Industry News

Package delivery company DHL opened a $3-million sorting facility in Erie, Pa., on Sept 29, 2004. The 55,000-sf center is part of DHL's $1.2-billion initiative to expand ground delivery capacity by sixty percent with the creation of seven additional sorting centers. The Erie facility begins operations on October 8, 2004 with the sorting capacity of 7,000 parcels and 4,000 letters per hour.

Washington & Lee University has initiated construction on a 66,000-sf art and music facility on its Lexington, Va., campus. Slated for completion in August 2006, the building will include a 250-seat performance hall, classrooms, art studios, music practice rooms, and a new art gallery. The project contractor is Birmingham, Ala.-based Brice Building Co.

Spring Hill College in Mobile, Ala., has completed construction of its 77,000-sf Mamie & John Burke Memorial Library. Designed by Shepley Bulfinch Richardon & Abbott of Boston, the $11.6-million facility is the cornerstone of the college's master plan.

The Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences dedicated the Dybedal Center for Biosciences Research on October 4, 2004. Construction on the $15-million, 45,000-sf facility began in early 2003; the center will open by year-end 2004. Designed and built by Omar Rodriguez and Associates of Kansas City, the building will include one floor of proteomics research, one floor of clinical research, and will house the university's information technology equipment and operations.

Bank of America Corp. broke ground in August 2004 on One Bryant Park in Manhattan, a 52-story skyscraper designed to meet the platinum LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) designation. Designed by Cook & Fox Architects of New York, the facility features a gray-water capture and reuse system for rainwater and wastewater; an onsite 5.1-megawatt co-generation power plant that provides seventy percent of the building's daily power suppy; and recyclable and renewable building materials.