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Changing Faces: What Puts Your City on the Map?
Constructor will cover the ongoing transformation of American cities
By Mark J. Shaw, Editor-in-Chief
Facelifts, Makeovers, Upgrades: Call them what you like, but many American cities are undergoing big changes this year, and they aren’t your average paint-up, fix-up tweaks. They’re significant infrastructure and building projects that will impact urban lifestyles, skylines and images.
In a new year-long series called “The Changing Face of...,” Constructor explores how billions of dollars of construction will reenergize a handful of American cities. We begin the series in this issue with a look at Seattle and how several projects—some proposed, others ongoing—are transforming segments of the Emerald City’s fragmented waterfront along Elliott Bay.
Writer Sheila Bacon reports that the January grand opening of the new six-acre Olympic Sculpture Park on Elliott Bay allows the rare opportunity of free pubic access to the Seattle waterfront. The park, which features 21 outdoor sculptures, was created on the site of an old petroleum tank farm and offers great views of Puget Sound and Mount Rainier.
Just south of the sculpture park, the Seattle Aquarium is undergoing a $41-million update. The second phase of the project, currently under way, involves renovating the interior and adding two new exhibits.
Seattle’s infrastructure is being transformed by the construction of the first portion of Sound Transit’s Link Light Rail project. Construction on the initial 14-mile, $2.4-billion segment is under way and scheduled for completion in July 2009. Trains will run south from downtown Seattle toward the airport, with the December 2009 completion of the final 1.7-mile segment linking the route directly to Sea-Tac International Airport.
Perhaps most interesting is the debate about what to do with the area’s decaying Alaskan Way Viaduct, an elevated waterfront highway damaged in a 2001 earthquake but remaining in use. The state arterial carries more than 110,000 cars each day and is one of just two major north-south thoroughfares in the city. In a March 13 vote on the replacement, Seattle residents decided against both the tunnel and the elevated roadway, sending planners back to the drawing board.
Future issues of Constructor will cover similar transformations in other major American cities, starting with St. Louis. Let us know if you think your city is a “Changing Face” candidate.
Also in this issue, we meet AGC’s 2007 president, Steve Massie, a soft-spoken, polite Southern gentleman if ever there was one. Massie, who runs the family highway/utility contracting business in Williamsburg, Va., says he’ll push hard this year for greater involvement from AGC members—not just membership but more participation in AGC committees and activities. Writer Bruce Buckley reveals the strong family ties and regional roots behind Massie’s rise to the AGC presidency. “By my experience through AGC, our company has become better,” Massie says. “I have a chance to give back to the industry."
Massie has helped AGC drive its political agenda, as Congress continues to debate highway and infrastructure funding. He has testified three times before Congress—twice during highway bill reauthorization hearings and once during the estate tax debate.
Massie’s presidency also promises to be a busy year for meeting AGC objectives in work-force training and improving the industry’s image.
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