Industry News

Loras College has plans for a new 85,000-sf Academic Resource Center. The four-story facility will house the library, a tutorial center for writing and math, a learning disabilities center, reading rooms, coffee shop and a Barnes & Noble book store. A 3,000-sf exhibition space will be open to the public and features a rare books collection and a display of Dubuque history and archives. Data ports will be installed throughout the entire center for laptop users.

Boston University (BU) has expanded its on-campus housing with apartment-style suites that will accommodate 800 students. The new building is the first at the university's Student Village complex, which is located on 10 acres at the former Commonwealth Armory site. BU provides campus housing for over 10,000 students.

U.S. Department of Interior's Fish & Wildlife Service has retained HarleyEllis of Southfield, Mich., to provide architectural and engineering design services for the Clark R. Bavin National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory expansion in Ashland. The 48,000-sf project encompasses the analysis and renovation of 23,000-sf of existing facility and the design of 25,000 sf of expansion. The expanded facility will house forensics labs, a firing range, administration, and conference space.

Merial has plans to relocate and consolidate its five major U.S. animal health operations to several sites in Georgia. A suburb of Atlanta will be selected for the company's North American headquarters, where 400 employees will be housed. The company's Athens, Ga., manufacturing and research facility will accommodate an additional 80 relocated R&D employees. The University of Georgia will be the site of a planned pilot vaccine development facility, where Merial would manufacture both animal and human vaccines.

Siebel Systems plans to relocate 750 administrative personnel to the 205,000-sf Concar project planned by Wilson/Equity Office in San Mateo. Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2001, with move-in anticipated 18 months later. The fast-growing software company is in the process of occupying its new 450,000-sf headquarters at the Bridgepointe development 10 minutes' drive from the Concar site. Bridgepointe is a Sobrato Development project.