News
Perot Up
August 19, 2010
| No, Ross Perot isn't throwing his hat in the 2012 race. But the Perot Museum of Nature & Science, in the middle of Victory Park, is going vertical. The tower will soon rise on the $185M project, just around the corner from the American Airlines Center, as pier drilling now dominates the project for the next few weeks. We hear the housewarming gift will be Texas-sized. | |
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| Hillwood development SVP Walt Zartman tells us the economy's woes were beneficial to the museum construction as steel and concrete costs are both down compared with two or three years ago. The project team includes Good Fulton & Farrell as consulting architect with Pritzker Prize-winning Thom Mayne of California-based Morphosis combined with GC Balfour Beatty Construction and Hillwood as development manager. Green features for visitors to see include a rainwater collection system, which will completely irrigate the almost five-acre site. | |
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| Carolyn Rathjen (one of the five Perot offspring who collectively donated $50M to the museum development), here with Hillwood's VP of construction Clay LaGrone and Walt, tells us that the contribution not only honors her parents but also helps bring a world-class museum to the city. She says it's a great blend of her parent's interests: her mother was a teacher and her father (like you didn't know) was an engineer. The project is in the final stretch of fundraising, with $50M needed to fund the 180k SF project. Want to see the progress? A public open house is slated Aug. 28 1-3 p.m. at the construction center at 1155 Broom St. Don't want to don a hard hat? Check out the webcam. | |
