Industry News

The University of the Incarnate Word broke ground earlier this week on a 3,360-sf expansion of the 1,200-sf Presa Community Center. Staffed with UIW faculty and students, the expansion will house a permanent office and resource center providing tutoring and mentoring programs, computer literacy classes, and small-business assistance. A Department of Housing and Urban Development grant is funding the $228,453 project. The Presa Community Center originated as a facility providing social services and helping families to become self-sufficient.  

UNC Hospitals is planning to build a $150- to $200-million heart center in five to seven years. The building will consolidate cardiac care services including cardiology, cardiac testing, vascular services, and cardio-thoracic and pulmonary clinics. These services are currently housed in five separate buildings on the UNC Hospital's Chapel Hill campus. The new facility will also house inpatient beds and operating rooms.

The California Academy of Sciences is planning a state-of-the-art "green" museum and research center in San Francisco. The center will consolidate and replace Golden Gate Park facilities including the Morrison Planetarium, the Steinhart Aquarium, and other laboratories and exhibition halls. The Academy, the oldest natural history museum on the west coast, will close in 2004 and reopen in the new complex in 2008. Currently housed in 340,000 sf,  the academy will expand to 370,000 sf and will add a multilevel rainforest exhibit.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has awarded Parsons Brinckerhoff the contract to provide program management support for a capital improvement program with an annual budget of approximately $75 million. Working in concert with the Design and Construction Services group in MIT's Facilities Department, Parsons Brinckerhoff will be involved with managing interior renovations, remodeling projects and user improvements for over 100 projects campus wide.

Naugatuck Valley Community College in Waterbury has selected Amenta/Emma Architects of Hartford, Ct., to design a new technology classroom building for academic and community use. The $31-million project, which is being administered by the State Department of Public Works, consists of a 100,000-sf building to replace the aging Founders Hall.