Industry News

The USDA Forest Service opened the $38 million Centennial Research Facility in June of 2010. Located at the Forest Products Research Laboratory in Madison, Wis., the 87,000-sf facility houses state-of-the-art equipment and research laboratories. Designed to promote collaboration between scientists and industry partners, the facility is located on the west side of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus and includes a business incubator. The construction contractor for the project was Kramer Brothers.

The U.S. Department of Energy has selected Ameren Energy Resources Company, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and Air Liquide to negotiate the installation of the world's first full-scale oxy-coal-fired power plant near Jacksonville, Ill. Featuring permanent carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS), the FutureGen 2.0 project includes construction and operation of a 200-megawatt, near-zero emissions generating facility at Ameren's Meredosia campus.

Portafab Modular Building Systems was assessed by NSF-ISR in spring of 2010 and found to be in conformance with ISO 9001:2008 standards. ISO 9001:2008 is an internationally recognized standard for Quality Management Systems (QMS) that is designed to provide companies with a set of principles that ensure a systematic approach to achieving customer satisfaction.

FM:Systems released version 8.0 of its web-based FM:Interact Workplace Management Suite in August of 2010.

The Grand Bay Coastal Resources Center attained LEED Gold sustainable design certification in August of 2010. The $7 million, 20,000-sf research and education facility is owned by the state of Mississippi and opened in December of 2009. Comprising five wings and an amphitheater courtyard, the building includes chemistry, biology, and microbiology laboratories as well as classrooms and offices. The project was designed by Lord, Aeck & Sargent in collaboration with Studio South Architects.