Industry News

Stanford University will begin construction in July 2006 on a new science and engineering complex at its Palo Alto, Calif., campus. Set on 8.2 acres of land, the project will consist of four new buildings including an environment and energy facility, a bioengineering/chemical engineering facility, a new School of Engineering center, and a replacement for the E.L. Ginzton lab building. Construction cost for the 550,000-sf project is estimated at between $375 and $420 million. The environment and energy facility will be the first to break ground.

Atlanta-based United Parcel Service has opened three new facilities in China. The warehousing and distribution centers include a 160,000-sf facility in the Wai Gao Free Trade Zone in Shanghai, a 240,000-sf facility in a Free Trade Zone in Futian, and a 66,000-sf facility in Suzhou designed for high-tech customers.

Kao Specialties Americas has completed a $13 million expansion of its plant in High Point, N.C. Doubling Kao's manufacturing capacity, the four-story, 18,000-sf facility produces polyester resin which is made into toner for printers, copiers, and fax machines. 

The University of Cincinnati has selected Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership (ZGF) as design architect for its new 200,000-sf Social and Behavioral Sciences Center for the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences. Cincinnati architectural firm Baxter, Hodell, Donnelly, Preston (BHDP) is serving as executive architect. The new center, located on a gateway site adjacent to McMicken Commons, will provide new learning rooms, research space, and faculty/staff offices in a new "flagship" building for the College.  

Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute opened the new 8,000-sf Center for Immunobiology and Vaccine Development in Oakland, Calif., in February 2005. The $5.6 million center was designed to accelerate research into serious infectious diseases for which no vaccines are available.