 2010 Winter Olympics. (The Olympic Games were held Feb. 12-28, 2010, in venues located throughout Greater Vancouver, as well as in the resort town of Whistler, British Columbia, where additional athletes were hosted.)  More permanently, Millennium Water was designed as a sustainable mixed-use residential and commercial community, incorporating not only environmental sustainability but social and economic sustainability goals as well.

ALUCOBOND® Spectra ACM Helps Create Sparkling, Sustainable Gem at Tempe, Ariz. Transportation Center

City of Tempe, Ariz., architects and engineers are no strangers to sustainable building design. The $46.8 million East Valley Bus Operations & Maintenance Facility, which is owned and operated by the Arizona cities of Tempe and Scottsdale and Valley Metro, achieved two Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certifications from the U.S. Green Building Council following its summer 2007 opening.

When the new $1.2 billion Benicia-Martinez, Calif., Bridge project was set to open in late-August 2007, it wasn’t the 1.6 mile long, five-lane bridge spanning the Carquinez Strait between Contra Costa and Solano counties that garnered coverage from The San Francisco Chronicle on its www.SFGate.com web site last August 23. It was the Benicia-Martinez toll plaza. 

ALUCOBOND® PLUS Material Gleams at Plaza Midtown

Opened in early 2006, The Plaza Midtown in Atlanta is a mixed-use development featuring residential condominiums in two 20-story towers, and 70,000 sq. ft. of neighborhood retail. The gleaming twin towers of Silver Metallic ALUCOBOND® PLUS Material and glass are located on a 3.3-acre site that covers an entire city block, from Eighth St. to Peachtree Place between Spring and West Peachtree Streets. Directly accessible to the I-75/I-85 connector, this is part of a dynamic area with market growth that is drawing urban professionals and development.

Design Vision Continues at U.S. Xpress

In the mid-90’s, U.S. Xpress of Chattanooga, Tennessee and SSOE, Inc., architects and engineers, spent three days developing a vision for a new U.S. Xpress headquarters building, which was completed before the end of the decade. That vision allowed for expansion, now realized with the spring 2006 completion of an adjacent corporate campus and the first of four “companion” buildings.