Industry News

The Smithsonian Institution recently held a topping-out celebration for the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington. The facility's structural concrete frame is now complete. Jones & Jones Architects & Landscape Architects is the design consultant for the museum.

Johnson & Wales University is planning a four-story, 145,000-sf academic center on its new Charlotte campus. Connecting the university's three colleges, the College of Culinary Arts, the College of Business, and the Hospitality College, the facility will be built by RogersDooley, a team of two local contractors.

San Diego-based Guepard Energy will construct four 5-megawatt plants in Imperial County, Calif., that will use methane gas from cow manure to make electricity. Construction of the first facility, located near a beef-processing plant in Brawley, will begin in April 2003. The four plants will cost $50-million to build and will process 1.6 million pounds of manure a day. The San Diego office of Archer Western, a division of Chicago-based Walsh Group, will oversee the project.

San Diego State University (SDSU) has selected Highland Partnership of San Diego as the design-build contractor for a $10.4-million, 60,000-sf classroom and office building. Construction of the four-story addition to SDSU's Gateway Center facility is expected to begin in December 2002. Construction manager for the project is O'Connor Construction.

Purdue   University is creating Envision, a high-performance visualization research center and showcase, on its West Lafayette, Ind. campus.  To be installed in the University’s former billiard hall, the facility will allow students and professors to view complex data. Technologies will include the latest in display technology, including 3D, high-resolution, and tiled displays, as well as virtual reality and haptics devices. Construction on the facility will begin early this winter with completion slated for summer of 2003.