FAIRFIELD CONNECTICUT BUILDING EXPERT
DIRECTORY AND CAPABILITIES

Administration Seeks To Build New FBI HQ on Current D.C. Site

February 28, 2018 — Tom Ichniowski – ENR
A Senate committee plans to examine a new $3.3-billion Trump administration proposal to demolish the Federal Bureau of Investigation's worn, outmoded headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C., and construct a new facility on that site. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Tom Ichniowski, Engineering News-Record
Mr. Ichniowski may be contacted at ichniowskit@enr.com

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Pancakes Decision Survives Challenge Before Hawaii Appellate Court

March 12, 2015 — Tred R. Eyerly – Insurance Law Hawaii
In 1997, the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals (ICA) decided Pancakes of Hawaii, Inc. v. Pomare Prop. Corp., 85 Haw. 286, 944 P.2d 83 (Haw. Ct. App. 1997). Although not an insurance coverage case, Pancakes addressed the duty to defend in terms of a contractual indemnity obligation. Under challenge in a recent appeal before the ICA, the Court reaffirmed the holding in Pancakes. Arthur v. State of Hawaii, Dept. of Hawaiian Home Lands, 2015 Haw. App. LEXIS 109 (Haw. Ct. App. Feb. 27, 2015). The decision is long with detailed facts complicated and many indemnities running in favor of various parties. This post focuses on the decision's discussion of Pancakes. A resident, Mona Arthur, of the Kalawahine Streamside Housing Development, was killed when she apparently slipped and fell from a hillside adjacent to the project. She was on the hillside tending to her garden there. At the bottom of the hill was a two foot fence in front of a drainage ditch, where Mona allegedly hit her head. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Tred R. Eyerly, Insurance Law Hawaii
Mr. Eyerly may be contacted at te@hawaiilawyer.com

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Manhattan to Get Tall, Skinny Tower

October 21, 2013 — CDJ STAFF
At its narrowest, it’s going to be only sixty feet wide. And that will run 1,350 feet into the air. A new apartment tower is going up in New York, and one of its amenities will be that residents in the top floors will be able to look down on the Empire State Building. “It may be the skinniest building ever,” said Gregg Pasquarelli, the principal of SHoP Architects, the firm that designed the building. He estimates its ratio of height to width as “something like 25-to-1.” For all its height, the building will be divided into about 100 units. As part of the development deal, the tower will incorporate and preserve the landmark Steinway Hall. The chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, Robert Tierney, described it as “the best of both worlds of new construction and design and historic preservation.” Read the court decision
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Digitalizing the Construction Site – Interview with Tenderfield’s Jason Kamha

August 30, 2017 — Aarni Heiskanen - AEC Business
Here’s my interview with Jason Kamha, Director at Tenderfield, an Australian construction software company. Can you say a few words about yourself and your company? Tenderfield is based in Sydney, Australia and was established in 2014. We provide a software-as-a-service (SAAS) platform that enables construction firms to collaborate on large construction projects throughout the tendering and project management phases. A bit about myself, I have been working in the construction management field for over 10 years as an Estimator and a Contracts Administrator. I have always been interested in how technology can improve productivity and collaboration in construction. I worked on large projects and witnessed first-hand what can happen when information and people are disconnected. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Aarni Heiskanen, AEC Business
Mr. Heiskanen may be contacted at info@aepartners.fi

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Happenings in and around the 2016 West Coast Casualty Seminar

April 20, 2016 — Beverley BevenFlorez-CDJ STAFF
The West Coast Casualty Construction Defect Seminar returns to the Disneyland Hotel next month (May 12th-13th) and the Construction Defect Journal has compiled a list of concerts, sporting events, and museum exhibitions taking place in and around Anaheim. Whether you like to spend your personal time checking out a new band, or watching your favorite Angel slide into home, or perusing the local art museum, there is something to spark your interest. CONCERT VENUES THE HOUSE OF BLUES IN ANAHEIM Located in Downtown Disney, The House of Blues in Anaheim is a short walk from the convention hall.

Breakthru Entertainment Presents… Tuesday, May 10th Starting at 630pm For More Information...

Totally 80’s Live Friday, May 13th at 7pm For More Information...

THE GROVE OF ANAHEIM Near Angel Stadium, the Grove of Anaheim is just a few miles away from the seminar location.

Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody & Primal Fear Thursday, May 12th Doors Open at 7pm For More Information and to Purchase Tickets...

SPORTING EVENTS ANGEL’S STADIUM – BASEBALL Take care of your popcorn-and-peanuts-and-cracker-jacks fix while cheering for the Angel’s—conveniently just a few miles from the Disneyland Hotel.

Angels v. Cardinals Tuesday, May 10th at 7:05pm For More Information and to Purchase Tickets...

Angels v. Cardinals Wednesday, May 11th at 7:05pm For More Information and to Purchase Tickets...

FAIRS AND FESTIVALS Art Crawl Experience Every quarter, Downtown Anaheim hosts an art walk that includes live entertainment, local artists, as well as food and craft vendors.

Saturday, May 14 from 6pm to 10pm For More Information...

MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS MUZEO This local museum and cultural center is a short drive from the convention hall.

Exhibition: Master Craft: The Art of Woodworking March 12th, 2016-May 21st, 2016 Museum Days/Hours: Tuesday – Sunday (Closed Mondays) / 10 am to 5 pm For More Information...

Exhibition: “A Touch of Africa in Anaheim” by Da African Village: the Art of Senegal and neighboring countries April 30th, 2016 – May 30th, 2016 Museum Days/Hours: Tuesday – Sunday (Closed Mondays) / 10 am to 5 pm For More Information...

BOWERS MUSEUM (Santa Ana) Voted “The Best Museum in Orange County” by OC Register Readers for 16 consecutive years, this arts and cultural center is worth the fifteen minute drive.

Exhibition: Once Upon a Time April 16th, 2016-August 28th, 2016 Museum Days/Hours: Tuesday – Sunday (Closed Mondays) / 10 am to 4 pm For More Information...

Exhibition: Mummies of the World March 19th, 2016-September 5th, 2015 Museum Days/Hours: Tuesday – Sunday (Closed Mondays) / 10 am to 4 pm For More Information...

Exhibition: Mystery from the Tomb: The Face Beneath the Mask December 8th, 2015-TBD Museum Days/Hours: Tuesday – Sunday (Closed Mondays) / 10 am to 4 pm For More Information...

Exhibition: Popul Vuh: Watercolors of Diego Rivera December 12th, 2015 – May 29th, 2016 Museum Days/Hours: Tuesday – Sunday (Closed Mondays) / 10 am to 4 pm For More Information...

Lecture: Popul Vuh: Art in Context (6-Part series): The Rise of Modernism in Europe: Realist Shifts in the Nineteenth Century (Part 3) Wednesday, May 11 at 11am-12pm For More Information...

Lecture: ARCE Weekend Lecture: Sudanese Antiquity: New Insights from the ‘Bio-archaeology of Nubia Expedition (BONE)’ Saturday, May 14 at 130pm-3pm For More Information...

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Foreclosures Decreased Nationally in September

October 29, 2014 — Beverley BevenFlorez-CDJ STAFF
According to the San Diego Source, in “September 2014, there were 46,000 completed foreclosures nationally, down from 68,000 in September 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 32.6 percent and down 61 percent from the peak of completed foreclosures in 2010, according to the September National Foreclosure Report of CoreLogic.” Between 2000 and 2006, “completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide.” Furthermore, the San Diego Source reported that “[s]ince the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 5.2 million completed foreclosures across the country, and since homeownership rates peaked in Q2 of 2004, there have been approximately 7 million homes lost to foreclosure.” Read the court decision
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You're Doing Construction in Russia, Now What?

May 16, 2022 — Anazette Ray & Michael Vardaro - Zetlin & De Chiara LLP
In recent weeks, there has been a long list of companies, from all industries spanning from construction/engineering to fashion and hospitality, that have announced that they are completely severing ties with Russia, while a host of others have announced a temporary halt. See Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, Over 400 Companies Have Withdrawn from Russia – But Some Remain, Yale School of Management (Updated Mar. 21, 2022), https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-400-companies-have-withdrawn-russia-some-remain?utm_campaign=mb. For those developers, EPC contractors, and design professionals (engineers and architects) who have construction projects in Russia, the question is, “How should we proceed?” The U.S. initially stated that it was not issuing a total embargo on business dealings and trade relations with Russia in response to the nation’s invasion of Ukraine. Instead, the U.S., along with many other Western nations, issued targeted sanctions. See Francesco Giumelli, Understanding Targeted U.N. Sanctions: An Empirical Analysis, International Affairs, 91(6), 1351-1368 (explaining the difference between embargoes and targeted sanctions). However, after evidence of war crimes by Russia emerged, President Biden issued an Executive Order prohibiting U.S. individuals, whether in the states or abroad, from new investments in Russia and prohibiting U.S. individuals from transactions with Russian state-owned entities. See April 6, 2022, Presidential Actions, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2022/04/06/prohibiting-new-investment-in-and-certain-services-to-the-russian-federation-in-response-to-continued-russian-federation-aggression/. This new Executive Order is said to not affect existing contracts in Russia, but instead prohibits new ones. Reprinted courtesy of Anazette Ray, Zetlin & De Chiara LLP and Michael Vardaro, Zetlin & De Chiara LLP Ms. Ray may be contacted at aray@zdlaw.com Mr. Vardaro may be contacted at mvardaro@zdlaw.com Read the court decision
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Fire Fears After Grenfell Disaster Set Back Wood Building in UK

May 29, 2023 — Olivia Rudgard - Bloomberg
This article is part of the Bloomberg Green series Timber Town, which looks at the global rise of timber as a low-carbon building material. To get fire department approval for their six-story London office project made of strong engineered wood known as mass timber, Theo Michell and Richard Walker had to build a full-scale section of it in the UK, ship it to Poland and attempt to set it on fire. The mockup was set alight “with enough material that replicates the fire load that you get from furniture and carpets and desks, and all the rest of it, and you see how that structure performs,” says Michell. “It was cool,” adds Walker. “It looked amazing.” Their building, called Paradise, passed the fire test and is under construction, though not without a significant drag on their budget and time. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Olivia Rudgard, Bloomberg

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