Industry News

Austin Community College (ACC) dedicated its new $19 million Health Science Building on October 4, 2003. Sited on the college's Eastview campus, the 82,000-sf facility houses a dental hygiene clinic, teaching space for the dental technology program, a nursing laboratory, and classrooms. The $11 million second expansion phase will comprise 60,000 sf and is slated for completion by year-end 2004, enabling the consolidation of the entire ACC Health Science program at the Eastview campus.

Bedding manufacturer Simmons Co. will open three manufacturing plants ranging in size from 150,000-sf to 215,000-sf. The Sumner, Wa. plant will employ 140 workers when it opens in November 2003. Plants in Hazelton, Pa. and South Georgia will employ 225 workers each and are expected to open in May 2004. The facilities will reflect the company's upgraded operations, including a "zero waste" initiative.  

M+W Zander was presented with a Distinguished Building Award at AIA Chicago’s Designight on September 19, 2003 in recognition of the firm’s design for the New Administration Building and Underground Parking Facility for McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. The 42,000-gsf building and 60,000-gsf parking garage complex was completed in May 2003, for which M+W Zander provided master site planning, programming, architectural design, and construction administration services.

The Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University recently celebrated the “topping off” of its newest educational and research facility, the Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine, and Applied Sciences (CIEMAS). The state-of-the-art facility features undergraduate teaching and project labs, research facilities and a variety of spaces where faculty and students can both formally meet and informally interact. Zimmer Gunsul Frasca designed the building, and Skanska USA Building is serving as manager of construction.

The U.S. Postal Service has selected general contractor J.E. Dunn Construction to build its new $167-million distribution center sited on 50 acres in southwest Philadelphia. Replacing the city’s main post office, the 937,000-sf Philadelphia Processing and Distribution Center broke ground on August 11, 2003 and is slated for completion in November 2005. The project architect is Kling of Philadelphia. J.E. Dunn’s joint venture partner on the project is Intech Construction of Philadelphia.