The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey—the landowner investing $11-billion in the project—is responsible for the entire site. This work includes the agency's own projects: the $3.4-billion World Trade Center Transportation Hub, the $3.2-billion 1 WTC, the WTC Vehicle Screening Center and the shared WTC infrastructure and utilities, among them.
The hub and the office buildings flank the complex's heart and soul: the $700-million National September 11th Memorial and Museum. The local Lend Lease is building the memorial and museum. Currently, all other project teams are standing aside so that 80% of the eight-acre memorial will be able to open on Sept. 11.

The building team for the eight-acre urban park of the $700-million National September 11 Memorial & Museum—the emotional focal point of the $19-billion World Trade Center redevelopment in Lower Manhattan—is obsessed with something as mundane as surfaces: ground, water, stone and metal.

But the team has a huge burden on its shoulders, one that goes deep down. In the hubbub of activity at the 16-acre WTC site, crews have to deliver 80% of the structured park—a giant green roof topping the site's five-level basement— in pristine condition for the looming Sept. 11 ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11. 
The memorial team is giving extra-special care to the heart and soul of the project: the 2,983 names of the 9/11 victims etched into the surface of bronze-covered parapets bordering each of the memorial's pools. The pools—each of which is 31,264 sq ft and contains 485,919 gallons of water—are set into the footprints of the original 110-story Twin Towers, destroyed by the terrorists.
While each pool has a pumping system powerful enough to recycle 52,000 gallons of water per minute, it is the surface of the nearly 1,600 lineal ft of parapets that had to be robust enough to withstand rain, scorching heat, snow and ice as well as the wear and tear of three million annual visitors. For the comfort of the millions of hands that will touch the etchings, the parapets have a heating and cooling system.
Go to ENR to read more on the 9/11 memorial.

Higher Education Facilities

Seven Trends Shaping Student Housing

1. New financing schemes address rapid growth
2. Mixed-use energizes neighborhood vitality
3. Common areas must serve multiple purposes
4. Sustainability becomes a teaching tool
5. Prefab bathrooms show up on the radar
6. 'Greek villages' make a comeback
7. Residential college system gains more adherents.

Today's college students wouldn't think of sharing a bathroom with a whole floor of cohorts.  They expect flat panel TV's, cable, and high-speed Internet access everywhere-for both academic and social reasons-along with comfortable nooks and crannies in which to gather and study.  These amenities may seem excessive to their bill-paying parents, but university officials say they're competing fiercly for top student talent, so they're giving customers what they want. 

Building teams invested in programming, designing, and constructing collegiate residential facilities would do well to consider several trends that are influencing activities in this sector:

• Alternative financing
• Mixed use/urban refill
• Innovative flexible common spaces
• Sustainability as a lifetime learning tool

New university housing feeds students' environmental awareness and makes it easier for them to follow through with good ecological practices.  Smart Building Teams can be equally motivated to use their skills and experience toward creating efficient, affordable residence facilities for today's university scholars.