KB Homes’ Primera Terra, one of the largest communities of LEED platinum-certified homes in California, this week won a 2011 LEED for Homes award in the multi-family category at the U.S. Green Building Council’s Greenbuild international conference and expo in Toronto. The 2011 award categories recognize innovative multi- and single-family projects, production builders, affordable housing projects and developers, an overall commitment to LEED for Homes, and Project of the Year.The 2011 Project of the Year award was given to The GO Home in Belfast, Maine, built by GO Logic. With a small but smart footprint of 1,500 square feet, the
Marked by a groundbreaking ceremony earlier this month, Charles Pankow Builders has begun construction on San Francisco’s new public safety building located on 3rd Street in Mission Bay. The 300,000-sq-ft project combines the 110,000-sq-ft San Francisco Police Department Police Command Center, the 20,000-sq-ft Southern District Police Station, the 17,000-sq-ft Mission Bay Fire Station, 25,000 sq ft of community space and a 128,000-sq-ft parking structure.The building is funded by the Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response Bond (ESER), which was passed by San Francisco voters in 2010.According to the office of Mayor Ed Lee, the facility, designed to achieve LEED gold certification,
As I was writing this essay about Ray Anderson, founder and chairman of Interface, Inc., I looked at two photographs I had of him and his company. The first photo shows the public Ray, stalwart as the face of the corporate giant that he built and pushed to its lofty pedestal within the sustainable flooring industry. The second photo was taken on the factory floor at Bentley Prince Street, the Los Angeles-area Interface corporation also recognized for its innovative practices. Pictured here is the code of sustainability standards by which Ray’s companies and people are expected to conduct their business.
The $452-million Lodi Energy Center (LEC) natural gas power plant project is progressing well and is on track for completion in June 2012, according to sources at the Northern California Power Agency (NCPA), a joint‐action agency serving public power entities in Northern and Central California. The project, which is under construction on 4.4 acres of land in Lodi, will generate 280 megawatts of power once complete.“We’ve experienced a few challenges with suppliers, but we are working around those,” said Ed Warner, project manager, NCPA. “We are 50 percent done with construction and over 70 percent complete with the overall project,
Tutor Perini Corp., Sylmar, has formed a Specialty Contractors Group comprised primarily of the firm’s electrical and mechanical contractors. According to Ken Burk, executive vice president who will be overseeing the new unit as CEO, Tudor Perini will now be made up of four segments: building, civil, management services and specialty contractors.The Specialty Contractors Group will include Tutor Perini subsidiary companies Five Star Electric and WDF, New York; Fisk Electric, Houston; Desert Mechanical, Las Vegas; Nagelbush Mechanical, Fort Lauderdale; and Superior Gunite, Los Angeles. Burk said the new group had a backlog of $1.4 billion as of July 1, and
Passage of a long-term federal transportation bill that would give counties flexibility to use innovative financing methods, streamline the project delivery process without sacrificing the environment and create a legacy of improved mobility for the region were among the strategies discussed at the 10th annual Mobility 21 Summit. More than 1,000 transportation, business and elected leaders met Sept. 6 at the JW Marriott at L.A. Live to pledge their commitment to job creation for Southern California by aggressively pursuing and delivering state and federal transportation investment to the region, according to event officials.Strategies were also discussed for securing U.S. dollars
Caltrans’ acting director Malcolm Dougherty this week sent a letter to California’s congressional delegation, urging them to reauthorize transportation funding before the end of the federal fiscal year, Sept. 30, or the state would face shutting down thousands of local transportation projects valued at $23 billion. The current surface transportation legislation, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), expired in 2009. Congress has extended the act seven times. The federal government currently provides about $3.4 billion per year for transportation projects across the state, according to Caltrans.“Thousands of active state and local projects
California’s first true public-private partnership wastewater treatment plant in Santa Paula, Ventura County, will accept a P3 innovation award from the National Council for Public-Private Partnerships in an awards banquet in Tampa Oct. 4. The project was put together in 2008 by the city of Santa Paula and a joint venture Santa Paula Water LLC, which is comprised of PERC Water Corp., Costa Mesa, and Alinda Capital Partners, Greenwich, Conn. Layton Construction, Irvine, was the prime subcontractor and PACE Engineering, Redding, was the engineer of record.Santa Paula’s original wastewater treatment facility, built in 1939, was out of compliance and needed
One of the last un-built parcels of land in Old Pasadena – a surface parking lot – will soon serve as the site of a mixed-use development called One Green Street. The city last week approved the project, which is scheduled to break ground in January. Bernards CM is providing pre-construction services at present and a general contractor will be named in the next few months, according to a spokesman.Gonzalez Goodale Architects is the designer and M&D Properties is the owner.Located at the corner of South Fair Oaks and West Green Street, the three-story, 45,000-square-foot development will consist of a
The American Institute of Architects, California Council, recently announced the new recipients of the Academy for Emerging Professionals (AEP) Awards. The Emerging Professionals are the segment of the AIACC membership that establishes connections, and advocates for architecture school graduates, aspiring and recently-licensed architects, as well as individuals that mentor this important group. According to the AIACC, the Academy for Emerging Professionals “aspires to unite and disseminate information regarding the practice of architecture, firm culture, mentoring, and stimulate ongoing local, state and national discussions.”Four awards were announced:Firm Mentorship Award – Darden Architects, Inc., Fresno. This award is given to an AIACC
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