Industry News

Ground has been broken on Guilford Technical Community College's 66,000-sf School of Entertainment Technology. Funded by state bond money, the $92.5 million building will include an amphitheater and sound studios.

Food Safety Net Services Ltd. of San Antonio has purchased 10 acres in Grand Prairie, Texas, as the site of a food-testing lab to be relocated form Richardson, Texas. With construction to begin in 60 to 90 days, completion is slated for October, 2002. Fort Worth-based Dobbins & Crow Architects was selected to design the 12,000-sf lab, which is a significant expansion from Food Safety Net's 2,000 sf in Richardson.

Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Walnut Creek, Calif., has selected architects Ratcliff of Emeryville, Calif., to design a new emergency department. The 32,000-sf facility will feature 52 private-visit rooms and will accommodate 73,000 patient visits per year. Slated to open in September 2003, the new emergency department will be 2.5 times the size of Kaiser's existing Walnut Creek emergency facilities.

Plainview, Texas-based Wayland Baptist University System is planning to add 319,000 sf of classroom and administrative space to its Wayland-San Antonio campus. The multimillion-dollar project will be housed on 26 acres of recently purchased land; with the additional acres, Wayland owns a total of 32.5 acres at the site. Construction on the five-building, 1,395-parking space development will probably not begin for another five years.

Jordan Hospital has selected Newton-based TRO, The Ritchie Organization, as architect for the Plymouth hospital's ten-year expansion project. Construction management will be provided by the Needham office of Gilbane Building Co., with Brookline-based Dunster Associates as project manager. The cancer center, the emergency department and outpatient services will be expanded.