Government

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.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded Skanska USA the construction management services assignment for its new Biomedical Research Center in Baltimore , Md. Construction is under way on the 560,000-sf biomedical research laboratory designed to house the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute on Drug Abuse programs. The construction value is approximately $166 million. The new facility will contain clinical and research labs, office space, conference and lobby areas, and common sections with a library, food service, and security system throughout the building.

The City of Wichita dedicated the $3-million, 24,000-sf Chris Cherches CityArts Building on October 2, 2004. The facility will accommodate arts, public events, and cultural activities.  

The new 54,000-sf police station in Woodland , Calif., will be one of the nation’s first police stations to be LEED™ certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. The project was a unique partnership with the City of Woodland , McCarthy Construction, and LPA . The design-build facility has functions for dispatch, C.I.D., patrol, evidence processing and storage, booking, detoxification and holding cells, as well as a community/E.O.C. room.

Opening in early 2006, the Arkansas Department of Health 's new $23-million, 82,000-sf public health laboratory will serve as a first responder facility, accommodating biological and chemical terrorism preparedness reaction for the state.

The University at Buffalo is developing the National Science Foundation George E. Brown Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation Facility at Ketter Hall on the University's north campus in Amherst, N.Y. The $21.2-million facility, part of the National Science Foundation's overall $81.9-million project to improve understanding of earthquakes, features dual shake tables capable of real-time seismic testing of structures up to 30 feet high and 120 feet long.

The National Institutes of Health opened the Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center in Bethesda, Md., on September 22, 2004. Totally dedicated to clinical research, the 870,000-sf Hatfield Center connects to the existing Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center.

Construction began in August 2004 on a $23-million public health laboratory in Little Rock for the Arkansas Department of Health. When completed in December 2005, the three-story, 82,000-sf facility will include nearly 50,000 sf of laboratory space for the high quality testing and control of bioterroristic agents as well as infectious and genetic diseases. The facility's architectural team includes designers at Atlanta-based Lord, Aeck & Sargent and Little Rock-based architect of record, The Wilcox Group.

The U.S. Veterans Affairs Department has awarded a $450,000 contract to architectural firm NBBJ to design a $95 million VA Clinic in Columbus, Ohio. Ground will be broken in early 2005 on the 295,000-sf facility, which will replace the Chalmers P. Wylie VA Outpatient Clinic.