Industry News

Fairfax-based Lorton Arts Foundation has submitted a proposal to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to redevelop the 41.4-acre former Lorton prison site as a community arts, education and cultural center. Centerbrook Architects of Centerbrook, Conn., designed the proposed Lorton Workhouse Arts Center, which would include galleries, event space, offices, artist studios, theatrical and production areas, heritage exhibits, and an outdoor music shed.

Eckerd Drug is expanding its distribution operations with a move into a 415,000-sf facility in the Fairless Hills' Penn Warner Industrial Park. The building houses 14,000-sf of office space. Substantial renovations to the single-story building will be completed by owner Equity Industrial Partners prior to Eckerd's occupation of the building in the fourth quarter of 2002. Eckerd will maintain its 450,000-sf of leased space between the Bucks County Industrial Park in Langhorne and Morrisville.

Northwestern University is developing Phase One of the Gladys & Arthur Pancoe Life Sciences Pavilion, a new 88,000-sf research facility housing the Center for Experimental Animal Research on the university's Evanston campus. The project will accommodate research for the University and Northwestern Healthcare’s Evanston Hospital. Designed by Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership of Los Angeles, the four-story building with basement will house flexible research labs, faculty offices, vivarium, auditorium, and a café.

The University of California, Berkeley is planning to initiate construction on the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) in the first quarter of 2003. The $60-million, 130,000-sf facility will be sited on the engineering portion of the campus.

Northwestern University has selected lead architect Davis Brody Bond to design its new 72,000-gsf Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center on the Evanston campus. The project team also includes engineers BR+A of New York and Chris P. Stefanos & Associates of Oak Lawn, Ill., with Tishman Construction Corp. as pre-construction contractor. The $30-million project is slated for completion in spring of 2003.