News briefs

No time to relax at Miller Park. The mechanism that opens and closes the retractable roof at Milwaukee's Miller Park is showing signs of premature wear, which stadium district and construction officials attribute to possible design errors and defective workmanship (See BD&C, 5/01). HCH Miller Park Joint Venture, the general contractor on the year-old park, concedes that there are problems with assembly bearings in some of the pivot system's bogies. Roof builder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of America, Houston, says it is dealing with the problems, and contends that the roof is safe.

Aussie architect wins Pritzker Prize. Australian designer Glenn Murcutt, who works as a sole practitioner, primarily designing environmentally sensitive modernist houses, has won the 2002 Pritzker Architecture Prize, sponsored by the Hyatt Foundation. Murcutt will receive the award May 29 at Michelangelo's Campidoglio in Rome.

In announcing the jury's selection, Foundation President Thomas J. Pritzker explained, "Glenn Murcutt is a stark contrast to most of the highly visible architects of the day — his works are not large scale, the materials he works with, such as corrugated iron, are quite ordinary, certainly not luxurious; and he works alone."

Yet he now may influence so many.

Mohegans add to mega resort. On April 23, the Mohegan Tribal Nation officially opened a 35-story hotel tower as part of its latest expansion to the sprawling, 4 million-sq.-ft. Mohegan Sun Casino resort in Uncasville, Conn. Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, New York, with Perini Building Corp., Framingham, Mass., as construction manager, the "crystal-like" curtain-walled tower holds 1,200 rooms. When added to the existing 630,000-sq.-ft. casino, the $1 billion "Project Sunburst" expansion makes the resort one of the largest private development projects on the East Coast. Last September, the casino also added 115,000 square feet of new gaming space. The latest expansion includes a new 170,000-sq.-ft. convention center, 225,000 square feet of retail and a 10,000-seat arena.