Industry News

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.

Pixar, a computer animation company, plans to develop the second phase of its corporate campus on 14 company-owned acres in Emeryville. Within the next 60 to 90 days, a preliminary plan for the expansion will be submitted to the City Planning Department, with possible approval by year-end. The original 1996 plans for the site included 415,000 sf, half of which has been developed. No additional environmental review for the project will be required if the new plans retain a similar project scope and location.

UNC Hospitals is planning to replace the Gravely Building, home of the North Carolina Clinical Cancer Center, with a new $140-million cancer tower in Chapel Hill. The 300,000-sf facility will provide complete outpatient cancer care, housing physician and specialist offices, radiation and chemotherapy facilities, and a pharmacy. Part of UNC's facility master plan, the cancer tower, which has yet to be designed, will be developed over the next five years.