There�s a new word in the construction industry, and it�s music to the ears of many companies in recession-impacted San Francisco Bay Area: Repurposing. Photo courtesy of Risk Management Solutions There�s a new word in the construction industry, and it�s music to the ears of many companies in recession-impacted San Francisco Bay Area: Repurposing. BioMarin�s conversion of a warehouse into a manufacturing facility Novato is a typical example of the new trend to repurpose facilities instead of constructing from the ground, which can cost significantly more than even the most complex renovation. Ralf Elsasser, biotech focus group leader with Dome
The Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles opened last month marking the completion of the final piece of L.A. LIVE, the $2.5 billion sports, residential and entertainment district, which was inaugurated with the opening of STAPLES Center in 1999.
California�s plan to require construction contractors to install large and expensive emissions reduction kits on their off-road diesel equipment will put workers� lives at risk and force job cuts, a prominent union official and a member of the Associated General Contractors of America told federal officials in Washington, D.C. this week. As a result, both asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Administration to deny or delay a decision to allow the state to proceed with its off-road rule. �Denying this rule is the only way to protect the men and women working in California�s construction industry from a new and grave
The contractor for an occupied, 26-story apartment building in Seattle that has corroding post-tensioning cables disagrees with the owner�s assertion that the nine-year-old high-rise will become unsafe. McCarthy Building Cos. also disputes the cause and scope of the damage to McGuire Apartments, built for $33 million, stated by the local owner, Carpenter�s Tower LLC. Photo: Ken Lambert, The Seattle Times Problems of Seattle high-rise are too costly to fix, says owner. The contractor disagrees. On April 10, the owner announced plans to vacate the building over several months “due to extensive construction defects, which are financially impractical” to repair. A
Crews have filled in about 80% of nine voids leftover from a 2-mile tunneling job through Seattle�s Beacon Hill. Japan�s Obayashi Corp. did not discover the voids while boring the parallel, 1-mile tunnels as part of its $280-million contract, which has since increased to $312 million. Owner Sound Transit contends the contractor is at fault. Photo: Sound Transit Crews pump low-density concrete into tunnel voids found by drilling. The new, $2.6-billion, 16-mile Link Light Rail from downtown Seattle south to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport required tunnels and a station 180 ft deep beneath Beacon Hill. Obayashi in 2004 won the contract
AGC of California officially unveiled its remodeled headquarters building in West Sacramento last month, staging an open house that showcased the newly completed project to dozens of eager members and visitors who turned out for the event. The 25-year-old building received a top to bottom makeover that brought finishes and systems up to current standards, completely modernized its look and reconfigured interior space to accommodate large scale training events and meetings. Just prior to the open house, AGC�s Legislative Committee put the meeting space to its first major use by holding its quarterly meeting on site. The project scope included
Anaheim Hills-based Bomel Construction Co. Inc. has been awarded the construction contract for a four-level parking garage by the city of San Bernardino. Construction was expected to start by the end of March. The 352-stall concrete parking structure will be at the Third Street site of the existing 82-year-old Santa Fe Depot, which is serviced by rail system providers Metrolink and Amtrak. Metrolink has 55 stations in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties. Amtrak operates 163 stations in California. The cast-in-place structure will have a Mission-style design, to match the depot�s motif. The architect for the 113,500-sq-ft
Kaiser Permanente has agreed to deploy 15 megawatts of solar power in a deal that will put solar power systems at 15 facilities across the state by the summer of 2011. The agreement with San Francisco-based Recurrent Energy, an independent power producer and a developer of solar power projects, launches one of the largest sustainable energy programs in U.S. health care. The 16 solar power systems will be implemented across the 15 hospitals, medical offices and other buildings through rooftop solar, ground mount solar, and elevated solar above existing ground-level parking spaces and garages. Several projects are underway. The design,
After decades of starts and stops, dredging the 46-mi Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel to a depth of 35 ft could begin in 2011 now that $12.5 million has been appropriated in President Obama�s budget as a down payment on what could be an $80 million project. Susan Ma, project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers, says a draft EIR will be released this year with construction scheduled to begin in fall of 2011. The project will require removing 8 million cubic yards of silt and clay sludge using a cutter head suction dredge barge for upland placement where
Only 10 out of 337 metropolitan areas added construction jobs between February 2009 and 2010, the Associated General Contractors of America reports citing data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Even worse, 230 metro areas experienced double digit declines in construction employment while only two cities experienced a double digit increase, association officials noted. �In virtually every area, construction workers continued to suffer the brunt of the recession,� says Ken Simonson, the association�s chief economist. �Job losses in far too many cities were simply, and sadly, staggering.� The construction economist says that Houston, Texas lost more construction jobs (25,500,
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