It would have been easy for Dreyfuss & Blackford, project architects for the $110-million California Independent System Operator headquarters in Folsom, to go big and tall. The new Cal ISO headquarters complex is located in Folsom Dreyfuss & Blackford’s Cal ISO comcept employs clean and modern design elements Related Links: UC Merced poised to add fourth major building on campus Created by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Cal ISO is all about power: It runs the state’s electricity transmission grid. What better way to communicate power than a headquarters with big, monolithic facades and imposing vertical heights? But Gus Fischer,

Students at the fledgling University of California, Merced, will soon have another facility in which to learn and grow – the $47-million Social Sciences and Management Building. STUDIOS Architecture designed the Social Science and Management Building Related Links: Central Valley Market Report Construction on the 101,500-sq-ft building began in September 2008, and when completed in May 2011, it will bring the number of major buildings at the 5-year-old campus to four. The new facility will house the E&J Gallo School of Management and much of the university’s School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts. Sundt Construction of Sacramento was selected

Workers are closing in on completing five major school projects across Los Angeles. The work is part of Los Angeles Unified School District’s $20-billion school construction and modernization bond program, a herculean effort in which district officials seek to remedy three decades of under-construction by building 131 new schools and completing 20,000 modernization projects by 2012. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" “During those 30 years, the population of L.A. grew – some areas faster than others,” says Neil Gamble, director of facilities construction for LAUSD. “To handle school overcrowding, we implemented forced busing, sending students from overburdened schools to

The biggest beneficiary of the largest federal stimulus project by the U.S. Dept. of the Interior is a fish. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" Two fish, actually – green sturgeon and Chinook salmon, the migratory habits of which are at the center of a $230-million Fish Passage Improvement Project at the Red Bluff Diversion Dam in Red Bluff, south of Redding. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ruled last year that the dam’s gates threaten the long-term survival of the fish, and so the government is shelling out more than a quarter-billion dollars to lend the creatures’ spawning rituals

As the recession slogs along, attorneys specializing in construction law continue to see problems in the building industry that go with lean times: payment disputes dissolving into stop orders and mechanic�s liens, squabbles over competitive bids and desperate contractors chasing jobs into unfamiliar territory. It�s all provided no end of work for construction lawyers, who first strive to keep their clients from wading unaware into potential legal quagmires and then fight to pull them out of the muck when they do. VAN DUZER �A lot of these issues are still playing themselves out in the market, but we�re seeing more

John Wayne Airport�s massive improvement project � a $543-million effort representing one of the largest public works programs in Orange County history -- is scheduled for completion by December 2011. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" Pasadena-based Parsons Corp. is overseeing all three elements of the project, including construction of a 282,000-sq-ft, three-level terminal (Terminal C); construction of a 725,000-sq-ft replacement parking structure (Parking Structure C); and a 14,600-sq-ft central utility plant. The first significant improvement project at the airport in 20 years will help the airport handle a scheduled passenger increase from its present 9 million annually to 10.8

For Southern California drivers wondering what’s up with the worse-than-usual congestion on the San Bernardino (Interstate 10) Freeway, here’s a bit of good news: It could be a lot worse. Work on the I-10 , one of the several high-profile freeway projects under way in Southern California, began early last year and will be complete in spring 2011. The project includes the complete resurfacing of the I-10, in both directions, between the I-5 and I-605. Yes, the California Department of Transportation’s $165 million I-10/San Bernardino Freeway Restoration project involves dozens of lane and ramp closures on the stretch of road

Building a mixed-use development in the heart of Encino – generally considered “inland” by Southern California’s coastal residents – wouldn’t ordinarily seem like an undertaking for which you’d need a wet suit. Albert Group Architects of Santa Monica is the designer of the Encino Legado project, while Fassberg Contracting Group of Encino is serving as general contractor. Project engineers solved the water problem by installing a mat foundation system involving concrete walls about 2 ft thicker than in standard foundations, sandwiching a thick waterproof membrane. But nature does have its little surprises. The ongoing Encino Legado development --a $45 million

Veteran builders readily admit that what they viewed less than a decade ago as an industry fad – the notion that projects should be designed and built with a high degree of environmental sensitivity – has become a widely accepted, permanent industry practice. Swinerton is currently working on the Pacific Ridge School, phase 2 project in Carlsbad. The architect is Carrier Johnson. Pacific Ridge School is registered with the certification goal of LEED for Schools gold. Elements include daylighting, passive cooling, solar panels, artifical turf on playing fields, parking for hybrid vehicles and bioswales. Related Links: Top Contractors Firms Listing