San Diego-based Carrier Johnson + CULTURE, an architectural, brand communication, and interior and urban design firm, announced a merger with prominent architectural and urban planning firm Fehlman LaBarre. Over the past 25 years, both firms have demonstrated leadership in mixed-use and sustainable innovation. The newly shaped Carrier Johnson + CULTURE will continue to merge the relationship between structures and public space, weaving the cultural experience into urban planning. “The future of modern cities centers on architectural creativity, art and social expression,” says Gordon Carrier, design principal of Carrier Johnson + CULTURE. “At a time when scarcity of resources and changing
The Transbay Transit Center project in San Francisco reached another important milestone as the Transbay Joint Powers Authority recently closed on the $171 million Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan for the project. SF�s Transbay Transit Center Project Receives Federal Loan The loan was made possible based on the TJPA�s sound finance plans, favorable audits and positive credit reviews�requiring an investment grade credit rating, the authority says. The loan will fund 14% of the project�s $1.2 billion Phase I capital costs to build the new Transbay Transit Center project on Mission and First streets. The project is funded
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission invites bids for the New Irvington Tunnel Project. The bid advertisement period began Jan. 13 and bids will be opened on March 11, with a contract award scheduled for April/May 2010. Construction is expected to begin in May/June 2010 with final completion by May 2014. Interested bidders are encouraged to attend a pre-bid and contractor networking conference to be held on Feb. 2 at 9 a.m., Sunol Valley Golf Club, Conference Room, 6900 Mission Road (near Andrade Road and I-680), Sunol. Prime bidders’ attendance at this conference is one of the good faith steps
A consulting team led by architectural/engineering firm PSA-Dewberry, which specializes in corrections and criminal justice facilities, has been selected by Calaveras County to design a new 240-bed jail to replace an aging and chronically overcrowded facility built in 1963. The $43-million facility in San Andreas will relieve crowding and enable the county to expand its drug treatment and educational programs. The complex consists of three buildings—a 73,000-sq-ft jail and a 14,000-sq-ft dormitory, which will be co-located with a 39,000-sq-ft sheriff’s administration facility. The new direct supervision jail will include educational, training, and counseling spaces and video visitation technology. The new
San Diego-based Reno Contracting reports the launch of Reno ESP (Efficient Sustainable Practices), a new business group providing a complete range of “green” building services to the commercial real estate market. Reno says the new group was formed to help commercial building owners enhance the energy and environmental efficiencies of their new and existing buildings while driving down operating costs. “Our mission is to make buildings more attractive to tenants and buyers, and more economic to maintain, while also protecting the environment,” says Walt Fegley, president of Reno Contracting and Reno ESP. “Increasingly, ‘building performance’ is becoming a key factor.
Irvine’s SARES REGIS Group has reached an agreement to lease and redevelop a former furniture showroom site in the city of Huntington Beach. The tentative concept for the 11-acre site envisions a mixed-use retail and luxury apartment home community. The site is at 7441 Edinger Avenue and is adjacent to recently renovated Bella Terra, a 48-acre open air mall containing restaurants, shops and a 20-screen megaplex theater which would provide future residents of the project with excellent access to shopping and entertainment, says Bill Montgomery, president of SRG’s Multifamily Acquisition & Investments Division. Montgomery says the company and city are
T.B. Penick & Sons, Inc. has been awarded the design-assist structural package on the high-end architectural concrete Bakersfield Federal Courthouse project in Kern County. The contract, valued at just under $3.5 million, was let by the General Services Administration as part of a $5.5-billion initiative under the federal Recovery Act to convert federal buildings into high-performance green buildings and build new energy-efficient federal buildings. San Diego-based Penick will partner with Gilbane Building Co. of San Jose, the general contractor, and NBBJ Architects of San Francisco and Los Angeles on this design-build courthouse project. Design work has begun and the project
The 2010 officers of the AGC of California are formally being installed this month. The installation will take place on Jan. 29 during a special dinner at The Silverado in Napa, held in conjunction with the first division and state board meetings of the year. Photo: AGC of California AGC of California�s elected leaders for 2010 include, from left, Treasurer Randy Douglas, Tierra Contracting, Inc., Goleta; Vice President John Nunan, Unger Construction Co., Sacramento; President Bob Christenson, Panattoni Construction, Inc., Sacramento; Senior Vice President Gerry DiIoli, Herzog Contracting Corp., Long Beach; Immediate Past President Tom Foss, Griffith Co., Brea; and
AGC of America this week filed an Emergency Petition with California’s Air Resources Board seeking a two-year implementation delay of its off-road “diesel retrofit” rule. AGC cited the delay is needed in order to avoid unnecessary losses and layoffs within the state’s hard hit construction industry while CARB continues to review its diesel rules. The petition cited new data that shows California's off-road diesel equipment will be well below current emissions targets for years to come. “Contractors don’t need to retrofit, repower or replace a single piece of equipment to meet the state’s emissions targets for the next two years, and possibly
A California contractor was awarded one of the largest U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service American Recovery and Reinvestment Act contracts for a $5 million irrigation project in the National Elk Refuge near Jackson, Wyoming. Photo Courtesy of Yerba Buena Engineering and Construction Inc. California Firm Tapped to Irrigate Elk Refuge Yerba Buena Engineering and Construction, Inc. a San Francisco-based minority-owned small business will install more than 5 mi of irrigation pipe in the 25,000-acre park to replace what Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Michael Mascari called “pioneer-era canals.” Yerba Buena proposed using polyethylene pipe and small sprinklers. The raw materials