The widely known tech/design blog Gizmodo unveiled their top 11 construction projects of 2013. Included in the list are construction projects all across the US and some in Canada. The different buildings range from the airport in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to a boathouse for a boat club in Boston.

My personal favorite was the new visitor’s center for the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, in New York City. The way that the garden is incorporated into the roof of the building is very seamless, and creative. You can check out the rest of the projects here. You’ll definitely notice common themes of earth tones, simplicity, and streamlining with nature.

Locally speaking, we had some major construction projects finish this year as well. Most notably the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex was completed in 2013, and is considered one of the top athletic facilities across the country, including professional and collegiate settings. The local school paper, The Daily Emerald, has a thorough photo diary here, that includes shots of meeting rooms, lockers, and the main weight room.

Any construction projects you know of that we missed, or you just think are really cool? Leave them down in the comments section.

Dragon Bridge Now Gives a Decorative Way to Reach Vietnamese Beaches

In March of last year, the city of Da Nang, Vietnam unleashed the use of a very unique bridge. The single-arched bridge was designed not only to aid the access to Vietnamese beaches from the Da Nang Airport, but also be a design centerpiece to be recognized across the globe.

The bridge was made to transition at street level into downtown to be able to bring tourists to local shops and transition easily out to the coast line. Luckily, the section of the Han river that the bridge crosses isn’t highly used by larger boats, allowing the height of the bridge to be lower than usual, and capable of feeding into street level.

Creatively, this bridge is truly unique, and has become an attraction for tourists. At night it has been known to breathe fire, along with being lit up with roughly 15,000 LED lights and capable of changing to multiple colors.

For more info on its structural conception, ASME has a great article, while My Modern Met touches more on the visual wonders of this bridge.