Empire Landing�s 276 craftsman-style, luxury rental homes set on seven landscaped acres in the heart of Burbank�s entertainment and media district officially opened last week with 40% of its residences leased. Empire Landing is the first major rental housing complex built in Burbank in the last quarter century. “There is a great need for new luxury residences in this jobs rich area and Empire Landing fills that gap,” says Alan Casden, CEO of Casden Properties LLC, the project developer. He notes that the last major rental home community completed in Burbank was The Promenade built by Casden Properties in 1985.
The new Rita Atkinson Residences at the University of California, San Diego opened earlier this month. Architecture firm Valerio Dewalt Train Associates designed the residences in a design-build partnership with general contractor Webcor Builders. The new graduate student housing building is part of efforts to meet the university’s goal of housing half of the student population in campus facilities. “The design needed to help recruit top students, convey the university’s reputation for innovation, and enhance the overall educational experience on campus,” says Principal Joe Valerio of the Chicago-based design firm. “Because the site occupies a promontory near the main entrance
McCarthy Building Cos. Inc., in partnership with CHOC Children�s, recently built a technologically advanced playhouse for HomeAid Orange County�s 19th annual Project Playhouse fundraiser. This is the second year in a row that McCarthy and CHOC have teamed to build a playhouse for the Project Playhouse event. The playhouse was built with thousands of dollars worth of services and supplies donated by McCarthy Building Cos. along with various subcontractors and vendors. The McCarthy and CHOC Children’s playhouse is HomeAid’s “opportunity drawing playhouse,” which is the only playhouse that could be won by purchasing $2 raffle tickets. Six additional playhouses were
AGC of California recently announced two new staff appointments: Erin Volk has been appointed to the position of Director of the Education and Research Foundation, and Dave Jenkins was promoted to Director of Business Development for AGCC. Volk comes to the Education Foundation from the UC Davis Police Department, where she served as the project director of a UC system-wide grant project funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, a project on which all 10 UC campuses partnered. Erin Volk For the past eight years at UCD, Volk was responsible for securing and working on federal grant programs specific to
The construction industry added 19,000 jobs in August as a strike that had lowered employment in July ended, but the sector�s 17% unemployment rate was the highest August rate ever, according to a new analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America of federal employment data. Continuing gridlock in Washington over infrastructure legislation and expiring tax rates threatens to keep construction workers unemployed much longer, association officials warns. �In construction, employment was up by 19,000 in August; however, about half of the increase was due to the return of 10,000 workers to their jobs following a strike in July,� says
Seven owners of contaminated sites in California, including the Sierra Nevada municipality of Nevada City, will use grants from an $80 million annual Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields and Land Revitalization program to clean up dangerous sites. Friends of Deer Creek, an environmental nonprofit, will subcontract with Nevada City to administrate three $200,000 grants to clean up heavy metals from the tailings of two abandoned mines in recreation areas. A four-year environmental study of the 40-acre gold mining area funded by a Community Assessment Grant detected lead level spikes as high as 1,700 ppm in popular hiking areas. The EPA limit
The U.S. Department of Transportation�s Federal Aviation Administration recently marked the completion of $14.5 million in runway projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that will ensure continued safety for flights at San Francisco International Airport. �The Recovery Act made it possible for this important safety work to happen ahead of schedule,� says U.S Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. �These projects kept workers in good-paying jobs, and these safety improvements will benefit the airport and passengers for years to come.� FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt marked the completion of the work at an event last month at San
The growth of the green building market will drive adoption of building information modeling software, according to a new SmartMarket Report, �Green BIM: How Building Information Modeling is Contributing to Green Design and Construction,� released last week by McGraw-Hill Construction. Produced in collaboration with the U.S. Green Building Council, the Mechanical Contractors Association of America, Autodesk and 13 other prominent industry organizations, the report provides new insights on the convergence of two important construction industry trends: green building and BIM, known simply as �Green BIM.� �Green building is already transforming design and construction in the U.S., and BIM has the
Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southwest awarded Clark/McCarthy of Costa Mesa a design-build $394-million Recovery Act funded contract for a new hospital at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. Navy Medicine West is the sponsor for the hospital representing the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. NAVFAC Southwest will manage the largest American Recovery and Reinvestment Act project of 2009 to be awarded in the Department of Navy. �The naval hospital replacement project at Camp Pendleton is one of the largest Recovery Act projects within the Department of Defense and plays a critical role for the support and care for the
The U.S. Green Building Council has awarded LEED gold certification of the new three-story, 50,000-sq-ft Allied Health Education and Training Facility at San Diego Mesa College. McCarthy Building Cos. Inc. served as the construction manager on behalf of the San Diego Community College District. Architects | Delawie Wilkes Rodrigues Barker was the project architect. Completed in August 2009, the new $23-million Allied Health Education and Training Facility is the district�s sixth facility to be LEED certified and the fourth to achieve LEED gold status. Construction was funded by the $1.555 billion Propositions S and N construction bond program, which is
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