ANGT Goes Live!

Finally - a place to showcase some of our work here in Gabon. The National Agency of Great Works, or "L'Agence Nationale des Grands Travaux" as they call it here in Gabon, has gone live with a website that will highlight the projects we are overseeing as well as other useful information about the project. Stay tuned for what I hope to be some exciting updates to the content.

ANGT Website

It's Always Nice to BBC

Angondje Stadium - Courtesy of BBC News

The BBC news paid a surprise visit to Gabon last week, and one of the topics of interest was Bechtel/ANGT preparations for the CAN 2012 tournament (see BBC article here). On November 10th, the Brazilian national team will play a friendly against the Gabon Panthers in a trial run for the new main stadium at Angondje. The importance of this match is two-fold. Firstly it is an amazing opportunity for the Panthers to debut their soccer prowess against a major international opponent ahead of the Coup d'Afrique. Secondly, it has created a major milestone in the preparations and construction of the Angondje stadium. Work has been progressing well at the stadium as of late, but this new milestone has caused all schedules to be compressed and added more rush to an already tight working environment. All in all, the project team is confident that everything will be ready, and we are all looking forward to enjoying the fruits or our labor as we watch a great match in a beautiful new stadium!

Jeune Afrique Article on Gabon vs. Brazil

Gabon Emergent

Rendering - Angondje Neighborhood, Libreville

Check out this article in Le Post about some of our work involving sustainable development of the Angondje neighborhood of Libreville, surrounding the new Angondje Stadium to be used as the centerpiece of the Cup d'Afrique des Nations 2012 soccer tournament. I hope you can read some French!

Watching this work progress every day is a unique experience and great opportunity to see a developing country transforming before my eyes.

Heating up in Africa

Things are heating up here in Gabon. The rush to the finish on the Cup d'Afrique des Nations is hot under way and ground breaking is fast approaching on numerous projects around the country as part of the inaugeral tranche of Master Plan priorities. Check out the shout-out printed in this week's Le Nouvel Observateur one of the stadium sites we are managing for the tournament. It is really quite an exciting time to be in Gabon as it embarks on its program of "Gabon Emergent" to establish the country as a competitive and productive member of the 21st century.

Rendering of the Omar Bongo Stadium and Sports Complex

The Ghosts of Gabon

I’ve recently taken up assignment with a multinational EPC firm in West Africa. The opportunity to explore construction means and methods in such a remote part of the world, where virtually all equipment and supplies are imported, has provided many opportunities for reflection. Highest among those is the proliferation of unfinished projects in the capital city of Libreville, Gabon.

Abandoned Sheraton Project

Metropol Parasol Opens in Seville, Spain

Exciting news, the Metropol Parasol has officially opened in Seville, Spain! I had a chance to visit this exciting piece of innovative green architecture last year as part of a class trip through the School of Architecture at Virginia Tech. We did a site tour with the lead engineer and talked about different aspects and challenges of it's construction. It is neat to see the well-laid plans finally realized. See my March, 2010 post for construction photos I took on-site.

Read More at Inhabitat

Chilean Green

Green design and construction truly has become a global phenomenon. While the American press has focused almost exclusively on design and construction trends within our own borders, we have been slow to admire the progress that has been made in other parts of the world. I was keenly aware of this fact on a recent trip to Santiago, Chile where evidence of green design in recent construction was hard to miss. Keeping tabs on green trends in the international construction industry will allow good ideas to flow more quickly as the need to combat climate change grows more urgent by the day.


As is my tradition, I spent the first day on the ground in Santiago walking. And walking. And walking. Getting the “lay of the land” is a good way to scope out spots for potential deeper exploration as well as a good excuse to shed the jet-lag. In so doing I stumbled upon several good examples of good planning and was smacked in the face with some totally unexpected green building. In this city more known for its wine and smog, I was so pleasantly surprised with this observation I decided to report on it here.

Green Roofing - It's American

As one of the first beautiful days of spring in the mid-Atlantic settled in, a group of 40+ volunteers from the Urban Land Institute, U.S Green Building Council, and DC Greenworks gathered to assist American University with retrofitting one of four green roof projects on their campus in the District of Columbia. The day began with a talk on crane and roof safety, a tour of an existing green roof at the University, and a speech by the Director of Sustainability describing American University's aggressive goal of going carbon neutral by 2020. With that accomplished, the volunteers were separated into working groups and organized for the day of construction.

Mature Green Roof at American University