Building Design & Construction articles from March 2008

Building Design & Construction archives from March 2008

Gilbane Building Company: building people, not just buildings.(Company overview)
March 1, 2008... Jay W. Schneider Gilbane Building Company, a full-service construction manager and general contractor based in Providence, R.I., reported annual revenues of more than $4 billion in 2007. Last year, the company allocated nearly $7.6...

Schmidt Associates: earning loyalty through lasting relationships.(Company overview)
March 1, 2008... Dave Barista When architect Wayne Schmidt went out on his own 31 years ago, he vowed to build his new design firm around the guiding principle that one should lead through service to others. 'I firmly believe that you don't declare you're...

HDR Architecture, Inc.: Health care leader thrives by nurturing its people.(Company overview)
March 1, 2008... Peter Fabris To be number one in a highly competitive field like healthcare design, an architecture firm has to attract and develop top-notch talent. HDR Architecture, Inc., ranked number one in healthcare among Building...

KJWW Engineering Consultants: training everyone for success.
March 1, 2008... Jeff Yoders Forty-six-year-old KJWW Engineering Consultants of Rock Island, Ill., recently hit the 500-employee milestone, but barely had time to celebrate. Since the start of this year, KJWW has hired 40 new engineering graduates, opened...

Lord, Aeck & Sargent: committed to continuing education, devoted to sustainability.
March 1, 2008... Cheryl Cullen Lord, Aeck & Sargent, a 156-employee architectural firm with offices in Atlanta, Ann Arbor, Mich., and Chapel Hill, N.C., has been serving clients in scientific, academic, historic preservation, arts and culture, mixed-use,...

Power Construction Company, LLC: where the right fit is everything.(Company overview)
March 1, 2008... Robert Cassidy Power Construction Company operates from a very basic business proposition: that it is invariably more profitable to get more business from your current clients than to spend a lot of time and resources prospecting for new...

RDK Engineers: one firm, many entrepreneurs.
March 1, 2008... Jay W. Schneider Almost 10 years ago, principals at RDK Engineers in Andover, Mass., decided to radically reorganize the MEP firm's business operations. They envisioned a new operating model that would imbue the century-old firm with an...

Turner Construction Company: reaching out to the community.
March 1, 2008... Cheryl Cullen Turner Construction Company is the largest construction company in the U.S., with 5,800 employees in 46 offices nationwide and a presence in 20 countries. The firm, a subsidiary of German construction giant Hochtief AG,...

Mark G. Anderson Consultants: high-risk yields high rewards.
March 1, 2008... Dave Barista It was February 1995, and construction management expert Mark Anderson was hard at work in Lower Manhattan on the recovery of the World Trade Center tower following the 1993 bombing when he received a phone call from a friend...

Charlotte mixed-use tower will be well cultured.(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Staff Designed by Atlanta-based TVS, the Wachovia First Street Cultural Campus in Charlotte, N.C., will feature a 48-story office tower for Wachovia Corp., two museums, a 350-seat auditorium, an African-American Cultural Center, a...

Darden Restaurants to build LEED-certified HQ in Orlando.(Darden Restaurants Inc.)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Staff Casual dining giant Darden Restaurants, which operates major franchises like Red Lobster and Olive Garden, has broken ground on its $100 million corporate headquarters in Orlando, Fla. Designed by Chicago-based Perkins+Will, with...

Caltech to get world-class astronomy and astrophysics facility.(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Staff Atlanta-based Heery International is providing the project and construction management for the new Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Designed by Santa Monica-based...

Luxury apartment tower going up in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood.(James McHugh Construction Co.)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Staff Local contractor James McHugh Construction has begun construction of Streeter Place, a 54-story luxury apartment tower in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood. When completed in November 2009, the development will feature 480 apartments...

San Jose breaks ground on airport terminals.(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Staff San Jose International Airport has started construction on its new Terminal B complex and comprehensive upgrades to its Terminal A building as part of the first phase of its terminal improvement program scheduled to finish in...

Booming Phoenix suburb to get patient tower.(RTKL Associates Inc.)
March 1, 2008... Staff Del Webb Hospital recently topped out an $86 million patient tower on Sun Health's campus in Sun City West, Ariz. Designed by the Los Angeles office of RTKL, Baltimore, the 175,000-sf tower will position the hospital to better...

Manhattan's latest boutique hotel will be LEED Silver certified.(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Staff New York-based developer Tribeca Associates has commissioned Brennan Beer Gorman Architects to design its latest mixed-use office and boutique hotel at 330 Hudson Street. Located in the downtown Hudson Square area of Manhattan, the...

How well are you treating your employees?
March 1, 2008... Robert Cassidy, Editor-in-Chief Our third annual 'Best AEC Firms To Work For' winners are in (see p. 45). They're yet another remarkable group of forward-thinking companies that are truly committed to their employees. Following are some...

First the Pocket Fisherman, now the pocket concrete mixer?
March 1, 2008... Staff Kestrel offers a nifty handheld device for getting concrete pours just right on the job site. The Kestrel 4300 automatically calculates the evaporation rate of newly poured concrete to ensure a perfect pour. But don't expect to see...

Cool roof system gets a tan.(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Staff Developed specifically for the Southern and Western U.S. roofing markets, tan-colored Sure-Weld thermoplastic polyolefin membranes have a reflectance rating of 0.71 and an emittance rating of 0.86, meeting all the requirements of...

Fiberglass handrails.(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Staff Fiberglass handrails are strong, lightweight, and corrosion- and rot-resistant, providing an alternative to wood and metal systems. Strongrail features internal molded connectors that snap together, providing an easy-to-assemble...

Power/data post makes wiring workstations a snap.(Power/Data Post )
March 1, 2008... Staff With the Power/Data Post from H.H. Robertson, facility managers can distributed data and power cabling for up to four workstations, eliminating the need for costly wire raceways, electrical distribution harnesses, and other related...

Add some dazzle to concrete floors.
March 1, 2008... Staff Liquid Dazzle epoxy floor coating is loaded with proprietary metallic additives that flow in cloud-like forms when applied, producing a dynamic, liquid-metallic appearance that changes when viewed at different angles and light...

Glow-in-the-dark concrete.
March 1, 2008... Staff Kwik Kerb USA has unveiled a concrete coating that glows in the dark, allowing building owners to provide permanent fire and life safety signage and pathways without a power source. Available in neon green and blue, LumiCrete...

Severe Weather Solutions.
March 1, 2008... By Barbara Horwitz-Bennett and C.C. Sullivan New Threats, New Technologies Hurricane-prone regions have taken quite a beating in recent years-and so have Building Teams working in those areas. According to the National Oceanic and...

Autodesk strives for interoperability with new products, more acquisitions.
March 1, 2008... By Jeff Yoders, Associate Editor At its second annual World Press Days event in San Francisco, Autodesk presented nearly 150 assembled journalists with a vision of how its 2009 AEC software will help AEC professionals meet the challenges of...

Kaiser Permanente's Template for Success.
March 1, 2008... By Jay W. Schneider, Senior Editor Faced with having to replace half its California beds by 2015, the nation's largest nonprofit HMO created a prototypical hospital template that can be built on virtually any site, with few modifications....

Medical University of South Carolina opens cardio and digestive disease hospital.(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Staff Early last month, the Medical University of South Carolina opened the doors to Ashley River Tower, its new state-of-the-art hospital designed to treat patients with cardiovascular and digestive disease problems. NBBJ, in partnership...

Construction nears completion on Libeskind's Contemporary Jewish Museum.(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Staff San Francisco-based Plant Construction Co. is nearing completion on the 63,000-sf, $46 million Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco's Yerba Buena cultural district. Museum staff began moving offices and artwork into the museum...

Kennesaw State University performance center aims for perfect sound.
March 1, 2008... Staff Loaded with features like cotton velour adjustable curtains, steeply raked seating, operable 'tuning' doors, and an efficient rectangular dimension, the recently opened Dr. Bobbie Bailey and Family Performance Center at Kennesaw...

New York gets its first LEED-certified museum.(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Staff The Wild Center/Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks, a new museum complex in Tupper Lake, N.Y., became the first LEED-certified museum in New York when the project earned LEED Silver recently. Designed by HOK and Phinney Design...

Alabama readies for hurricane season with fallout shelter.(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Staff The new arena and coliseum housing the Baldwin County Cattle and Fair Association in Robertsdale, Ala., doubles as a disaster shelter for up to 5,000 people during a short-term emergency and 1,900 for long-term situations. Completed...

Longwood University's fitness center gets LEED Gold.(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Staff Water-free urinals, FSC-certified athletic wood floors, an energy-efficient HVAC system, local materials, and a CO2 monitoring system are among the green features at Longwood University's 73,000-sf, LEED-Gold Health & Fitness Center...

Cowboys stadium soars in Arlington.
March 1, 2008... Dave Barista, Managing Editor With the first of two massive, quarter-mile-long arch trusses in place and the other scheduled to be completed late last month, the Dallas Cowboys' new billion-dollar stadium development in Arlington, Texas,...

News Briefs.
March 1, 2008... Staff * Voters reject peace center for Alcatraz. Voters in San Francisco have rejected a measure that would have replaced Alcatraz Island's infamous prison with a peace center, at a cost of $1 billion. Alcatraz gets 1.4 million visitors a...

AIA creates Strategic Partnership Program,names RCD first partner.(American Institute of Architects )(Reed Construction Data )(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Staff In an effort to provide members with greater access to the latest tools for their practice, the American Institute of Architects announced an agreement with Reed Construction Data (a BD+C sister company) to become the first company...

People+Firms.(Lucien Lagrange Architects appointed Hill,Tom)(DPR Construction Inc. appointed Quinton, Jody)(RMJM Hillier apponted Jones, Chris (executive))(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Staff * Chicago-based Lucien Lagrange Architects announced four promotions: Tim Hill , James Kemper , Alfredo Marr , and Heather Weed were all named principal of the firm. They join founder Lucien Lagrange and Wayne Miller (named...

SHW Detroit designs first U.S. university in Dubai.(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Jeff Yoders, Associate Editor SHW Group's Michigan Studio in Detroit has been selected to design and engineer a new 32,000-sf education facility for Michigan State University in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, making MSU the first American...

Clarification.(Correction notice)
March 1, 2008... Staff In 'Add a fifth floor to your next apartment complex' (January, p. 30), it is the Alexan Glebe project that initially had a 12-story component yielding 251 units that we redesigned for four-story wood frame yielding 217 units. Also,...

Adrian Smith chosen for positive-energy project in Abu Dhabi.(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Staff Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture won an international competition to design one of the largest buildings in the world that aims to generate more energy each day than it consumes. The tower-a mix of offices, condominiums, and...

RSMeans costs comparisons.
March 1, 2008... Staff [TABLE OMITTED]

Selling Green in the Spec Office Market.(Zimmer Real Estate Services L.C.)
March 1, 2008... By Dave Barista, Managing Editor A growing number of speculative office developers are going to market with sustainable, high-performance buildings. But are tenants willing to pay more green for green space? When Kansas City-based...

Expansive glazing brings nature inside.
March 1, 2008... Staff Designed to mediate between urban and natural, the Lakeside Nature Center in Kansas City, Mo., brings the look and feel of a forest to its inner-city surroundings. Floor-to-ceiling glazing rises 28 feet to enhance the feeling of...

Army saves 30% by using ultra-lightweight concrete walls.(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Staff Looking to speed construction of the U.S. Army National Training Center in Fort Irwin, Calif., military officials specified prefabricated structures with walls constructed of lightweight cellular concrete. By employing the Ecolite...

Restaurant turns up the heat with radiant window system.(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Staff The Mahogany Grille in Durango, Colo., became the first restaurant in the nation to specify radiant heat windows when it installed two windows with Thermique heated glass in early 2007. The units help keep the seating areas near the...

Projects recognized for innovative TPO roof systems.(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Staff St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, Calif., and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Ashburn, Va., are among 12 winning projects in Sika Sarnafil's 2007 Projects of the Year Competition. Garnering first place in the...

Finelite direct/indirect pendant light fixtures.(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Staff Finelite offers a variety of direct, indirect, and direct/indirect pendant light fixtures for offices, schools, hospitals, and other light-intensive environments. The company's pendant direct/indirect linear fluorescent fixtures are...