Industry News

The Clark R. Bavin National Forensic Laboratory in Ashland is planning a 37,000-sf addition and renovation. It is the only comprehensive full-service wildlife crime lab in the world, and serves an international purpose by meeting the forensic needs of wildlife agencies globally. HERA Inc. of St. Louis is responsible for laboratory programming for the addition that will supplement the existing 23,000-sf crime lab facility. HarleyEllis in Southfield, Mich., is the architect and engineer.

 The Organization of American States plans to renovate its General Secretariat building in Washington, where operations will be consolidated onto six floors and a lower level; three remaining floors will be leased. OAS selected the architectural firm Group Goetz and the engineering firm Joseph Loring Inc. to work on the project.

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Kaiser Family Foundation, based in Menlo Park, Calif., has plans to build a new nine-story, 96,000-sf public affairs office in Northwest Washington. The facility will house staff, a broadcast studio, conference space, and high-tech exhibition space. Local members of the development team include D.C.-based Concord Partners (owner's representative); Reston, Va.-based Wiles Mensch (civil engineering); and Bethesda, Md.-based Clark Construction (general contractor).

 The Institute for International Economics will soon move to a new 25,000-sf headquarters in Washington. The building was designed by New York-based Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates and built over 14 months by Sigal Construction. The developer of the project is Kaempfer. The Institute is a private, non-profit research organization.

NeuStar, the supplier of area codes and blocks of numbers to telephone companies and Internet service providers, has opened its new headquarters office in downtown Washington. Ganek Baer Architects of Littleton, Mass., designed the facility to promote creative collaboration for the egalitarian corporate culture of NeuStar’s 150 employees. Offices are small and hexagonal, and surround open areas containing coffee islands. Small “backyard” alcoves which contain a round table a few chairs accommodate ad hoc consultations.