Industry News

The University of Colorado at Boulder (UC-B) has selected VFA, a provider of Web-based facilities and capital asset management solutions and software, to perform a detailed facility condition assessment, provide in-the-field training on VFA's assessment methodology, and deliver VFA.facility, the central Web-based platform of VFA's capital planning and management solutions (CPMS) tools.

On April 11th, biotech firm Applied Biosystems broke ground on a new 80-acre campus in Pleasanton designed by MBT Architecture.

The Lower Colorado River Authority is planning to upgrade the 30-year-old Dalchau Service Center. Located in Southeast Austin, the transmission services center currently houses 180 to 240 employees who maintain and build power transmission lines. The $43-million expansion project will remodel the center to accommodate current and future growth. Four separate facilities will be upgraded and converted into a single 260-desk facility, housing additional offices and a conference center.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) plans to select a development manager in May for its planned $111-million Virginia Square expansion. More than 1,000 employees will be relocated from leased space in the District of Columbia to the 370,000-sf campus at Virginia Square, which will be expanded to 422,000 sf to accommodate them. It is anticipated that RFPs for the design of the facility and its interior will be released soon. FDIC expects construction to be completed in 2006.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NOAA/NESDIS) satellite operations center is being designed by a joint venture between Morphosis and Einhorn Yafee Prescott. The $61-million, 208,271-sf project will incorporate environmental standards to meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s Silver level in the LEED Green Building Rating System.