Learning

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
- Nelson Mandela



Gabonese High School

  

Managing Expectations

Any high-profile project comes with a vast array of stakeholders that require consideration. Due to the size of the project here, and its impact on the daily lives of the Gabonese population, ANGT is in the media spotlight on an almost daily basis. Local papers follow the progress of various jobs, and international journalists come to write about the larger effects of infrastructure development in the region. Broadly speaking, the international media reception of the Gabon Emergent program has been warm.

Here is a recent country report on Gabon published by the Financial Times. It provides a good commentary on the context in which we are working to improve the world standing of this small West-African oil enclave.

FT Country Report - Gabon

Bringing Things Together - ANGT

A huge program of infrastructure development requires a massive amount of coordination. To aid in the delivery of the Gabon Infrastructure Master Plan, Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba has created the Agence Nationale des Grands Travaux. Check out this short documentary on the creation of ANGT and its mission in Gabon. If executed well, this delivery method could serve as a template for other developing nations that seek to leverage their natural resources into sustainable economic growth and prosperity.

Creation of ANGT

Turning the Page without Closing the Book

CAN 2012 Ceremonies at Stade l'Amitié in Libreville

With the successful completion of the Coup d'Afrique 2012, the media accolades are rolling in. However, this is just the beginning of a successful partnership between ANGT, Gabon and the plan for Gabon Emergent 2016. It's back to the grindstone at the office.

Footage from the Incredible Closing Ceremony

Starting off with a Bang

 Gabon has ushered in 2012 with the biggest sporting event on the continent. The infrastructure works have completed in the nick of time, and so far only words of praise have come from the government of Gabon and the international community that is here for the events.

Check out this great New York Times Article about the African Cup of Nations final coming up tonight in Libreville. The city is alive with excitement despite the fact that the home team was knocked out in the first second round. The infrastructure is looking great, and the team has put in a fantastic effort to make this event such a success. I can't help but feel proud at what we've accomplished here so far.

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

Blowin' (Cellulose) in the Wind

Friday, October 22 marks the first day of insulation at The Village at Tom's Creek lot 210. The homeowners have worked with Progress Street Builders to select an insulation portfolio that will utilize blown cellulose in all exterior walls and expanded polystyrene foam in the roof-line, band, tub surrounds and behind interior fireplaces. According to the project superintendent, insulation can begin once roofing progress reaches 75% and all exterior weatherproofing is in place to make sure that no moisture will penetrate the foam, cellulose or fiberglass and cause mold issues later on. The following pictures show the process of blowing cellulose insulation into exterior walls:

Coming Out of the Ground

Village at Tom's Creek - Lot114

Fresh pictures from the jobsite!

On Friday, September 10th a subcontractor was on-site to install the concrete formwork in peparation to pour the foundation walls. The work took roughly a day and utilized a large crew of laborers. The concrete crew was onsite the following Monday to pour the walls, and the formwork was removed on Wednesday. Check out the following pictures to see the process as it evolved in front of my eyes. Unfortunately, I was not on-site to capture the actual pouring of the cement - my favorite step in the process.

VT Academic and Student Affairs Building - Foundation Observations

The new Academic and Student Affairs Building at Virginia Tech is under construction just a short walk from the Department of Building Construction. What a great opportunity to observe the construction process from ground breaking onward. The finished building will include 77,301 finished square feet in 3 stories and will house two floors of dining and one floor of classroom space at a cost of just over $45,000,000. The schematic photos of the building show a green roof and rain gardens, leading me to the conclusion that cutting edge green technology was an integral part of the design process. Although construction is scheduled to take until summer 2012, I will be chronicling some of the important milestones as the foundations are constructed through December 2010.

Gettin' Dirty

Today I began a new side project for the semester - field laborer for Progress Street Builders, a semi-custom home builder headquartered in Blacksburg, VA. I will be working directly under the assistant superintendent on 3 houses in various stages of construction, and my duties will include carrying, lifting, pushing, digging, hammering, screwing, mixing and every other possible dirty job on a construction site. By integrating directly into the outfit that is building these houses I hope to be in a position to observe the construction process and gain some valuable skills in wood-frame construction techniques. Through this position I will be able to apply some of the concepts and theories from the classroom to a working construction site, and its a heck of a lot better than sitting inside!

I have several objectives for taking this position:
1. Hands-on application of classroom concepts.
2. Observation of 3 working construction sites.
3. Developing useful life-skills (carpentry, masonry, etc.).

The three houses in Tom's Creek Neighborhood that I will be assisting with are in the foundation, framing, and finishing stages of construction:

Village at Tom's Creek - Lot 114

Village at Tom's Creek - Lot 210

Village at Tom's Creek - Lot 211

Throughout this semester I hope to make semi-regular updates to this blog to document important milestones in the construction of a house.

Progress Street Builders

Atlanta Summer Happenings

Sustainable development should encompass living, working, and playing through a compact urban footprint that prioritizes safety, mobility and community. This is a simple recipe for creating places that have character and contribute to a healthier planet, but our auto-centric, individualist culture has necessitated the growth of modern cities in a less compact and less healthy pattern. My summer project, through Hill International, has been to work on a project that is reinventing the "normal" development pattern in one of the most traditionally sprawling cities in the world - Atlanta, GA.

The "Green Screen"

An innovative exterior shading device has been installed on the south facing facade of the Breakell, Inc. headquarters in Downtown Roanoke. The custom-made device includes two steel pipes bent to form a wave-like appearance. The pipes are permanently attached to the building through anchor plates that penetrate the wood siding and connect to the frame of the building. The pipes alone are not expected to have much of a shading effect on the building, which is where the project gets pretty interesting. Through a fit stroke of genious, Stan Breakell specified wisteria bushes to be planted below the devices and connected via wires to the shades. The plan is for the wisteria to grow up the wires and fully encompass the steel piping.

The use of plants as shades allows for super-shading to occur in the warm spring and summer months while allowing plenty of natural light into building. When the leaves disappear in the fall and winter months, the shading devices will allow for passive solar heating of the building. The indirect benefits of this new vegetation include aesthetic improvements to the building and a small reduction in the building's CO2 footprint via reduced operating costs and the natural processes of the plants. Overall, this solution to solar shading tackles multiple issues through creative thinking.

More info on living facades and passive shading:
verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com

Downtown Roanoke Development Part II - May 2010

A host of exciting new development projects are currently ongoing in the downtown Roanoke central business district, with numerous others in the planning and conceptual pipeline. Continuing the recent trend for downtown revitalization, the new projects focus on increasing the critical mass of downtown residents and improving the quality of life of those that live and work downtown. Mixed-use facilities and recreation/entertainment venues seem to be popular in the market at this time. The following photos document the progress of some ongoing downtown projects.