Industry News

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.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute opened the Rensselaer Nanotechnology Center on Sept. 15, 2003. The center is one of six Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers designated by the National Science Foundation. The facility houses an atomic force microscope and equipment for studying nanotubes.

Richardson Regional Medical Center broke ground in early September 2003 on its $49-million Bush/Renner campus in Richardson, Texas. The first development phase of the 20.5-acre site will include a 100,000-sf, five-story medical office building opening in August 2004, and an outpatient surgery center and an urgent care center to open in fall of 2004. The master plan for the site details a physical rehabilitation center, a second physician office building, and a 500-bed acute care hospital. A comprehensive cancer center could also be constructed on the site.

The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts and architects Foster and Partners of London and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture of Rotterdam and New York have completed the master plan for a new Dallas arts center. The center will house three performance venues, the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, an 800-seat multiform theater, and the 5,000-seat Annette Strauss Artist Square, with an expanded seating capacity of up to 10,000. Construction on the $250-million center is expected to begin in 2004 with completion in late 2007 or early 2008.