The U.S. Bureau of the Census is planning a new headquarters at Suitland Federal Center. Consolidating employees from six facilities, three of which are in the Center, the headquarters is being developed by the General Services Administration's National Capital Region (NCR) to meet the silver level of the U.S. Green Building Council's LEEDTM rating system, as well as the GSA's Design Excellence and Construction Excellence Programs.
The General Services Administration has awarded lead contractor Dick Corp. of Pittsburgh and local joint partner Nibbi Bros. the $141.5-million contract to build a 600,000-sf office building in San Francisco.
The City Court of Atlanta has selected the Atlanta office of Turner Construction Company to build a new $55-million courthouse. Construction of the six-story, 200,000-sf facility is slated for completion in August 2003. The project is being developed by Atlanta Capital Courts Facilities, which will supervise program management and design-build responsibilities for the project.
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) are seeking approximately 200,000 sf, housed together in preferably a historic building. This arrangement, pending congressional approval, is leading the NEA and NEH to consider space in the Woodward & Lothrop project, a 550,000-sf former department store. The "Woodies" building, built in phases from 1902 to 1926, could be ready for move-in a year following the signing of a pre-lease.
The 58-year old Pentagon Physical Fitness and Readiness Facility will undergo a $39.6-million modification of the design-build construction, to be completed by Turner Construction of Arlington by December of 2004.
The Environmental Protection Agency's new 1.2 million-sf campus will be ready for occupancy in summer 2002. The largest facility ever built for the EPA, the campus can house 2,200 employees and 10,000 research animals, and will include 400 individual labs, a cafeteria, a conference center and a child-care center. The National Computer Center, which contains the agency's nationwide data, has already moved to the new headquarters.
The National Weather Service's parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is seeking a 200,000-sf build-to-suit office site and a developer to replace the weather service's offices at the older 126.500-sf World Weather Building in Camp Springs, Prince George's County. According to the General Services Administration, likely locations include College Park or Greenbelt, Md.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning a new state-of-the-art emergency anthrax response center on its main Atlanta campus. Funded in part by a $3.9-million grant from the foundation of The Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, the center’s round-the-clock staffing will enable constant monitoring for potential health and safety threats and rapid mobilization.
The General Services Administration is developing plans for the Southeast Federal Center, a 3 million-sf office, retail, residential and cultural complex. The GSA has issued a request for qualifications outlining criteria for selecting the development team for the project. The U.S. Department of Transportation became the anchor tenant when it decided in July to locate its 1.7 million-sf headquarters, which employs 7,000 workers, on 11 of the Center's 55 acres.
The General Services Administration broke ground on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms' 422,000-sf Northeast Washington headquarters on April 10. Slated for completion in 2004, the $103-million project is aimed to revitalize the eastern corridor of the city. The facility will house 1,100 government employees.
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.
