Industry News

San Jose State University has plans for a new 17,000-sf building for the school's athletes devoted to physical conditioning, strength-building, and rehabilitation. Thanks to a $1 million grant from the Koret Foundation, the Koret Building is scheduled to open in fall 2001. It will provide all of the school's 350 athletes with lockers, a state-of-the-art weight room, as well as the rehabilitation center.

The Cusano Environmental Education Center has just been completed at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge. The 18,000-sf 'green' structure was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm Susan Maxman & Partners.

The University of San Diego has completed construction of the Joan Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice. The $30-million center is designed to accommodate both research on the topics of peace, conflict, and social justice as well as actual international negotiations and mediation. The 92,000-sf facility, designed by San Diego-based Carrier Johnson, incorporates an auditorium seating 320, classrooms, distance learning center, and faculty offices. Visiting scholars or officials can be housed in an adjoining three-unit apartment. Rudolph & Sletten Inc. was the general contractor.

The University of Texas-San Antonio has plans to build a $6.25 million, 30,000-sf facility to permanently house the university's Institute for Economic Development at its Downtown Campus.

The University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI) plans to expand the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology (CARB) with CARB II at the university's Shady Grove campus. Most of the $38 million, 140,000-sf four-story building will house research labs, including facilities for both plant core transformation and insect transformation. The structure will also accommodate a 5,000-sf UMBI staff office, and a teaching lab for bioprocess engineering.