Industry News

The Department of the Interior’s 1.3 million-sf 1930s-era building is scheduled for  modernization. The General Services Administration has awarded Grunley Construction of Rockville, Md., a $18.6 million construction contract for phase one of the project—HVAC central plant work on several levels, some demolition and new construction in part of the building’s northernmost wing. The building currently accommodates approximately 2,500 employees. Completion of the entire project is anticipated in late 2008.

Scott Adams, cartoon creator of the Dilbert comic strip, is working with design firm IDEO of San Francisco to develop “Dilbert’s Ultimate Cubicle”—an almost office-sized prototype for a workspace comprised of orange and white translucent plastic modules. The modules each perform a different function—file storage, cooler, coat hanger, fish tank—and could be configured by employees to create their own ideal workspace.

 Intuit, the Mountain View, Calif.-based creator of financial software, has plans for a new three-building state-of-the-art campus in Reno. Construction over the next two years will see the first structure completed around November 2001, the second in spring 2002, and the third in late 2003. At build-out the 150,000-sf office complex will seat approximately 850 employees.

VeriSign, an Internet services company, plans to consolidate eight Northern Virginia offices at Waterview I, a 405,000-sf office building under construction in Herndon designed to accommodate 1,600 employees. Tishman Speyer Properties is developing the project, which is scheduled for completion in October 2001. VeriSign has an option on two as-yet-unbuilt structures -- Waterview II and Waterview III -- which will total 450,000 sf.

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, a new 746,000-sf, 10-story building, was dedicated in September. The $203.5-million structure provides office space (296,000 sf); common space, including a conference center, employee cafeteria, and a Monetary Museum (84,000 sf); and support equipment (110,000 sf). An $11-million façade occupies 46,000 sf. Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates Inc. of Atlanta in association with New York-based  Robert A.M. Stern Architects,   designed the building. BTMI Buildings was the construction manager.