Industry News

Grange Mutual Insurance Company has selected Gilbane Building Company as program and construction manager for a $50 million expansion of Grange's corporate headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. The project consists of a 205,000-sf mid-rise tower accommodating a 1,000-car parking structure, 100,000 sf of office space, data center, auditorium, cafeteria, fitness center, and a new front entrance. The design team for the expansion is Maddox NBD and Perkins + Will.

The University of Georgia will open the Paul D. Coverdell Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences in Athens, Ga., in January 2006. The 140,000-sf facility will house administrative offices for the College of Public Health, Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute, Health Communications group, and the Bioimaging Resource Center. The top two floors will accommodate laboratory-based research groups including the Tropical and Emerging Global Disease group and studies in developmental biology.

The University of California, San Francisco has selected The SmithGroup and Jim Jennings Architecture to design the new Cardiovascular Research Building on its Mission Bay Campus. The 200,000-sf facility will house lab, office, and vivarium space and will connect to the planned Cancer Research Building designed by Rafael Vinoly Architects. Construction on the cardiovascular facility will begin in 2007 and reach completion in 2009. The project may cost approximately $100-million.

The University of California, Berkeley is planning to construct a 140,000-sf executive education center at a cost of over $30 million. Housing meeting rooms, lecture halls accommodating up to 300 participants, and up to 100 hotel-like residential rooms, the center is expected to break ground in 2008 or 2009.

The first LEEDTM-certified core and shell lab building in the northeast U.S. will open at the BioSquare biomedical research complex in Boston. Designed by The Stubbins Associates and developed by Spaulding & Slye and Boston Medical Center, the 160,000-sf lab features 20,000-sf floorplates, energy efficient building systems, a shared auditorium and conference rooms, and a sophisticated security system.