Industry News

The Boeing Co. will open its new 100,000-sf virtual war simulation center in St. Louis in 2004. The $20 million facility will enable customers to experience how different programs work together, a process that could create more integrated systems business for Boeing. The center will employ 75 workers when it opens, with plans to grow to 150 employees within three or four years.

St. Luke’s Medical Center is constructing a new 435,000-sf heart tower on its 17-acre Milwaukee campus. Due to space restrictions, the tower will be constructed as an elevated facility over an existing parking structure. Designed by Kahler Slater of Milwaukee, the facility will house 270 beds; 192 beds will accommodate surgical patients and 78 beds will accommodate intensive care patients. All rooms will be private.

MIT has completed construction of the $300-million, 713,000-sf Ray and Maria Stata Center in Cambridge, Mass. Housing flexible research facilities, high-technology classrooms, fitness facilities, an auditorium, a child-care center, and underground parking, the nine-story center will also accommodate the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Laboratory for Information Decision Systems, and the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. Occupancy is slated to begin in January 2004.

Providence Hospital in Southfield, Mich., has completed its new 225,000-sf mobile decontamination unit. The mass-rinse center can service up to 75 people an hour and is equipped with eight shower heads inside and four outside. The $150,000 facility consists of three suites in which patients remove clothes, shower, and redress in gowns. The decontamination system was designed by Kohler Mobile Plumbing Systems based in Kohler, Wis.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute is planning a $25 million, 75,000-sf addition to its existing 245,000-sf headquarters in Chevy Chase, Md.