Industry News

Virginia Tech is planning to break ground in fall of 2021 on the first academic building on its Innovation Campus in Alexandria. Designed by SmithGroup, the 300,000-gsf facility will offer experiential learning environments, maker spaces, flexible multipurpose venues, and research and testing labs for the school's graduate programs in computer science and engineering. The sustainably designed structure will feature a façade with integrated photovoltaic panels, a rooftop solar array, and geothermal and sewage water energy exchange technologies.

Price Industries is significantly increasing production of its air filtration systems in response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Instantly creating a negative-pressure isolation room, the company's fan filter unit can draw airborne virus out through a biosafety filter for expulsion through the building's exhaust vent or directly to the outside. The units can dramatically reduce airborne virus in healthcare environments such as nursing stations and temporary hospitals, and can even be used in hotel rooms that have been repurposed as care facilities.

New guidance has been released by the U.S. Department of the Treasury which makes Paycheck Protection Program loans available to companies with 500 or fewer employees, as well as to firms that fall below the size standards set by the Small Business Administration. Construction companies, whose status is generally determined by average annual income threshold and not by number of employees, will benefit from this amendment to the previous announcement, which required a business to meet both criteria to be eligible.

The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) has assembled a task force to address the role of the built environment in reducing the impact of SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory infections. Aiming to define the critical role that buildings, organizations, and communities play in infectious disease management, the work will take a broad approach in considering both new and recurring agents that can affect large populations.

Blinn College is planning to build the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Innovation Building on the RELLIS campus in Brenham, Texas. Designed by PBK Architects to accommodate programs in engineering, chemistry, physics, microbiology, geology, and health sciences, the 72,000-sf structure will offer 17,000 sf of laboratory space and a 3,000-sf innovation hub.