Industry News

The Department of the Interior’s 1.3 million-sf 1930s-era building is scheduled for  modernization. The General Services Administration has awarded Grunley Construction of Rockville, Md., a $18.6 million construction contract for phase one of the project—HVAC central plant work on several levels, some demolition and new construction in part of the building’s northernmost wing. The building currently accommodates approximately 2,500 employees. Completion of the entire project is anticipated in late 2008.

Scott Adams, cartoon creator of the Dilbert comic strip, is working with design firm IDEO of San Francisco to develop “Dilbert’s Ultimate Cubicle”—an almost office-sized prototype for a workspace comprised of orange and white translucent plastic modules. The modules each perform a different function—file storage, cooler, coat hanger, fish tank—and could be configured by employees to create their own ideal workspace.

 Intuit, the Mountain View, Calif.-based creator of financial software, has plans for a new three-building state-of-the-art campus in Reno. Construction over the next two years will see the first structure completed around November 2001, the second in spring 2002, and the third in late 2003. At build-out the 150,000-sf office complex will seat approximately 850 employees.

George Mason University Foundation has received approval for construction of a seven-story office building with a six-story, underground parking structure in Virginia Square. The $60 million project will sit on nearly two acres and provide 192,500-sf for office space and 13,275 sf of retail space on the building’s first floor. Above- and below-ground parking will accommodate 671 vehicles. The foundation uses private tenant lease money for acquisition and construction costs, selling or donating the building to the university when the project has been paid for.

PPL Corp., a Pennsylvania energy company, plans to locate its Energy Plus division  adjacent to its headquarters in Allentown. Liberty Property Trust will convert a former department store site into a six- or seven-story building; PPL will occupy 170,000 sf of the facility. Liberty has selected Robert A.M. Stern Architects of New York to design the building, with groundbreaking possible in early 2002, and completion in spring 2003. PPL plans to build a 1,000-vehicle parking deck nearby.