Industry News

The Department of Veterans Affairs broke ground in November of 2011 on a 1.1 million-sf hospital campus in Aurora, Colo. The $800 million facility will include 182 beds, a spinal cord center, a research building, a nursing home, and ambulatory care facilities.

Autodesk announced in November of 2011 that it has selected FM:Systems and Advanced Spatial Technologies, an FM:Systems solution provider, to provide integrated building information modeling (BIM) and facility management solutions across Australia, New Zealand, and the Asia-Pacific area.

The US Green Building Council awarded LEED certification to Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven Hospital in November of 2011. Designed by Shepley Bulfinch and completed in 2010, Smilow’s sustainable features include optimum circulation of natural light in its lobbies, corridors and waiting areas; use of occupancy sensors in non-patient spaces; pumps with variable speed drives; and room pressure monitors to reduce power usage for enhanced air supply.

The University of Queensland began building the $30 million Global Change Institute in November of 2011. Located in St Lucia, the energy and environmental science research facility will be certified by the Living Building Challenge for sustainable design. The building will be carbon and water neutral and will feature a passive heating and cooling system, a pneumatic roof, and an atrium with a living wall and a waterfall.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is planning to build an $80 million petascale supercomputer facility in Kensington, Western Australia. The project will provide computational research support for the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder project and the Murchison Widefield Array radio astronomy telescopes, as well as accommodating research in geoscience, nanotechnology, and biotechnology. Construction will begin in 2012 and completion is expected in mid-2014.