Industry News

The US Postal Service has completed installation of over 175 advanced video surveillance systems in postal facilities to date. This includes systems in the Trenton, Hamilton and Eatontown facilities that were under national scrutiny as a result of the Anthrax terrorist threat. The video systems, installed by North American Video, are deployed in both retail and processing areas in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania facilities.

Lewis & Clark   College is planning to build the 50,000-sf Howard Center for Social Sciences on the college’s Portland campus. Housing classrooms, faculty offices, Social Science departmental facilities, and breakout space for student and faculty interaction, the center will replace outdated single-story classrooms. Located on the western edge of the academic quad, the building will continue the College’s progress towards meeting national space standards. Construction is scheduled to begin in January 2003, with completion expected in August 2004.

The University of Michigan began building the $33-million, 99,000-gsf Commons Building in November 2001and expects construction to reach completion in November 2003. Part of the Palmer Drive development, the facility will house a 140-seat lecture hall, conference and meeting rooms, a large, divisible banquet hall, a public deli/café, a retail convenience store, and offices for the Department of Public Safety, the Bioinformatics Department, and the adjacent University Central Power Plant. The building will consist of six floors and a mechanical penthouse.

San Diego City College and Hewlett Packard are developing a $100,000 wireless mobile classroom. The computer lab will house 35 Hewlett Packard notebook computers, a combined printer-scanner-copier-fax machine and a digital camera.

Synygy, an employee benefits compensation programming and software company, has commissioned Syska Hennessy Group to design new mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection systems as well as the acoustics, audiovisual, telecommunications, and lighting for a new corporate headquarters. The 163,500-sf tenant fit-out projects is being undertaken in the historically significant Chester Station in Chester, Pa. The building is one of the best-preserved and most monumental early power plants in the U.S. dating back to 1917.