Major New Office Projects in Philadelphia and Washington D.C. Announced

Cira Centre to start in Philadelphia, with Turner heading up the construction team. 1875 Pennsylvania in Washington, D.C. will be built by Clark Construction.

Turner Gets $116 Million Contract for Cira Centre

PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia office of Turner Construction Company has been awarded a $116 million contract to construct the Cira Centre office building in Philadelphia, Pa., for Brandywine Realty Trust, a full service real estate company headquartered in Plymouth Meeting, Pa. Cesar Pelli is the Architect.

Turner Construction is the general contractor for the 31-story, 784,000-sq.-ft. high-rise which is scheduled for completion in October 2005. It will be built adjacent to Amtrak's 30th Street Station in the University City section of Philadelphia and is the flagship of Philadelphia's plan to revitalize its corporate community. The architect is Cesar Pelli of New Haven, Conn.

Big Lease at 1875 Pennsylvania Gets Project Moving

WASHINGTON, D.C. — After getting a signed lease from the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, to take 525,000 sq. ft at 1875 Pennsylvania Avenue, site owners The Mark Winkler Company of Alexandria, Va. and EastBanc, Inc. of Washington, D.C., awarded The Clark Construction Group, Inc. a $42 million contract to construct an office building at the site, which will complete the complex.

Known as 1875 Pennsylvania Avenue, the development encompasses the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue between 18th and 19th Streets and consists of the existing 1801 Pennsylvania Avenue, 1875 Pennsylvania Avenue (currently under construction,) and the newly renovated 1899 Pennsylvania Avenue. Clark is currently demolishing the Federal Bar buildings on the site to make way for 1875 Pennsylvania Avenue. The three building complex will be interconnected by Clark to allow the law firm to operate seamlessly.

Washington, D.C.-based Shalom Baranes Associates designed 1875 Pennsylvania Avenue, a 13-story, 316,000-sq.-ft. building. The project team includes Thornton-Tomasetti-Cutts of Washington, D.C., structural engineer; Girard Engineering of McLean, Va., MEP engineer; and Wiles Mensch Corporation of Reston, Va., civil engineer. The anticipated completion date for the complex is Spring 2006.

Oak Contracting Starts $67 Million School

PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY, MD. — Prince George's County Public Schools recently announced the selection of Oak Contracting Corp., Towson, Md. as the construction manager for their new, $67 million Regional High School. This comprehensive facility will house 2,600 students on the 55-acre Canby site on Brooke Lane in Upper Marlboro, Md. The architect for the project is Grimm + Parker Architects. The firm has offices in Bethesda, Md., Calverton, Md. and McLean, Va.

R. W. Murray Co. Awarded Gateway Project

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VA — R. W. Murray Co. has been selected to complete several buildings in the Virginia Gateway retail and commercial development in Western Prince William County.

The project consists of four structures ranging in size from 13,000-sq. ft. to 16,000 sq. ft., and one structure of 57,000 sq. ft. Bignell Watkins Hasser, Architects P.A. is the architect for the four buildings that will be arranged in a pedestrian-friendly, "town center" style. The fifth structure is a flex-use building designed by Architecture, Inc., which will be known as Gateway Commerce Center. It will include a fitness center, offices, and other retail tenants.

Design/Build Project Starts at Chestnut Hill

CHESTNUT HILL, PA. — H2L2 Architects/Planners, Philadelphia, Pa. and Turner Construction Co., Philadelphia, Pa.,have recently been commissioned by Chestnut Hill College, for the design/build of a new 180-bed Residence Hall. This project is scheduled for completion in fall 2005.

Maryland to Invest $13 Billion in Transportation

BALTIMORE — Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., announced recently he will generate an additional $320 million dollars annually through user fees and other sources to improve Maryland's highway and transit network. With Governor Ehrlich already budgeting $25 million to replenish the Transportation Trust Fund, new money available for transportation in Fiscal Year 2005 will total $345 million.

With the additional revenue, the FY 2005-2010 capital transportation program funded by the Transportation Trust Fund will total nearly $11.5 billion. The Maryland Transportation Authority will construct another $1.6 billion in improvements during the same period.

Design Team Selected for Union Station Garage

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Union Station Redevelopment Corp. selected Timothy Haahs and Associates, Inc. to design a 1,000-space expansion to its existing parking structure in Washington, D.C. RTKL is on the team as the architectural design consultant to develop conceptes for improving the aesthetics of this austere parking structure.

Clark/Gilford Completes $184 Million NIST Facility

GAITHERSBURG, MD. — Clark/Gilford, a joint venture of The Clark Construction Group Inc., of Bethesda, Md., and Gilford Corporation, of Beltsville, Md. recently completed a $184 million laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). HDR Architecture, Inc. of Alexandria, Va was the project's architect. HDR also provided the civil, mechanical, electrical, and structural engineering design. Earl Walls Associates of San Diego, Calif. was HDR's laboratory consultant. The team designed and constructed one of the most technologically advanced buildings in the world, the Advanced Measurement Laboratory (AML), at the Maryland campus.

New DMV Facility in Delaware Gets Underway

GEORGETOWN, DE. — Richard Y Johnson will build and Anderson, Brown, Higley Associates, Wilmington, will design a new $14 million Division of Motor Vehicles facility to be built in Georgetown, De. The new DMV Administrative Building and inspection lanes are slated to open in May 2005. Removal of the existing facility will be done once the new building is finished.

Swarthmore Selects Architect

SWARTHMORE, PA. — Archer & Buchanan Architecutre, Ltd. has been selected as the design firm for a new education center and greenhouse for the Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore College. The new 5,000-sq.-ft. facility will replace the existing 900-sq.-ft. greenhouse and will sit adjacent to the headquarters of the Scott Arboretum, located near the main entrance to the Swarthmore campus. Construction is expected to begin in the fall.

NOAA Facility Wins Three Design Honors

SUITLAND, MD. — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Satellite and Operations Facility, Suitland, Md. was recently honored with three prestigious design awards. The project received a Progressive Architecture (P/A) award from Architecture magazine, a Design Awards Citation from the General Services Administration (GSA)'s Capitol Region chapter, and a Merit Award from the American Institute of Architects' Los Angeles chapter (AIA/LA). The NOAA project, currently under construction, is a joint venture of Santa Monica, CA-based Morphosis Architects and Einhorn Yaffee Prescott, Architecture & Engineering, P.C. (EYP).

The 208,000-sq.-ft., 16-acre Satellite and Operations Facility includes offices, data centers, and 100,000 sq. ft. of parking for NOAA, the U.S. agency that collects weather and environmental data to provide to government and private users.