Schuff Steel Pacific, a subsidiary of Schuff International Inc., reports that it has completed the majority of steel erection on the $123-million University of California San Francisco Institute for Regeneration Medicine located on the Parnassus Campus. Schuff Steel Pacific, a subsidiary of Schuff International Inc., reports that it has completed the majority of steel erection on the $123-million University of California San Francisco Institute for Regeneration Medicine located on the Parnassus Campus. Architect Rafael Vi�oly designed the institute, Smith Group is the design-build team architect and DPR Construction, Inc. is the general contractor on the project. The institute is being

Suffolk Construction Co. Inc., has been awarded its fourth building construction project for the Los Angeles Unified School District � the new, $35.5-million South Region Middle School #3 campus. The South Region Middle School #3 campus in the Walnut Park area will consist of four separate buildings that will include 38 classrooms for over 1,000 students. The facility will also include administration offices, learning community schools, food service, multi-purpose gymnasiums and fields, and a parking garage. �We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the Los Angeles Unified School District on our fourth high-profile school construction project together,�

Mayor Gavin Newsom joined the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and numerous elected and community leaders to ceremoniously break ground on the Central Subway project, which is Phase 2 of the Third Street Light Rail project. The Moscone Center station is one of three underground stations on the Central Subway route. A construction approach called �deep tunneling� will be used to construct the Central Subway. Deep tunneling allows most of the work to be done below ground, reducing disruption on the surface. The tunneling will be accomplished with a tunnel boring machine, like those above. When service begins in 2018,

Photo: Forell/Elsesser Engineers, Inc. From left, interns Jamie Pobre, Nathan Canney and Forell/Elsesser Structural Engineer Steve Marusich at the UCSF Institute for Regeneration Medicine project site. A successful shift to truly integrated project delivery requires starting at the beginning. That is why a pilot internship program launched last year by San Francisco-based structural engineering company Forell/Elsesser Engineers required student-employees to spend time with the owner, architects, engineers and contractors, moving from company to company to get a well-rounded view of the goals and challenges of each project participant. �At industry events, we have been talking about this for a long

Associated General Contractors of California and McGraw-Hill Construction are teaming up for their third and final Construction Outlook 2010 in California, scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 23 at the Ayres Hotel & Suites in Ontario. Presenters include McGraw-Hill Construction Economist Cliff Brewis and a panel of California’s top owners, who will provide details on how to bid for major contracts from their respective segments. Brewis will provide the national and regional forecast that will cover the current construction’s economic environment and market trends that will impact the industry in 2010 and beyond. Outlooks were previously held earlier this month in Sacramento

The YWCA Greater Los Angeles has been awarded an $82-million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant for the YWCA GLA Job Corps Urban Campus building, now under construction in downtown Los Angeles� South Park business district. The U.S. Department of Labor provided the grant, which will fund a 20-year lease agreement for the new building. The project, funded with various resources, leveraged $70 million in new market tax credits from organizations, which partly funded the project’s construction costs, including Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Enterprise Community Investment and LISC and the Los Angeles Development Fund, managed by the Community

The American Institute of Architects, San Francisco chapter and Center for Architecture + Design Gallery will present Vertical Gardens, an exhibition on view Feb. 18 to April 30. The Mus�e du Quai Branly in Paris The past decade has seen a greater emergence of green roofs and vertical gardens created by artists, designers, architects and urban gardeners to combat the lack of flora in the city, the AIASF says. Buildings around the world�from the Mus�e du Quai Branly in Paris, to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco�have embraced green walls or roofs for all their economical, environmental, and

The first permanent deck section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge�s Self-Anchored Suspension Span was hoisted this week onto the bridge�s temporary support steel. Photo: CALTRANS Caltrans� bridge spokesman Bart Ney says this historic lift marks the moment when the action on the permanent sections begins to shift from fabrication to construction of the iconic span. When construction is completed, the SAS will be the largest of its kind, at 2,047-ft-long and will have a single 525-ft-tall tower. This first section weighs 1,020 tons and is nearly 84 feet long; all of the deck sections are about 90 feet wide.

New construction starts in December improved 5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $425.8 billion, according to McGraw-Hill Construction. While nonresidential building and housing were essentially steady with the prior month, the nonbuilding construction sector (public works and electric utilities) strengthened in December, providing the lift to total construction. For the full year 2009, total construction starts plunged 26% to $411.6 billion, marking the third straight year of diminished contracting after declines of 7% in 2007 and 13% in 2008. The December statistics produced a reading of 90 for the Dodge Index (2000=100), up from November�s 86. The Dodge

San Ramon-based Engineering & Utility Contractors Association recently held its 40th annual installation of the Board of Directors and Officers at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, with nearly 300 people in attendance including 25 contractor companies. EUCA Board of Directors are, back row, from left, Rob Layne, Michael Ghilotti, Robert Purdy, Gregg Oxley, Christian Young, Don Cabianca, Steve Lydon, Danny Wood, Jr., and Mike McElroy; front row, from left, Andrew Vasconi, Bruce Adams, Nikki Affinito, Jerry Condon and Greg Gruendl. Rob Layne of O.C. Jones & Sons, Inc. opened with an invocation and told the group, �We are in