North Central Plans Performing Arts Center

The Naperville Plan Commission and city council have approved North Central College's preliminary plans for a performing arts center.

The college commissioned the 57,000-sq.-ft. facility to meet its growing need to serve both professionals and students in the performing arts. The center will also be a venue for fine arts in the Naperville area.

The center will include a 650-seat, acoustically designed concert hall; 2,500-sq.-ft. black box theater; music rehearsal rooms; classrooms; and faculty offices. A 1,400-sq.-ft. art gallery, the first of its kind in the Naperville area, will house student works and traveling exhibitions.

The facility's grand foyer will serve as a multifunctional gathering space for both campus and civic events.

Located on a sloped site, the performing arts center serves as a transition from the campus to downtown Naperville. The building's massing is designed to give individual identity to the functions within.

The result is a series of forms that relate to one another as a cohesive whole but that constantly appear to change as sun, light and shadow play across the volumes.

Chicago-based Loebl Schlossman & Hackl is the architect, and Providence, R.I.-based Gilbane Building Co. is providing project management.

World's Tallest Towers Sparkle in New Book

n person, the overwhelm onlookers with their size and magnificence. In print, they glow in color.

They are the world's tallest skyscrapers, and the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat has recently released a book about them, "101 of the World's Tallest Buildings" (The Images Publishing Group).

The book features snapshots of the world's tallest buildings, including those that are finished and those under construction, including C.Y. Lee & Partners' Taipei 101, currently the world's tallest building.

The book includes an introduction by Chicago-based architect Adrian Smith, design partner with Skidmore Owings & Merrill, comprehensive data section on each building and 16-page introduction.

The 240-page book was compiled by buildings specialists Georges Binder, in conjunction with the CTBUH. The hardcover book features 240 pages and a two-page layout of each building with photos, statistics, descriptions and plans.

To order, call the CTBUH at 312-909-0253.

Potential Designs Unveiled For St. Louis Centre

Designs have been unveiled that seek to transform St. Louis Centre from a deteriorating mall into a mix of residential, retail and office space.

A St. Louis-based developer, The Pyramid Cos., announced a deal in February to purchase the mall and plans an $80 million renovation that will give new life to the building.

Designs from three leading St. Louis architectural firms-The Lawrence Group, Trivers Associates, and Acturis-were revealed at a design workshop in the center. The three design concepts will be used to generate a request for proposals, leading to the selection of the firm that will create the final design for this project. Construction is expected to begin later this year.

The preliminary designs call for luxury condominiums, street-facing retail, parking garage and the removal of the deteriorating Washington Avenue sky bridge.

In addition, the familiar glass, silver and green exterior of the building will be completely removed and replaced with a new facade.

Badgers Cruise to Fourth Straight Concrete Victory

Badgers are expert paddlers, and a student team from the University of Wisconsin at Madison shows why.

The school won the 2006 National Concrete Canoe Competition for the fourth straight year.

Capturing the title at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, the Badgers' 21-ft.-long, 162-lb., natural gray canoe defeated entries from 22 other engineering schools from across the country.

For its top finish, the University of Wisconsin earned $5,000 in scholarship money.

The other Midwest finishers were Michigan Technological University in Houghton (fifth place), the University of Wisconsin at Platteville (ninth place), Ohio Northern University in Ada (13th place) and the University of Evansville (15th place).

The races, both endurance and sprint combined, counted for 25 percent of the teams' overall score. The remaining 75 percent was based equally on a technical design paper that highlighted the planning, development, testing and construction of the team's canoe; a formal five-minute oral presentation, in which the team had to detail its canoe's design, construction, racing ability and other innovative features, as well as defend its choices to the judges during a question and answer session; and the end product the final racing canoe and project display, which were scored on aesthetics and visual presentation.

The three-day event was organized by American Society of Civil Engineers and made possible by the support of the founding sponsor, Cleveland-based Degussa Admixtures Inc.

Wisconsin Students Third In Bridge Competition

Students from the University of Wisconsin at Madison finished third in the 15th annual National Student Steel Bridge Competition.

Each team of performed the steel design, fabrication and erection required to construct scale-model bridges capable of carrying a load of 2,500 lbs. The bridges were judged in six key categories: construction speed, aesthetics, economy, lightness, stiffness and efficiency.

The first-place finisher was the team from North Dakota State University, and the second place winner was the team from the SUNY College of Technology.