Government

The California Department of Justice has opened a sophisticated new $18-million, 68,000-sf crime lab at Point Richmond to help identify suspects through their DNA for previously unsolved crimes. Housed at the new lab are 141 scientists, the Cal DNA Data Bank, the Missing Persons DNA program, and the Cold Hit program, which compares crime scene evidence with the DNA of known qualifying offenders to identify suspects in unsolved crimes. The lab’s database of 210,000 DNA samples is the country’s largest.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) plans to select a development manager in May for its planned $111-million Virginia Square expansion. More than 1,000 employees will be relocated from leased space in the District of Columbia to the 370,000-sf campus at Virginia Square, which will be expanded to 422,000 sf to accommodate them. It is anticipated that RFPs for the design of the facility and its interior will be released soon. FDIC expects construction to be completed in 2006.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NOAA/NESDIS) satellite operations center is being designed by a joint venture between Morphosis and Einhorn Yafee Prescott. The $61-million, 208,271-sf project will incorporate environmental standards to meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s Silver level in the LEED Green Building Rating System.

Defense contractor Raytheon is considering the sale of its Lexington, Mass. headquarters due to the 41-year-old facility's expensive operating costs. Raytheon plans to decide by year-end whether to seek another Boston area location or to upgrade its existing headquarters, which include the commercial electronics main office, a research lab, and two buildings housing corporate staff.

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) is building a center for computer network security, the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS). The CIAS will receive $5 million in federal funding in the next three years, which will move forward several projects including  development of lab facilities at UTSA's Loop 1604 campus and at Lackland AFB.  

An expansion of the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center will create a new $160-million "City of Medicine Center". The mixed-use campus will include research labs, private-sector medical office buildings, educational-administrative offices, residential facilities and retail space. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is joining national real estate firm LCOR of Pennsylvania in developing the City of Medicine Center, which is slated to begin construction in four to six months.

LCOR Alexandria LLC, developer of the new U.S. Patent and Trademark headquarters, has chosen Turner Construction Company as the general contractor for the project. Scheduled for completion in June 2005, this massive project will consist of five office buildings totalling 2.6 million sf, two parking garages totalling 1.3 million sf, two townhouse/office buildings, and extensive sitework. The architect is Skidmore, Owings & Merrill through its Washington, D.C. office.

Construction will begin in spring of 2002 on Ammendale South Technology Center in Beltsville, Md., where the Food and Drug Administration is leasing 51,000 sf of the 185,000-sf campus. Developed and leased by Manekin, the trio of one-story campus buildings was designed by Stephens Aylward & Associates.

The General Services Administration has selected Southeast Federal Center in D.C. as the site of the Department of Transportation's (DOT)new 1.4-million-sf headquarters, to be located on 11 acres of a 55-acre plot of federal land. Relocation of the DOT's headquarters involves moving 7,500 to 7,900 federal employees.

The Los Angeles Regional Crime Laboratory Facility Authority has selected the architectural team of HarleyEllis of Detroit and their Los Angeles affiliate Fields Deveraux Architects Engineers to program the new Los Angeles Regional Forensics Science Crime Laboratory.

The Office of Naval Research will consolidate its area employees at a new 13-story, 330,000-sf office facility at Liberty Center. Architect for the 1.7 million-sf Liberty Center complex is SmithGroup, with Clark Construction acting as general contractor. The Shooshan Co. is the developer for the $200-million redevelopment of the 4-acre former Ballston Center. Construction at the site is scheduled to begin in June 2002, with completion anticipated in 2004.

The Employment Security Commission's new 7,500-sf office building in Mooresville will be constructed by Robert G. Snyder Contractors Inc. of Raleigh, as awarded by developer J.B. Harrison Properties LLC.

The World Bank, whose 8,000 employees are housed at its headquarters in downtown Washington, is planning to relocate its back-up office and computer operations outside the District following the events of September 11. The 200,000-sf Presidents Park office facility in Herndon is under consideration. Formerly occupied by Winstar, the structure could accommodate computers and personnel in an emergency, as well as provide technical data center equipment.

The New York office of Turner Construction Company was awarded a $29 million contract to renovate seven floors of an existing building at the Brooklyn Army Terminal by the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Turner is the construction manager for the 434,000-sf project, and also provided precontruction services to the owner. The architect is LZA Associates of New York City. Construction is scheduled for completion in April 2003.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s new National Center for Supercomputing Applications Advanced Computation Building Addition was recently completed by Holabird & Root of Chicago. The 17,000-sf facility features a 90 x 90-ft column-free space that can accommodate continually changing arrangements of hardware. The construction of the exterior allows the room to expand incrementally without the addition of walls or columns inside the space, while operating at full capacity.