Industry News

The University of Texas is renovating and expanding three buildings at its main campus in Austin. The $40-million project will involve Benedict, Mezes, and Batts halls, linking the structures with new construction and modernizing existing classrooms. The new Austin office of 3D/I is in charge of the project, which is slated for completion in approximately two years.

The new California Public Health Laboratory in Richmond will be one of the nation's largest public health facilities. Scheduled to open in three phases, the first 160,000-sf lab building was dedicated this week. The entire campus is estimated to be completed in 2004 and will contain 700,000-sf of labs, housing 1,300 employees. Six labs currently in Berkeley, Emeryville and Oakland will be consolidated in the new facility, providing space for research and testing of infectious, environmental, and genetic diseases.

San Diego Mesa College has awarded Kvaas Constructors, Inc., of San Diego a contract to build a Humanities, Languages & Multicultural Studies Project. The $7.05 million project is estimated to reach completion near the end of 2002.

UCSD's Jacobs School of Engineering is building a 5-story, 105,000-sf bioengineering facility at the La Jolla campus. The $34 million Powell-Focht Bioengineering Hall will house five labs for researchers and graduate students, one lab per floor, each focused on a specific research area. Ground was broken in August 2000 on the facility, which is expected to open in 2002.

The University of California-San Diego's Thornton Hospital in La Jolla will be in close proximity to the site of a new $87 million cancer center recently approved by U.C. Regents. The center will provide facilities for research labs, community education, and clinical space, as well as a 130-car underground parking garage. Construction is slated to begin in early 2001, with completion estimated for fall of 2003.