Government

Sedgwick County has awarded Kechi-based Walz Harman & Huffman Construction the $6.8 million contract to build the county's new Public Safety Center in Wichita. Construction will begin on the two-story, 27,000-sf building in early July 2005. Designed by Wichita-based Schaefer Johnson Cox Frey Architecture, the facility is expected to reach completion in 18 months. The total cost of the project is $10.4 million including preparation, design, and equipment.

The Pelham Police Department will relocate to its new Pelham, Ala., facility in spring of 2006. Located next to City Hall, the $6.5-million building will house a jail, courtrooms, magistrate's office, an evidence laboratory, an indoor firing range, and an armory. The three-story, 46,000-sf facility will be equipped with 24-hour emergency power. The project team consists of architectural firm Paul B. Krebs & Associates and project manager Maxus Construction Co.

The Environmental Protection Agency broke ground in early June 2005 on its new Region 8 headquarters in Denver, Colo. The $90-million, 292,000-sf facility will house office and commercial space.

The General Services Administration has selected Mascaro Construction as general contractor for the planned federal courthouse in Buffalo, N.Y. Designed by architectural firm Kohn Pederson Fox , the $100-million, 265,000-sf facility will begin construction in 2007. Construction documents for the 10-story building are expected to be completed by year-end 2005.  

BRG Precision Products , a maker of radio synchronized time displays for government agencies, will relocate its manufacturing and shipping operations into a 43,000-sf building planned for construction in the Derby Industrial Park in Derby, Kan. The $2-million project represents a 600 percent expansion of the company's footprint. Construction is expected to begin in summer of 2005 with occupancy slated for December of the same year. BRG is currently working on a $20-million contract replacing information displays in the Pentagon.

The National Institutes of Health has selected Gilbane as construction manager for a proposed Integrated Research Facility (IRF) at Fort Detrick, Maryland. Located on approximately six acres, the facility is intended to support research at BSL-2, BSL-3, and BSL-4. The proposed IRF may provide as much as 150,000 gsf of floor space, housing laboratory space for animal research, radiology equipment, mechanical space, and a waste-handling area.

United Space Alliance, the prime contractor for NASA's space shuttle program's daily operations, has awarded L&M Technologies of Albuquerque a contract valued at $102 million to support NASA facilities in Houston, Huntsville, Ala., and Titusville, Fla. The subcontractor for the six-year contract, which includes hard infrastructure support such as utility management, procurement, and operations, is CH2M Hill. United Space Alliance is owned by The Boeing Company and Lockheed Martin Corp.

The City of San Antonio has awarded Ross & Baruzzini of St. Louis the design contract for the new 30,000-sf, $25 million joint City/County Emergency Management Services Facility and Operations Center. Ross & Baruzzini will serve as an advisor during construction and manage all subcontractors for the design-build project.

Construction has begun on the $50.5-million Morgan Hill Courthouse and Justice Agencies Complex in Morgan Hill, Calif. The 73,000-sf, two-story plus basement Superior Court building will house a court clerk's office, six courtrooms, jury assembly and deliberation spaces, and day-holding detention spaces. The adjacent one-story, 17,000-sf Justice Agencies facility will accommodate offices for the probation department, county district attorney, and public defender. Occupancy is slated for August 2006.

Boston University Medical Center has received final approval from the Boston Redevelopment Authority for its 410,000-sf BioSquare Phase II project in Boston. Funded by a $128 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the project will include a BSL-4 research laboratory and a 1,400-space parking garage. The facility will be part of a national network of laboratories dedicated to countering bioterror agents by developing drugs, treatments, and vaccines.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering and Support Center has awarded Glendale-based Johnson Controls an $800,000 contract to provide control equipment and energy monitoring at the Pentagon. The contract includes HVAC design and testing, indoor air quality upgrades for the entire Pentagon, and equipment additions and software modifications to air quality control systems. This award follows a $1.13 million contract granted in November 2004 to Johnson Controls for facility work at the Pentagon.

On November 29, 2004, the California Public Library Construction and Renovation Board awarded public library construction grants for a total of $80,588,293 to 12 library projects. The three largest grants included $13,961,277 to the Castro Valley Library, $14,900,075 to the  Fontana Library & Resource Technology Center, and $11,880,531 to the Lafayette Library & Learning Center.

The City of Milwaukee is engaged in a $44-million restoration of its historic 108-year-old City Hall. Designed by architectural firm Engberg Anderson, the restoration project includes eight stories and a basement and is slated for completion in 2008.

The Mitre Corp has completed the $32.8-expansion of its Bedford, Mass., campus with the completion of its new 96,000-sf office and research space. The three-story facility, built in part with grants supporting sustainable design and construction, features a solar panel array that produces 16,900 kilowatt hours annually. The project architect was Stubbins & Associates with Spaulding & Slye Colliers as developer. The Mitre Corp.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has reached the halfway mark in the construction of its new $14-million office facility in Birmingham, Ala., on October 7, 2004. The three-story, 86,200-sf building is being constructed by Baston-Cook Co . of West Point, Ga. Baston-Cook is also the project contractor on a nearby $6.3-million facility for the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.