Industry News

Arizona State University (ASU) has selected architect SmithGroup and contractor DPR Construction as the project team for the first building on the university’s biomedical campus in Phoenix. The 90,000-sf to 100,000-sf facility will have four to five floors and is expected to begin construction later in 2004 and reach completion in 18 months.

Kobe Minolta Holdings , a Japanese technology company, is planning to construct a $73-million plant in Kobe, Japan. The facility will manufacture liquid crystal display film, boosting capacity by half to 90 million square meters annually. Construction will begin in June 2004, with the factory becoming operational in fall of that year.

Southern Methodist University ’s Dedman School of Law is refurbishing the first floor of Carr P. Collins Jr. Hall. in Dallas. Funded by a $1-million contribution from Dallas law firm Godwin Gruber LLP, the floor will be renamed the Godwin Gruber Lawyers Inn. Housing a student and faculty dining hall and lounge area, the project is expected to begin in summer 2004 and reach completion during the fall. Previously dubbed Lawyers Inn, Collins Hall previously housed a dining room and meeting space, with residential upper floors.

Bourbon Community Hospital has completed construction of a medical office building and emergency room modification in Paris, Ky. The single-floor, 11,200-sf, $1-million office facility will accommodate five tenants. The $1.3-million emergency room renovated the existing 1,700-sf department and expanded it by 6,300 sf. Both projects were designed by Sims Architectural Studio of Birmingham, Ala.

The University of Oregon is planning to begin construction on a nanoscience and microtechnology research facility adjacent to its Eugene campus in the next two years. Sited on 3.75 acres in the Riverfront Research Park, the facility may be as large as 60,000-sf.