Retractable roofs have been architects'
idée fixe for decades.
Moshe Safdie once wrote up an idea for
entire neighborhoods shielded by such roofs during the harsh season and
open to the elements when it's nice outside.
The path to these dreams' realization has been fraught with difficulties,
from budget overruns to full-blown engineering disasters like
Montreal's Olympic Stadium (after a decade of efforts to fix it, the
city finally gave up and installed a fixed roof in its place. It won't
be moving any time soon).
Nevertheless, projects like that pop up again and again. And so do the
difficulties. The latest example is
Santiago Calatrava's project for the
Lower Manhattan Transportation Hub. Among the project's many innovative
features was a retractable roof. But will there be one in the final
implementation?
Read the rest of: "Calatrava's Transit Hub Roof Gets Stuck"»
