Industry News

Silicon Valley Power recently broke ground on the $165-million Von Raesfeld power plant sited on 2.86 acres in Santa Clara, Calif. Locally owned and operated, the 147-megawatt gas-fired plant is expected to reach completion in late 2004.

Johns Hopkins University is constructing a “hybrid” laboratory facility in Boston. The university will engage in academic research in approximately half of the 115,000-sf building, with the rest leased to science and technology companies. Construction is under way, with occupancy slated for fall of 2004. Spaulding & Slye Colliers is the master developer for the project.

Ktech is moving into an 83,400-sf facility in Sandia, N.M., to expand its commercial activity in the semiconductor, sensor, material coatings, and robotics industries. Ktech is a Sandia National Laboratories contractor, supplying operations, engineering, and maintenance services to the Department of Energy’s Pulsed Power Research Center. Ktech’s operations were previously located in six offices in the Albuquerque area.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is engaged in a five-year, $40 million renovation of its laboratory space at the John Wesley Powell Building in Reston. The sixth phase of an eight phase project, the renovation will create state-of-the-art labs enabling the USGS to provide reliable biological science information. Designed by Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann, the general contractor for the project is Grunley Construction, with Bovis Lend Lease as construction manager.

The General Services Administration is engaged in a $122-million expansion of the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C. The 248,000-gsf annex will add nine courtrooms and 19 judges’ chambers connected by an atrium to the original building. Construction began in April 2002 and is expected to reach completion in November 2005. The project architect is Michael Graves/Smith Hinchman & Grylls Joint Venture, with Centex Construction as general contractor.