Government

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in partnership with the General Services Administration (GSA) broke ground in March 2001 at the former Naval Surface Warfare Center on Phase 1a of the four-story, 114,000-gsf Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Washington-based C&R Construction is performing the excavation work. The GSA has not yet awarded the Phase 1b construction contract, but completion of the facility is anticipated in fall 2002.

Sandia/California National Laboratories plans to begin construction on the Distributed Information Systems Laboratory in April 2002. The $35.5-million, 70,400-sf R&D facility will house 130 scientists from a variety of fields collaborating on improving nuclear weapons monitoring and testing, which is carried out by computer simulations. Dekker/Perich/Sabatini of Albuquerque, N.M., was awarded the $1,562,000 design contract for the project.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to build a new $7,637,101 visitor's center and administrative headquarters for the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on a 12.3-acre site owned by the Service. A garage, carpenter shop, and storage area are included along with the visitor's center and headquarters.

The U.S. General Services Administration's National Center for Health Statistics will have a new headquarters at Metro IV, a 200,000-sf office facility to be built at the proposed University Town Center, a mixed-use complex at Prince George's Metro Center. Weihe Design Group PLLC (WDG) has been selected to design the building. Blue Chair Design, WDG's interiors division, will provide interior design services. Construction is scheduled to begin summer 2001.

San Jose State University is collaborating with the city of San Jose to build the Martin Luther King Jr. Library. Located in downtown San Jose, the 475,000-sf, $177.5 million building will provide needed additional space for both the college and the city that neither could have funded independently. The city is providing $70 million of the cost of the eight-story building, with SJSU  supplying $5 million. $86 million will come from a California State University system capital project fund.

A two-year, $75.7 million renovation of the National Archives Building is under way, with 90 percent estimated to reach completion by July 1, 2003. Grunley Construction of Rockville, Md., has been contracted to renovate 300,000 sf of public and office space, including the rotunda, staircase, roof, installation of an elevator, and construction of a $7 million privately funded 294-seat theater.

The historic Alfred E. Smith building in Albany, N.Y. is slated for rehabilitation by New York architecture and engineering firm WASA. Built between 1926 and 1930, the 32-story Smith building is on the National Register of Historic Places. Under the aegis of the State Office of General Services of New York, the comprehensive $68 million modernization project aims to create a technologically current, energy conscious and flexible office environment in the historic structure.

Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC), based in El Segundo, Calif., is planning a new $42-million 325,000-sf office at the MetroView development across from IRS headquarters in Carrollton. CSC heads a seven-company team working on the modernization of the US tax system. The IT company’s new facility will house 1,225 employees. Construction is scheduled to start in summer 2001, with completion in May 2003. The general contractor is Gilford Construction. Beltsville, Md.-based Stephens Aylward & Associates is the architect.

Fort Sam Houston is planning a new U.S. Army Reserves Center for the 90th Regional Support Command. The project includes a new 58,900-sf training center and a 36,200-sf storage facility. Estimated to cost between $10 million and $25 million, the development will accommodate approximately 1,600 reserve soldiers currently assigned to reserve units in San Antonio. Two existing buildings will be demolished to make way for the new center which will house administrative space, classrooms, assembly and kitchen facilities, a library, and an arms-room vault.

The State of California Department of General Services is working with Pleasanton, Calif.-based Neilsen Dillingham Builders to construct phases I & II of its new Richmond Laboratory Dept. of Health Services. The $115.2 million, 482,000-sf project includes a custom 326,000-sf, seven-building investigation facility, and a multi-building 156,000-sf research and testing facility. Begun in August, 1998, completion is anticipated by project manager NBBJ in November of 2001.

The Naval & Maritime Integrated Systems Expeditionary Warfare Center is remodeling a 240,000-sf facility to house the operations of Raytheon Co. Approximately 30,000 sf of lab space in the building will be dedicated to the development, integration, and testing of the company's military electronics.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has solicited proposals for a 630,000-sf headquarters site in order to consolidate its Washington, D.C., operations now housed in two locations. Boston Properties, a Boston-based real estate investment trust, was expected to submit a proposal by mid-December 2000 to use one of its properties, currently a parking lot within walking distance of the new Washington Convention Center, as the location for the project.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Oakland Scientific Facility expected to take delivery of a $33 million IBM supercomputer in December 2000. The Oakland facility, a 75,000-sf former Wells Fargo Bank building, has undergone an $11 million retrofit including a new glass facade, seismic upgrades, a new cooling system, and special security devices. The computers will occupy rows of refrigerator-size cabinets that fill the building's first two floors. The project has been developed by Encinal Broadway, headed by Peter Wang.

The Veterans Administration has awarded a contract to LCOR Inc. of Berwyn, Pa., to develop a $150 million, 600,000-sf medical and research complex across the street from the Duke University Medical Center in Durham. The project will include 19,000 sf of primary care clinic space and 40,000 sf of medical and research space, plus retail and commercial space and parking on a 3.5-acre lot. As many as seven buildings are planned, with construction scheduled to begin in 2001.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office broke ground in January 2001 on its new $400-million, 2.4 million-sf headquarters in the Carlyle area of Alexandria. The new headquarters will consolidate employees from 18 Crystal City, Md., buildings in a five-building campus at the new site. The General Services Administration selected LCOR to develop the project. Completion of the first phase of the project is anticipated by 2003.