Corporate

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.

DaimlerChrysler Financial Services has retained HarleyEllis for the design of a new $80-million North American headquarters in Auburn Hills. A 360,000-sf complex is planned for 24 acres adjacent to the company’s existing headquarters. The five-floor building will house 1,500 employees and will include a five-level parking deck and atrium, cafeteria with patio seating, 200-seat auditorium, and training and conference center. Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2000, with completion in 2002. Walbridge Aldinger of Auburn Hills is the construction manager.

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) plans to build a new two-building headquarters at Rockville's Tower Oaks development for PG&E's National Energy Group, currently based in Bethesda, Md. PG&E will consolidate operations from Houston and Portland, Ore., at the new 480,000-sf headquarters which will accommodate up to 1,000 employees. The Tower Oaks is owned for the most part by The Tower Co's of North Bethesda, Md.

The Carson Companies has five new single-story office/industrial buildings under construction at the company's 438-acre master-planned Dominguez Technology Center. The high-tech buildings, which total 653,503 sf, will have access to fiber optic and data communication lines. Completion of construction is anticipated between October 2000 and early 2001. The general contractor for the project is Millie and Severson Incorporated of Los Alamitos, Calif. RGA Architecture and Withee Malcolm Partnership designed the buildings.

Media Arts Group has plans for a new four-building campus on 22.71 acres at the proposed 80-acre Madrone Business Park in Morgan Hill. A total of 302,798 sf is planned for the Media Arts site. The first two buildings will be a corporate office building (61,437 sf) and a production facility (155,353 sf). The developer, TBI-Mission West LLC, expects to start construction soon. Media Arts is the production and administrative division of Thomas Kinkade Galleries.

The National Fire and Protection Agency (NFPA) has partnered with Western Fire Chiefs Association (WFCA) and the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) to build a set of Consensus Codes--a new set of codes for the built environment. Their goal is to provide safety officials with a new consistent and compatible set of codes by the year 2003. As part of the Consensus Code project NFPA also plans to devise a NFPA Building Code.

ADC Telecommunications Inc. is planning a new $100 million, eight-building world headquarters and technology campus. The new headquarters, a 91-acre site in Eden Prairie, Minn., will house ADC corporate, engineering, and divisional offices, and include office space, labs, light manufacturing areas and parking facilities. Amenities include a 280-seat auditorium, on-site fitness center, and expanded corporate training facilities. Johnson Controls Personal Environments will be installed at the individual workspaces.

State Street Corporation is occupying 410,000 sf in floors one through six at the Lafayette Corporate Center in Boston's Financial District. The Center--a former shopping mall--has been renovated and expanded to function as first class office space. For the build-out, State Street hired Sasaki Associates of Watertown, Mass., as the architect and George B.H. Macomber Company of Boston as construction manager.

Capital One Financial, based in Falls Church, Va., has plans to consolidate five regional offices at a new corporate campus in Tysons Corner in Northern Virginia. The 28-acre site will accommodate 700 employees in 2002, when the facility is scheduled for completion.

General Services Administration (GSA) is planning a new $35 million, 215,000-sf facility in Washington for the Office of Student Financial Assistance, a Department of Education division. Groundbreaking is scheduled for May 2000, with occupancy anticipated by October 2001. Greenbaum & Rose of Washington is the developer for the project. The general contractor is  Centex Construction of Fairfax, Va.

Discovery Communications has plans to house 2,000 employees at a $150 million, 500,000-sf global headquarters to be built on four acres in Silver Spring. Gensler is the strategic planning/interior design architect for the project. The Smith Cos. will design the base building. The general contractor is Clark Construction.

Dell Computer Corp., based in Round Rock, Texas, is building a 300,000-sf computer manufacturing plant and a 300,000-sf facility for the company's sales and tech support operations at a site near Nashville International Airport. Completion is anticipated in summer 2000.

Tivoli Systems Inc. plans to consolidate its 2,000 employees currently located in 10 Austin offices at a new 90-acre corporate campus. Tivoli has awarded the contract for the project's master plan to the Houston office of Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum (HOK). At build-out, the campus will feature more than one million sf of office space.