Site Plan Unveiled for New Meadowlands Stadium

Early plans for the football stadium in New Jersey would integrate the facility with the Xanadu entertainment complex and a planned rail station. Also, New York City's El Museo del Barrio unveils the design for its new expansion.

New Meadowlands Site Plan

A partnership between the New York Giants and New York Jets football teams has submitted preliminary site plans to the New Jersey Sports and Exhibition Authority for a new 81,000-seat stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., to replace the existing Giants Stadium where both teams now play.

The new stadium at the Meadowlands complex would sit on a 700,000-sq.-ft. footprint south of the existing harness racetrack. In addition to the stadium and its amenities, the footprint would house a 520,000-sq.-ft. ancillary structure intended for entertainment, retail, and health and fitness facilities.

The plan calls for integration of the new features with the Xanadu entertainment and retail complex already under construction at the sports complex. It also coordinates the new plans with the racetrack onsite and a planned New Jersey Transit rail station already in design.

The teams will submit a final master plan later this year. Construction is slated to begin next year and wrap up by the 2010 football season.

Expansion at El Museo del Barrio

New York City's only museum dedicated to Latino and Latin American cultures unveiled designs for a comprehensive expansion and renovation.

El Museo del Barrio hired New York's Gruzen Samton to redesign its 17,000-sq.-ft. space at the Heckscher Building at 120 Fifth Ave. The plan, which has already won an award for Excellence in Design from the Art Commission of the City of New York, calls for a glass façade leading into the exhibits, a renovated 4,500-sq.-ft. courtyard under a new metal canopy, a structural light pylon to support a graphics banner, and a glass-enclosed hallway to connect the museum's public spaces.

In addition, the design calls for upgrading elevators, expanding the museum shop, and adding a café with Latin American cuisine.

Hill International, based in Marlton, N.J., will manage construction on the $9.54 million project, slated to start in April and last 18 months.

Work Starts on Urban Glass House

Construction is under way on the last project codesigned by the late Philip Johnson, who died in January 2005 at the age of 98.

Codeveloped by Charles Blaichman, Scott Sabbagh, Abram Shnay, and Antonio "Nino" Vendome, the 12-story structure at 330 Spring St. in Manhattan will contain 40 apartments ranging from 1,400 to 4,300 sq. ft. Construction is slated to finish this summer.

The glass and steel building, which the late architect codesigned with partner Alan Ritchie of New York's Philip Johnson/Alan Ritchie Architects, is modeled on the famous Glass House that Johnson built for himself in New Canaan, Conn., in 1949. The developers are calling the new structure the Urban Glass House.

Pavarini McGovern Construction, based in New York, is the general contractor. The developers refused to disclose the cost of the project but said that the units are expected to fetch from $1.6 million to $10 million each.