The New York City Economic Development Corporation recently released a Request for Qualifications to identify developers for the first stage of the Willets Point District, a 62-acre district in northeastern Queens which is proposed to become one of the city’s first green communities, with housing, retail, community space and other uses. NYCEDC will then issue one or more Targeted Requests for Proposals to selected firms responding to this RFQ. Related Links: PB Names New CEO Phase One of Norwalk Wastewater Treatment Plant Breaks Ground NY Building Congress: Industry May Be Stabilizing Newest Lowe’s Home Improvement Store Underway SUNY Maritime College

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein have announced that 23 new school buildings with more than 13,000 seats will open at the start of the 2009-10 school year. This new construction, along with the 18 new buildings that opened last year, represents the most-ever new classroom seats to come on line in a two-year period since the School Construction Authority was created in 1988. Related Links: PB Names New CEO Phase One of Norwalk Wastewater Treatment Plant Breaks Ground NY Building Congress: Industry May Be Stabilizing Newest Lowe’s Home Improvement Store Underway SUNY Maritime College Gets

The first phase of the $37 million Wastewater Treatment Plant in Norwalk, Connecticut which includes main lift pumping and grit and screens removal in order to treat a peak flow of up to 90 million gallons per day recently broke ground. Related Links: PB Names New CEO NY Building Congress: Industry May Be Stabilizing Newest Lowe’s Home Improvement Store Underway SUNY Maritime College Gets New Research Facilities NYCEDC Issues RFQs for Potential Willets Point Developers 23 New School Buildings to Open Skanksa to Rebuild Manhattan Bridge The new facility will also provide improved treatment for the extraneous flow the plant

Three months after being acquired by U.K.-based construction giant Balfour Beatty, Parsons Brinckerhoff looked inside the organization for its new leader. George J. Pierson, a three-year veteran with PB, was named the company’s Chief Executive Officer in early December. He will assume the role after the first of the year. Related Links: Phase One of Norwalk Wastewater Treatment Plant Breaks Ground NY Building Congress: Industry May Be Stabilizing Newest Lowe’s Home Improvement Store Underway SUNY Maritime College Gets New Research Facilities NYCEDC Issues RFQs for Potential Willets Point Developers 23 New School Buildings to Open Skanksa to Rebuild Manhattan Bridge

Skanska has secured a $150 million contract from the New York City Department of Transportation to rebuild the Manhattan Bridge. The project will include the replacement of the bridge’s suspension structures. More than 600 suspender cables will be replaced and the four main cables will be re-wrapped. The bearings for the eight main trusses will also be replaced. In addition, inspection platforms will be installed under the bridge and the so-called neckline lighting on the bridge’s two exterior suspender cables will be replaced. Related Links: PB Names New CEO Phase One of Norwalk Wastewater Treatment Plant Breaks Ground NY Building

The State University of New York’s Maritime College is currently in the process of renovating its research facilities called Tode Hall Engineering Laboratories located on the college’s 55-acre campus on the Throg’s Neck peninsula in the Bronx. Photo: The Berman Group, Inc. A separation was created by Architects Landow and Landow between the school’s existing testing space and the new electronics laboratory so as to allow for desk space with electronics equipment and computer hook-ups at each station. Related Links: PB Names New CEO Phase One of Norwalk Wastewater Treatment Plant Breaks Ground NY Building Congress: Industry May Be Stabilizing

Our editors are everywhere — at all the industry events that matter most. When they're not speaking on panels, they're busy taking notes — and snapping photos — so they can inform their readers about what was said and who was there.

If the final version of the health care reform bill must resemble more closely what was passed by the Senate, as lawmakers on Capitol Hill say, the House's public option is probably out but the fate of the Senate's special provision targeting construction remains uncertain. Some contractor groups whose workers tend to be unionized are supporting the Senate's special construction industry amendment. After the Senate's approval of a measure that aims to make broad changes in the U.S. health-care system, the focus will turn to negotiations to reconcile the newly passed Senate bill with the version the House cleared in

KSS Architects of Philadelphia is designing a new addition and renovation for SUNY Cortland that will transform the school�s Studio West, located on the south entrance of the college campus. Rendering courtesy of KSS Architects LLP The new building for the School of Professional Studies will consolidate four of the six departments in the institution and include a courtyard and connector that will link the new building to the existing one. The project, which broke ground in October, will add a 20,000-sq-ft, two-story-addition to the east side of Studio West, a 43,000-sq-ft metal panel and red brick building originally constructed

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert C. Lieber and Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman and CEO Jay H. Walder recently announced the completion of the first phase of the Number 7 subway extension at the Hudson Yards in Manhattan which includes the second of two tunnel boring machines having reached the southern wall of the 34th Street Station cavern after mining a combined 2,900 ft from its starting point at 26th Street under 11th Avenue. The 7 Line extension project which is being managed by the MTA, will help transform the Hudson Yards into a 24-hour, mixed-use community