Industry News

Nordic Technology Park, a 43,500-sm building formerly used as a Soviet military communications factory, is being converted to an office building for the Baltic high-tech industry. American architects Arrowstreet of Somerville, Mass., working with Latvian architects Valenius un Stepe, are completely renovating the structure.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation completed construction in December 2000 on its new 32,000-sf headquarters and earned the U.S. Green Building Council’s highest “platinum” rating. Some of the building’s environmentally-friendly energy efficient features include rooftop rainwater cisterns, photovoltaic solar panels, composting toilets, energy-efficient insulation, a shading system, and a ground source heat pump. Construction costs ran approximately $199 per sf, which would have been about $150 per sf without the green technologies. J.

Lois Paul & Partners, a national public relations company, will relocate its headquarters from Burlington, Mass., to a 145,000-sf building under construction at MetroNorth Commerce Center in Woburn. The company will occupy 90,000 sf in the five-story structure, which is scheduled for completion in August 2001. Architect for the Lois Paul project is Margulies & Associates of Boston. Special features at the new headquarters include a web café, multimedia conference rooms, and distance learning training facilities.

Cirrus Logic Inc. has plans to consolidate employees from its administrative, engineering, and sales functions at a new 190,000-sf corporate headquarters in Building V at the Terrace Business Park in Austin. The new facility has been approved for construction and will accommodate offices for approximately 500 employees when it opens in summer 2002. Manufacturing and testing operations will continue at the company’s 60,000-sf plant in Southeast Austin. The company will also maintain its storage applications operations in Fremont, Calif.

Associated Press (AP) is renovating their 40,000-sf broadcast news center in Washington, D.C.  AP is working with the architectural firm Liminality, based in Washington, on the $1-million phased overhaul to increase the functionality of the 200-person space by improving lighting and flooring, and creating clearer lines of sight between work areas and the command desk. The general contractor on the project is F.J. Corbett  of Fairfax, Va. The external project manager is Magellan Group Real Estate Services based in Vienna, Va.