The Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, in collaboration with the city of Santa Cruz and the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, has broken ground on the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Exploration Center, a $15-million, 12,000-sq-ft public-private partnership. The city has provided the three-quarter-acre lot at the Fun Spot at Pacific Avenue and Beach Street, ONMS has provided the funding to construct the building and the foundation is conducting a $3 million capital campaign to pay for the exhibits. The Exploration Center provide state-of-the-art, interactive, interpretive exhibits to an anticipated 200,000 visitors annually and will highlight environmentally sustainable green design and
The community of East Oakland and the Oakland Fire Department, along with City Councilwoman Jean Quan, recently gathered for a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of the new Fire Station 18. The ceremony was attended by the crew of Fire Station 18, members of the local community, and the architect and general contractor SKA and Swinerton. Located at a highly visible, busy thoroughfare in Central East Oakland, Fire Station 18 provides an important new landmark for this mixed-use working class neighborhood. As the first LEED certified fire station in Oakland, Fire Station 18 also represents a major sustainability
It was a tough decision but when the dust settled and the hammering stopped, the Army Corps of Engineers was selected 2010 Owner of the Year by editors and contributors of California Construction Magazine. Christine Altendorf Larry Smith �Winning this award is great and not because the Corps is a winner, but because the taxpayer is the winner.� says Dr. Christine Altendorf, director of programs for South Pacific Division of Army Corps of Engineers. USACE/South Pacific Division was chosen by the editorial staff and contributing editors of California Construction magazine based on criteria including maintaining a robust pipeline containing high-profile
Developer Forest City is planning an opening this month of its Presidio Landmark project, a restoration of a historical building in San Francisco�s national park. The Presidio Landmark is an adaptive re-use of the six-story, 220,000-sq-ft historic Public Health Service Hospital building � the largest historic landmark in the park. The building is being rehabilitated into 154 high-end rental apartments, including junior one-bedroom, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units ranging from 400 to 1,500 sq ft. In keeping with its natural setting, The Presidio Landmark incorporates many sustainable features and is seeking LEED gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. The
The U.S. Green Building Council recently awarded the Tustin Centre Office Phase II project in Santa Ana LEED gold-Core and Shell. The project is owned by an investment client of BlackRock, Inc. and The Muller Co. is the developer and property manager. The architect for the project was Nadel Architects and the general contractor was Bycor General Contractors. This new 82,042-sq-ft, four-story Class A office building, which is located at 1525 N. Tustin Avenue near 17th Street, is the first Core and Shell building to receive LEED gold in all of California, according to The Muller Co. �Tustin Centre II�s
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, San Francisco District, this week held its Change of Command Ceremony at the Bay Model Visitor Center in Sausalito. Lt. Col. Laurence M. Farrell, district commander since 2008, relinquished his command and passed the district flag to Brig. Gen. Scott F. �Rock� Donahue, commander, Corps South Pacific Division. Brig. Gen. Donahue will, in turn, present the command, symbolized by the flag, to the incoming district commander, Lt. Col. Torrey A. DiCiro. The ceremony is a change in leadership for the San Francisco District that has a large impact on the 7 million Californians living
Parsons, in conjunction with the city of Bakersfield, recently marked the completion of the Wastewater Treatment Plant 3 expansion project with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Bakersfield Mayor Harvey Hall hosted the event, and guests included City Councilmember Jacquie Sullivan, City Manager Alan Tandy, and Public Works Director Raul Rojas as well as Parsons Senior Vice President Surendra Thakral, Parsons Vice President Paul Skager, and Parsons Design Manager Louis Yu. Parsons prepared a master plan for the $238-million expansion project and then designed the necessary facilities. Parsons also provided engineering services during construction. The newly constructed plant sits on more than 200
A ceremonial groundbreaking took place this week for the $452-million Lodi Energy Center power plant project in northern San Joaquin County. The California Energy Commission and Northern California Power Agency teamed up to get the project off the ground, and the NCPA will construct, own and operate the plant. The center will be a natural gas-fired, combined-cycle nominal 255-megawatt power generation facility. The site for the LEC project is 4.4 acres of land in the city of Lodi, 6 mi west of the Lodi city center near Interstate 5. On the east side of the site is the city of
Jacksonville, Fla.-based Haskell Co. has been selected by Advanced Particle Therapy LLC and Scripps Health to provide design/build services for the Scripps Proton Therapy Center to be located in San Diego. The cutting-edge outpatient cancer treatment facility will feature 102,000 sq ft of administrative and treatment area and will include one proton particle beam accelerator Cyclotron, two fixed-beam rooms and three rotational beam gantries. This equipment will be provided by Varian Medical Systems, the recognized world leader in radiation oncology devices. Proton treatment is the favored method of treating certain types of tumors, such as prostate, brain and pediatric cancers,
Construction has started on one of the biggest projects in a nearly $400-million construction program that will vastly improve facilities and infrastructure at one of the largest community colleges in the U.S. Cypress-based Taisei Construction Corp. and Irvine-based LPA Inc. have begun the construction phase of the $20.6-million Math, Business and Allied Health Building at El Camino College near Torrance. The El Camino Community College District serves a population of 524,706. The 18-month construction schedule for the 115,000-sq-ft structure will create about 200 jobs, says Joe Jaramillo, Taisei�s project manager. When completed in December 2011, the four-story, cast-in-place concrete building
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