Industry News

The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is engaged in a $126-million renovation and expansion of the IST High Bay Building. Located on the north side of the building, the 31,000-gsf addition will house Department of Biomedical Engineering and Center for Ultrafast Optical Science lab and office space, as well as research space for the Department of Materials Science. Consisting of a basement, two main floors and a mechanical penthouse with all new equipment, the addition will be powered by a new electrical substation to relieve the existing loads of the High Bay Building’s substation.

San Diego City College and Hewlett Packard are developing a $100,000 wireless mobile classroom. The computer lab will house 35 Hewlett Packard notebook computers, a combined printer-scanner-copier-fax machine and a digital camera.

Synygy, an employee benefits compensation programming and software company, has commissioned Syska Hennessy Group to design new mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection systems as well as the acoustics, audiovisual, telecommunications, and lighting for a new corporate headquarters. The 163,500-sf tenant fit-out projects is being undertaken in the historically significant Chester Station in Chester, Pa. The building is one of the best-preserved and most monumental early power plants in the U.S. dating back to 1917.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum (HOK) of St. Louis contracts to oversee initial projects of the Ames Modernization Program, a five-year, $430-million upgrade of the USDA animal disease research facilities on a 480-acre site in Ames, Iowa. The program will rebuild and centralize multiple laboratory and research centers, creating state-of-the-art laboratory and office environments in a campus designed for optimum functionality, flexibility, security, and future expansion.

Camden County College is building a 320,000-sf technology center and 200,000-sf, six-story parking garage. The $20-million facility will house 37,000-sf of classrooms, a technology center, laboratories, and 13,500-sf of retail including a bookstore.