While Hollywood celebrities strutted down the red carpet on Sunday night in Los Angeles for the Oscars, many stars of the construction industry waited until Monday to make an appearance at the 2010 Construction Trends Conference: �Insights, Connections, Opportunities,� held at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown. Presented by the San Diego-based law firm, Allen Matkins, the first annual event brought more than 200 of California�s top general contractors, architects, engineers, developers, owners and other industry professionals together for an afternoon discussion on the state of the state�s construction industry, including topics such as high-speed rail, green building, public private
By mid-April, the city of Sacramento and Thomas Enterprises Inc. plan to award $60 million in contracts for relocation of railroad tracks and construction of three bridges in the Sacramento Railyards. Photo: The Railyards The 244-acre infill project is moving ahead with help from a $20 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant. �We would not have been able to move forward on this without the stimulus,� says Elias Rashmawi, director of land redevelopment at the Railyards. �The track relocation unlocks all of the other work on the project.� �We are looking forward to breaking ground in mid-May on one
Huntington Hospital in Pasadena is in the midst of major, multi-phased improvements, including the addition of an $80-million, four-story building with an expanded emergency room department. Related Links: Healthcare Construction 2010 VA Hospital Rises in Palo Alto Sutter Replaces East Bay Med Center Freeman White of San Diego is the project architect for the vertical expansion project, with Sun Valley’s Tower General Contractors serving as general contractor. Construction of the 80,000-sq-ft building began in November 2008 and should be finished in early 2011. According to Tower project manager Mahmoud Saheli, the task of working in an open hospital as busy
There was a time when the design of a new law school usually meant a sprawling campus of separate buildings, with iconic columns and grassy courtyards. But it is 2010, space can be limited and some owners are finding a need to build schools straight up in the middle of busy cities. While shooting for LEED gold certification, the project will take advantage of its location across the street from a large public transportation station, and employ energy-saving systems such as photovoltaic solar panels on the roof. Enter Thomas Jefferson School of Law in downtown San Diego. “I would describe
Affordable housing has managed to break new ground in San Diego at a time when other construction sectors have slowed. Photo: Ten Fifty B. San Diego-based architects Martinez + Cutri designed the 22-story affordable housing project. The common areas will be surrounded by more than 7,000 sq ft of outdoor, landscaped terrace space “We are finding that there is a lot of opportunity in affordable housing right now,” says Jeff W. Graham, vice president of redevelopment for Centre City Development Corp., a non-profit corporation created by the city of San Diego to implement downtown redevelopment projects and programs. “With the
Work began in July on the $320-million Sutter Medical Center, a 230,000-sq-ft facility replacing Castro Valley’s Eden Medical Center – yet another casualty of the state’s rigorous earthquake codes. Related Links: Healthcare Construction 2010 VA Hospital Rises in Palo Alto Huntington Hospital Doubles Emergency Facility Financed entirely without public dollars, the project is one of the first healthcare developments in California to utilize both a phased permitting process by the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development and an integrated project delivery team system. An IPD system differs from standard design/bid/build or design-build systems in that the major players –
In the San Francisco Bay area, the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System is planning for a $26-million, 76,000-sq-ft, 80-bed Inpatient Mental Health Center that will replace an aging facility that doesn’t stand up to current seismic code. The Design Partnership is the architect on the VA project in Palo Alto. Related Links: Healthcare Construction 2010 Sutter Replaces East Bay Med Center Huntington Hospital Doubles Emergency Facility The center will be a locked facility, with patients housed in secured quarters. “Our first challenge is to make the center a healing environment, as humane and appropriate for VA patients as
Hanging more than 200 ft over a jobsite in downtown Kansas City, Mo., James Hague doesn’t seem to notice the tiny people and equipment below his feet. The senior technician is intently fiddling with a dial gauge that measures the amount of play in a crane turntable—the giant gear that rotates the jib. “A bearing could go bad,” says Hague, suspended from a full-body harness. “And that’s something we want to know before the top falls off.” Slide Show Photo: Tudor Van Hampton Although this vertigo-inducing procedure is not required by law for a routine inspection, it is standard practice
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. Related Links: 86-year old campus gets two new halls at campus entrance Caltrans breaks ground on Caldecott Tunnel fourth-bore project Design, construction complete for Dove Street office building McCarthy completes Roy and Patricia Disney Family Cancer Center Solar-powered affordable housing complex opens in Oakland The $43-million facility in San Andreas will relieve crowding and enable the county to expand its drug
WILLIAMS DUEKER Aguirre Roden announced Taylor Dueker, AIA, has been named vice president for its Austin office. In his role, Dueker will be responsible for professional design services, business development and project management. He holds a bachelor’s of science degree in art and design from MIT and master’s of architecture from MIT. KBR, Houston, announced the appointment of Mark S. Williams as group president overseeing KBR’s Government & Defense, Infrastructure & Minerals, and Power & Industrial Business Units. Williams has more than 25 years experience in the government and defense sector. Williams joinsed KBR from Jacobs Engineering, where he most
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