Industry News

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.

Principia College in Elsah, Ill., contracted Mackey Mitchell Associates to design the Watson Science Building addition. Originally designed by Bernard Maybeck in the 1930's, the 51,000-sf project followed green design principles. It includes faculty offices, classrooms and labs for 10 science departments, a 200-seat auditorium and a greenhouse.

Biovail Corp., a Mississauga, Ontario-based pharmaceutical company, has moved into its own 37,000-sf facility in the Southport Business Park in Morrisville on July 20. The company has nearly quadrupled its facility space as part of an expected company-wide expansion in the next two years. Biovail now develops and markets its own brand of pharmaceutical products.

Lightconnect Inc., a fiber optic components design firm, has opened a 5,000-sf manufacturing and testing facility adjacent to its headquarters in Newark. At full capacity the new facility will employ up to 300 people and produce 10,000 variable optical attenuators and 300 dynamic gain equalizers each month. Lightconnect's existing headquarters is focussed on research and development, with limited manufacturing space. 

Design and construction of the Southeastern Archives Center, a joint federal and Georgia State Archives research complex with online access, is pending funding approval by the Senate. The $30.5 million project would be located in the Gateway Village Complex in Morrow next to Clayton College and State University. $14 million was previously approved for the facility The existing federal archives at Eagle Point will be relocated to the new center upon completion.