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  18 February 2010

  THE PARK: Construction Update

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  The subsurface groundwork for The Park tower in Taichung, Taiwan is nearly all in place. Pao Huei Construction and Development brought in Landworks Studio and CBT Architects to evaluate and subsequently transform a previous design, already under construction. Our scheme invigorates and reconfigures the palette of gardens—reflecting pools, waterwalls, groundcovers, planting pots and stone pavers—into a scheme with greater conceptual clarity while bolstering interactive experience and the dominant views from public areas in the building. As we type this, stone is being quarried and cut for a 3.5 meter tall waterwall, the design for which came from an intense internal charrette and resulted in a full-scale foam mockup of a segment of the 15m long wall.

  As with our other Pao Huei projects the developer, a well-known collector of ancient trees in Taiwan, has collaborated with us to design a plant list that poetically communicates a spatial spirit in the nuanced language of the connotative local landscape Already in the ground are three allees of 12”-15” caliper Metasequoia trees along the perimeter sidewalk, 64 in total. A multi-trunked Zelkova, 50’ tall and approximately 40 years old has been transplanted at one side of the entry garden, with a 130+ year old Plumeria to be planted at the opposite end, giving the two terminal seating areas of the garden unique but balanced spatial character.

  Using an ingenious living wall system developed by local consultant Ele-Garden, a mix of ferns and tropical plants interstitially continue the patterns and movements of the waterwall and the north lobby garden. The photos show an onsite mockup of the system, in which we experiment with different planting strategies for the heavily shadowed areas around the north side of the towers.

  Still in development are a series of terraces on the upper three floors of each of the two towers. The entire project is scheduled to be completed by March 31—an impressive and ambitious schedule, which currently is dead-on accurate.

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  23 October 2009

  200 FIFTH AVENUE: Construction Update

  

  The remarkably well-orchestrated construction process is nearing completion at 200 Fifth Avenue in New York and the finished project will be delivered soon. Given the complexities of adaptive reuse projects in Manhattan, it is a testament to the collaboration between and among the design and construction teams that things have gone so smoothly. Specifically, the process of making involved with the precast concrete trays was as educational for us as it was efficient. After working closely with the fabricators, who mechanically sculpted the trays as a set of exacting pieces of fiber-reinforced concrete, the individual pieces arrived on site and through a jigsaw puzzle-like process were assembled.

  

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  6 July 2009

  PEABODY STREET PARK: Construction Update

  The Peabody Street Park project has turned out to be a complex yet interesting construction process. This is new urban park for the City of Salem, Massachusetts, situated within the Point Neighborhood has been funded through a multitude of sources: Urban Self Help Grant, EPA Brownfields Funds and Salem Community Development Block Grant Funds.

  
  It has proven to be a highly complex .3 acre brownfield originally thought to contain mainly petroleum based contamination. Immediately when construction began back in April, foundation walls from the former industrial building which sat on the site were uncovered. Further investigation revealed that these walls extended throughout the entire site. What appeared as a vacant grass lot held many surprises underground for the entire team. Excavation for the park walls uncovered asbestos which halted construction back in May. Since then the EPA has stepped in and completed the remediation for the City. The remediation process uncovered concrete slabs and large masses of stone and concrete close to finish grade in addition to the foundation walls. The entire park needed to be redesigned to allow drainage and planting to work with sub-grade site conditions while retaining the experience of a park for the community at large. Construction is set to pick up again next week and we will update shots as it moves along.