Vanity Fair magazine asked a panel of 52 experts to pick the world's five most important post-1980 architectural works. The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain by design architect Frank Gehry (below) topped the list. And there's a slide show of the others in the top 21.
Photo: Peter Knaup
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This past week the Chicago Tribune reported that resuming work on the Chicago Spire is one step closers. The Spire is a 150-story mixed use tower in Chicago designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava that, when complete, will be the tallest building in North America. The Great Recession forced the Spire's developer, Dublin, Ireland based Shelbourne Development Ltd., to temporarily suspend work on the project.
But Shelbourne recently announced new tentative financing in the form of bridge and mezzanine loans. This financing will become active if Shelbourne can secure about $170M more that's necessary to restart work.
Additional financing candidates include Union Labor Life Insurance Co. and two trusts of the AFL-CIO union pension funds. They could each benefit directly from on return on investments in the project, and indirectly from mobilizing their members to erect the remainder of the project too.
Shelbourne also reports that about 30% of the Spire's 1,200 residential condominium units are already under contract for sale.
Indulge me sometimes for drifting off topic, there's only so much one person can write about construction law and bank failures.
I haven't followed much of the scandal surrounding Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren. I guess I'm afflicted with a perverse indifference to tabloid news about celebrities, whether they be athletes, entertainers, politicians, or some combination thereof.
But every Wednesday I listen to Frank Deford's Sweetness and Light on National Public Radio. And today's broadcast is about Tiger and Elin. Mr. Deford always gives a unique perspective and I felt compelled to mention it here. Regardless of whether you agree with anything he says, he's among the few eloquent voices to chime-in. Scroll down, click play, and listen closely. Is Mr. Deford's commentary more about Tiger and Elin, or more about us?
Internet site BidForMaterials.com is a place where contractors can electronically request bids from material suppliers, sort them, and pick which to buy from. Here's how it works:
A couple of weeks ago we talked about how Pepsi mishandled a Complaint suing the company for allegedly stealing trade secrets resulting in a $1.26 Billion default judgment.
In Judge Scraps $1.26 Billion Judgment Against Pepsi, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Bruce Vielmetti reports that the Honorable Jacqueline Erwin, the judge hearing the case, granted Pepsi's motion to vacate the default judgment. Judge Erwin will now hear the case "on its merits." And according to Pepsi's lawyers, the company has some very meritorious defenses.
Pepsi lawyers, executives, and shareholders must be pleased. The gentlemen who sued Pepsi - Wisconsin businessmen Charles Joyce and James Voigt - probably aren't so pleased.
Learning from our mistakes is good. Learning from the mistakes of others is better, and cheaper:
Prepare to get sued by ensuring that you, your registered agents, and everyone in your organization knows how to recognize a Complaint and what to do with it after getting it.
The late Justice Robert H. Jackson suggested that often, the justices don't:
There is no doubt that if there were a super-Supreme Court, a substantial proportion of our reversals of state courts would also be reversed. We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final.
YoChicago's Joseph Askins reports in Construction Checkup: Legacy at Millennium Park on construction progress at Mesa Development's Chicago residential condominium project known The Legacy at Millennium Park.
I confess I'm biased. I worked on contracts for this project with architect Solomon Cordwell Buenz and prime contractor Walsh Construction. Regardless of my own partisanship, or problems that may crop up in the Legacy's design or construction, this building adds a superlative aesthetic complement to the Chicago skyline. Go see the photos and see for yourself. Better yet, watch this slideshow of construction through the end of September 2009....
Starting this morning, I'm attending the Fall Conference of the American Resort Development Association ("ARDA") in Washington, D.C.
ARDA is the principal trade association for the timeshare and fractional ownership industry. We'll be:
And if you're interested in timeshare or fractional ownership - buying, selling, or learning how to better use and trade timeshare or a fractional you or a relative already own - ARDA's home page is a prime place for you to start.
Becky Yerak at the Chicago Tribune reports that the FDIC just seized 9 banks operated by FBOP Corporation, including Park National Bank in Oak Park, Illinois.
Park National's construction related initiatives include:
According to the FDIC's press release, U.S. Bank, NA from Minneapolis has entered into a Purchase and Assumption Agreement with the FDIC to buy the deposits of FBOP banks and ensure continued banking services for their depositors.
It's not clear yet whether U.S. Bank will assume and continue funding construction loans, lines of credit and other un-disbursed loan obligations of the FBOP banks. Borrowers are standing-by to see whether that happens or whether the FDIC will stop funding and repudiate their loans.
In Price to PepsiCo for Not Being in Court: $1.26 Billion, the National Law Journal's Lynn Marek reports that an assistant in PepsiCo's legal department misplaced a Complaint costing the company $1.26 Billion. Yes, you read that correctly, $1.26 Billion!
What Happened?
In their Complaint, the plaintiffs - Wisconsin businessmen Charles Joyce and James Voigt - allege that PepsiCo misappropriated their trade secrets for bottling and selling purified water, like Aquafina. When PepsiCo didn't respond to the Complaint by the deadline set under the Wisconsin Rules of Civil Procedure, Joyce and Voight's lawyer asked the Clerk of the Court to enter a default in the case. Then they followed-up in unopposed papers to prove the amount of their damages. And voila - Joyce and Voigt got a judgment against PepsiCo for $1.26 Billion.
Continue Reading...
Last week I posted asking for your sponsorship to participate in the Skyline Plunge - rappelling 27 stories down the side of the recently opened theWit Hotel to benefit the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago.
With help from many sponsors, including readers here, I rappelled from the roof down 27 stories, landed safely beside State Street, and raised over $2,000 for lung disease research, education, and treatment. THANK YOU!
While waiting to go over the edge, I also had the good fortune to meet Steve Theis from McHugh Construction, the prime contractor who built theWit. Steve filled me in on some of theWit's innovative design and building features as well as ongoing work McHugh does there to improve the hotel and keep it in prime condition as one of Chicago's most fashionable destinations for lodging, food, beverages, and entertainment.
I've represented many owners and contractors negotiating contracts to build new projects. I've toured some projects under construction and post-completion, even gone up on the roof of some. But this is the first project where I represented one of the principal participants and then donned a harness and scaled down the exterior on a crisp autumn day. There's really nothing like the smell of exterior glass curtain wall panels 25 stories up. I suggest you try it.
I'm reluctant to ask for anything here. But I'm asking you to sponsor me to rappel down 20+ floors on the side of theWit hotel, starting at the top and ending on the ground at State Street just north of Lake Street in Chicago. It's one of the projects I've done legal work on. And now the Wit is hosting me and others repelling down the curtain wall to raise funds for the Respiratory
Health Association. The event is October 25th
Clicking here
will take you to a special secure website that will accept your sponsorship. Or
you can call or e-mail me directly.
In the last jury service post I explained the background of the case I sat as a juror on, the verdict my fellow 11 jurors and I reached, and I offered some suggestions from the jury box for lawyers who try cases.
This post is about suggestions for jurors, and prospective jurors, that might make your jury experience a little better. So when you open your mailbox to find a jury summons someday, come back here to prepare yourself the day before you must appear at the courthouse. It's also about final thoughts about jury service.
Suggestions for Jurors:
A couple of weeks ago I reported that I was picked for jury service in the Illinois Circuit Court for Cook County. Well, the testimony and lawyers' arguments are finished. We finished deliberating and rendered a verdict. The judge thanked and discharged us. Now I can tell you about it.
Well, Chris Thorman at Software Advice suggests using a smart phone application - an "App" on an iPhone or Blackberry - to do it. And he shares his ideas in Bringing Your Punch List Into the 21st Century. 
The conventional wisdom is that lawyers don't get picked to serve on juries. Well, don't always bet on the conventional wisdom. 
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") recently sued Maynard Jenkins, former chief executive officer of CSK Auto Corporation ("CSK"), to reimburse CSK and its stockholders for more than $4 million worth of bonuses and stock sales while CSK was allegedly committing accounting fraud. Are you asking yourself "so what's that have to do with me in the construction industry?" Read on and I'll tell you.
more CSK bought from a supplier, the bigger the allowance. Receiving allowances lowered CSK's cost of purchasing inventory. That lowered CSK's cost of goods sold, giving a higher profit margin on sales allowing them to report higher revenue to investors. But trouble started when some suppliers didn't pay their allowances.The SEC alleges that CSK executives hid uncollectible allowances instead of writing them off as required by Generally Accepted Account Principles. That resulted in CSK reporting better than actual performance to investors. Later, CSK had to re-state their earnings for 2002, 2003, and 2004.
The SEC claims that under the "clawback" provisions in Section 304 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 ("SOX"), Mr. Maynard must give back to CSK:
And why should you or I in the construction industry care about the SEC suing a former auto parts store executive?
By this means the wealth of a nation, that used to be reckoned by the value of land, is now computed by the rise and fall of stocks: and although the foundation of credit be still the same, and upon a bottom that can never be shaken, and although all interest be duly paid by the public, yet, through the contrivance and cunning of stock-jobbers, there has been brought in such a complication of knavery and cozenage, such a mystery of iniquity, and such an unintelligible jargon of terms to involve it in, as were never known in any other age or country in the world.-- Jonathan Swift
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