The Month of Seven – Arras People’s Seven Modern Projects of the World

Posted on | April 7, 2009 | Author: | DanS | 1 Comment

This week, we delve briefly into a list all of our own making – The First Annual Arras People/How to Manage a Camel Seven Modern Projects of the World. These are all about the recently completed, up-to-date and/or continuing projects that speak to the notion of a project manager’s greatest ideals and dreams. In some cases, they are examples of what happens when the project doesn’t work out as originally thought. But while the project itself will experience setbacks, the final result, attention to detail and way of delivering both are what make our ability to build a marvel. Or scorn.

1. Nuclear De-commissioning, UK -

   

   Nuclear decommissioning has been upgraded in the UK since 2004 behind the installation for project managers of EVM.

   Nuclear power likely will never go away completely, but the wasted and unused land it consumes remains a stain unless people act. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), created by the 2004 Energy Act, is trying to act upon it through its commercial brother, UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) Limited amidst the green push and the realisation that nuclear power is still operable. As highlighted in an October 2007 issue of Project magazine, UKAEA is employing Earned Value Management (EVM) for clean up sites like Harwell, Culham and Winfrith. Because of the importance to the security of such projects, EVM has become useful for catching possible problems that arise round the clock, with the capabilities to report faster and act quicker. Which isn’t to say there aren’t limitations: EVM is mostly objective, relying on numerical & a ‘these are the figures’ approach that sometimes will ignore the quality of the project. And though nuclear power may remain a constant, there will be public need for good project management of its after-effects so long as green initiative and commitment to safe and proper clean-up remains a constant as well.

2. Olympic Building Regeneration, Various Locations, including London –

   

   Rubbish and graffiti adorn many of the Olympic stadia throughout Athens since the 2004 Summer Games closed. Future Olympic sites constantly feel the pressure to regenerate facilities toward the area’s greater good once the athletes leave town.

   Don’t think for a moment the 12^th day of the 2012 Summer Paralympics means only the memories will remain for the London games. When the games are gone, the buildings and structures remain. As facilities are no longer needed for less than a month of events, successful regeneration and urban renewal becomes the ultimate legacy of every Olympic City. While time will tell if the Beijing facilities can easily be regenerated into the city’s landscape, it’s becoming clear that Athens’ legacy from 2004 has left the ancient metropolis deep in the red. The debt left behind from their hosting the 2004 Summer Olympics and Paralympics will take generations to pay off. The Independent reported last July that the total shortfall stood at €50000 per Greek home. Moreover, facilities are either abandoned, overrun with looters, graffiti infested, or all three. According to one Greek politician, Fani Palli-Petralia, ‘We didn’t find a plan for the post-Olympics development of the venues. When a city gets the Games, it should make a business plan for big changes and then decide what the country needs for the day after the Olympics. This did not happen.’ You can bet Vancouver, London, Sochi, and any of the 2016 Summer Games candidates, are taking notice on what not to do. Whether they succeed at what they have to do could shape the long-term residue the Games leave behind in host cities.

3. The Entire City of Dubai, United Arab Emirates –

   

   Though events like the Dubai International Boat Show still attract the heavy hitters, motionless cranes in the background signal the city’s project boom has fallen on hard times.

   To suggest that there is any location like it in the world is becoming more laughable by the project springing from its sand. The big spenders of the post-Boomer generation have found their Vegas, their Monte Carlo of the Gulf, all in a shorter flight than to Mauritius. Because people and businesses are clamouring to be there (and land is so premium and lacking, facilities literally rise from the deep), few locales in the world have such a capacity to build as Dubai. High rise apartments and buildings and other construction marvels are a constant, as the city’s projects (mostly state funded) make headway for the Gulf port as ongoing project of opportunity and wealth. Applications from the creatively ambitious are heartily accepted – with projects that include hotels rising from the sea and 250 islands strategically formulated to match a map of the world, boundaries in this otherwise minute desert locale are continually stretched. But the elastic band is contracting in the form of the credit crunch – banks that funded Dubai building and construction have been forced to pull out, as the state has to contend with what TIME reported as ‘$75 billion of projects in the United Arab Emirates have been suspended or cancelled’. Left untreated are the unfinished buildings and creative landmarks that could be reduced to unaffordable eyesores. As goes the world economy, so too should you keep an eye on the desert city that could be reduced to a mirage. Will the glamorous emirate have to consider – gasp – the harsh realities of a budget?

4. Green commercial/residential projects, Various Locations –

   

   The push for green cities is growing, but not near as strongly as in China, where the proposed Dongtan expects to hold 50,000 by next year, and 500,000 by 2040.

   Cities and commercial settings designed with a mind for sustainability are another key project to watch for, though Brits will not doubt be most intrigued by Prince Charles’ proposed Sherwood, a South West coastal town planning to be ‘the greenest settlement in Britain’. But projects are still hampered by that defeatist stepbrother that lords bad vibes over you – you guessed it, the economic downturn. Most examples of worldwide eco-city development take place either at or near established metropolises, including Stockholm, Dublin, Phoenix, San Francisco and, currently, four different cities in China. Complications due to funding struggles plague much of the work in China, especially in Dongtan. But Sherwood, according to a 2008 article in The Telegraph, is meant to have a traditional English tint – no cars, solar power panels on 75% of the buildings, sport grounds, wind turbines and a proposed capacity of 12,000 residents. Tentatively scheduled to be completed in 2020, Sherwood will serve as the sequel to HRH’s Poundbury, home to Dorset cereals 6,000. No word yet on whether the next Prince Charles-backed town will double or simply continue adding 6,000 in population.

5. The decline of the Western World’s dominance on the tallest skyscraper list –

   

   Western Civilisation now finds itself lagging behind the Far East, namely China and its Nanjing Greenland Financial Center.

   In man’s continuing quest to touch the heavens like Michelangelo’s famous Sistine Chapel scene, the Top 50 Height to Pinnacle list of skyscrapers on Wikipedia could literally change by the minute. Of those 50, 23 have been built in the last 10 years (not counting the four completed in ’98, and another four in ’97). Regardless of the year (the oldest being 1992), nine Chinese skyscrapers rank in the Top 20, including the Nanjing Greenland Financial Center, which is expected to be completed this year. Two more Chinese skyscrapers make 11 out of the Top 25, pushing most of the long-adored American structures well down the list and forcing a full-fledged competition, as proposed works and visions continue to adorn drawing boards. As could be expected, there are more cloud whispering structures to come, namely the soon-to-be-tallest Burj Dubai tower in Dubai (2,684 ft); the aerodynamic, projected 2,073 ft high Shanghai Tower in 2014; the comparatively modest (1,017 ft) Shard London Bridge in London; and the sure-to-be tear-inducing 1 World Trade Center (1,776 ft) in New York.

6. Railway Re-Commissioning, UK – When the car became the transport of choice over a generation ago, the railway tracks that traversed our small

   

   Thanks to green initiatives, overcrowding and public transport needs, rail projects like the Crossrail in London have forced a rail project boom.

   island nation slowly faded into the climate as brush, weeds and green overgrowth slipped between the ties. Then we overcrowded our cities, went green, and realised the obsolete train tracks now needed an update as public transport became a point of global warming emphasis. Britain construction is trying admirably to keep up. In London, passengers forced to take the tube going from east to west of vice-versa on their morning commute have been stymied by entering the city center. The new Crossrail project, a £22 billion rail programme expected to begin next year, hopes to change that by removing congestion, stretching across the major hubs of the city (complete with twin-bore 13 mile tunnels under the city) from east (Shenfield and Abbey Wood at the end, with the possibility of Ebbsfleet) to west (Heathrow and Maidenhead, and possibly even Reading) that intends to lessen cross-city commuter time. Existing Tube/train stations are expected to undergo several items of upgrade, including platform extensions, and construction projects including excavation and transport (complete with 65 new trains) should mean opportunity for the time-consuming project that isn’t expected to be ready until 2017. In addition to Crossrail, the splendid refurbishment of London’s Kings Cross railway hub would suggest Brief Encounter scenarios seem likely again.

7. New Yankee Stadium, New York, USA -

   

   As groundskeepers put the finishing touches of the Yankee logo behind home plate, the new Yankee Stadium may serve as one of the last grand publicly funded sports building projects in the U.S.

   In this era of economic strife, the highest profile taxpayer-funded stadium for Major League Baseball’s signature team in 20 years may serve not only as a solid structure that honours the past and present of the game’s most storied team – it may mark the beacon of an era when teams will be able to truly outdo the other team’s ballpark with public money. The big figures and sometimes duplicitous politics behind the build for the New York Yankees have angered some, but much is forgotten in sport (at least among fanatics) if it looks good (retro with modern amenities), feels good (wider seats, cushier luxury boxes) and even smells good (as Humphrey Bogart once said, ‘A hot dog at the ballpark is better than a steak at the Ritz.’). And when you model your stadium after an iconic building like Yankee Stadium I, you’re already living up to a lot. The new build maintains the navy and gray interior of No. 1, the bleacher seat-concourse location of Monument Park, the limestone column exterior with capitalised Times New Roman script, the trademark facade running along the rain cover above the upper deck, and even the field’s dimensions. The modern side increases legroom and seat width, adds cup holders to most seats, triples the amount of luxury suites (£££, sorry – $$$!!!), privatizes the public restrooms to a more sanitary extent, and increases the modern necessities such as public elevators, the size of the video scoreboard, and providing better views of the action. If this is the new, modern sporting event heaven the project’s scope would suggest, the magnitude could be enormous. All we need is for the economy to turn around so baseball fans can afford it.

Related posts:

1. Arras People Interviews Earth PM Co-Founders
2. From Tipoffs: Arras People Interviews Bas de Baar
3. New Service Offering from Arras People – DWP Executive Support
4. Masterclass in Sloppy Project Management – News of a Public Sector IT headache
5. Tipoffs Out For the Month of April

Comments

One Response to “The Month of Seven – Arras People’s Seven Modern Projects of the World”

1. SkyscraperMan
   October 6th, 2009 @ 11:37 am

   The Burj Dubai is a modern marvel of engineering it stands at 818 metres tall. The Burj Dubai will have its grand opening on the 1st of December this year.

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