To make sure there are no surprises post-construction, models of tall buildings and those surrounding it are sometimes tested inside mathematically accurate wind tunnels, meant to replicate conditions in the real world.

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Before that, it was hard to get work despite all the post-Katrina construction because outside contractors were not hiring locals, he said.

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But freestanding islands weren't common in residential design until the post-War construction boom, says Sandy Isenstadt, University of Delaware professor of architectural history.

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She has also been encouraging the development of the German real estate market, which suffered from a construction overhang post-reunification but is now seeing interest from hedge funds.

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Capitalizing on Southern Florida's nascent housing rebound, Perez has more than a dozen new apartment buildings in or about to start construction, including one of Miami's first new post-bubble condo projects, MyBrickell.

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But with Obama requiring a freeze of all such construction, Abbas made clear in an interview with The Washington Post in May that he couldn't talk to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu without looking like a sellout.

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