The Trust for the National Mall announced finalists for the first stage of the National Mall Design Competition to restore three areas on the mall. Finalists will be announced 12.15.11: Union Square: Diller Scofidio + Renfro/Hood Design; Gustafson Guthrie Nichol/AEDAS; Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Architects/Workshop: Ken Smith Landscape Architect; Reed Hilderbrand/Chan Krieger NBBJ; Rogers Marvel Architects/Peter Walker and Partners; Snøhetta/AECOM… Washington Monument Grounds: BalmoriAssociates/Work Architect Company (WORKac); Diller Scofidio + Renfro/Hood Design; Handel Architects/W Architecture and Landscape Architecture; Michael Maltzan Architecture/Tom Leader Studio; OLIN/Weiss/Manfredi; TEN Arquitectos/Andrea Cochran Landscape Architects… Constitution Gardens: Adropogon/Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Lee and Associates/Moore/Associates; McKissack & McKissack/Oehme Van Sweden; Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architect/Paul Murdoch Architects; OLIN/Weiss/Manfredi; Rogers Marvel Architects/Peter Walker and Partners…

Out of a field of 11, five NY-based teams are shortlisted to redesign Chicago’s Navy Pier’s public spaces: Aedas Architects (with Martha Schwartz Partners, Halcrow Yolles, Solomon Cordwell Buenz, Marshall Brown Projects, Pentagram, Fisher Marantz Stone, Suzanne Randolph); Frederic Schwartz Architects (with Alejandro Zaera-Polo Architects, Thomas Balsley Associates, Arup, Atelier Ten, Pentagram, Fisher Marantz Stone, Nancy Rosen); James Corner Field Operations (with Terry Guen Design Associates, nARCHITECTS, Bruce Mau Design, Leo Villareal, L’Observatoire International, Ed Marszewski, Fluidity Design Consultants, Patrick Blanc, John Greenlee & Associates, Chris Wangro, Billings Jackson, Buro Happold, Primera, HR&A Advisors, ETM Associates); !melk (with HOK, UrbanLab, Terry Guen Design Associates, Thirst, Zoe Ryan, Conservation Design Forum, HR&A Advisors, Magnusson Klemencic Associates, Sam Schwartz Engineering, Leni Schwendinger LIGHT Projects, CMS Fountain Consultants,Karin Bacon Enterprises); SHoP Architects (with Brininstool, Kerwin and Lynch, Coen + Partners, GCAM Group, Mark Robbins, Pentagram, L’Observatoire International, Acoustic Dimensions, Arup, Xavier Vendrell Studio, Grimshaw Architects, Harley Ellis Devereaux, Studio Lab, Schuler Shook, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Sarah Herda)…

The Waterfront Center, a Washington, DC-based non-profit, recently announced award-winning projects at its international conference, co-sponsored by the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance. Five of seven projects were from NYC: Port Imperial Ferry Terminal in Weehawken, NJ, by Gruzen Samton — IBI Group, New Jersey Transit; Port Imperial Queens West: Stage II, Long Island City, by Abel Bainnson Butz, Queens West Development Corp.; Riverside Park South Waterfront, Manhattan, by Thomas Balsley Associates, NYC Department of Parks & Recreation, Vision 2020; and NYC Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, by NYC Department of City Planning…

Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO, and founding chair of the U.S. Green Building Council has been elected chair of the World Green Building Council, a coalition of green building councils from 89 countries, assuming office in January 2012… Laura Raicovich, currently deputy director of the Dia Art Foundation, has been appointed director of global initiatives at Creative Time…

Twenty-six teams have been selected for the 19th annual CANstruction — AECOM; American Express; Arup; Cetra/CRI Architecture; Dattner Architects; DeSimone Consulting Engineers; Eleanor Roosevelt High School/Sandra Forman, Architect; Ennead Architects; Ferguson & Shamamian Architects; GACE Consulting Engineers; Gensler/WSP Flack + Kurtz; Gilsanz Murray Steficek; Gruzen Samton — IBI Group; Halcrow; Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates; Langan Engineering/John Fotiadis Architect; Leslie E. Robertson Associates; MKG; National Reprographics; Parsons Brinckerhoff; Robert Silman Associates; Severud Associates; Skanska USA; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Ted Moudis Associates; and Thornton Tomasetti. A special installation will be designed and “constructed” by MTA-NYC Transit. Sculptures will be on view from 11.10-21.11 at the World Financial Center…

Dexter Tinapay, RA, is now the design director of The Spector Group’s Manhattan office… Lucinda Sanders has been appointed 2012 President of the Landscape Architecture Foundation…