The newest Las Vegas Strip attraction isn't another mega-resort or Cirque du Soleil show. Rather, it is a heavy equipment playground that lets visitors operate life-size Tonka toys. Photo courtesy Dig This LLC Dig This patrons can operate a Caterpillar D5 track-type bulldozer to create earthen mounds. Photo courtesy Dig This LLC Visitors are put through skill tests that include scooping basketballs from atop safety cones. “Dig This” is a construction theme park developed by New Zealand-born Ed Mumm, who stumbled upon the idea while using a rented excavator to build his home in Steamboat Springs, Colo. After a couple
In an all-cash deal, Moon Township, Pa.-based Michael Baker Corp. purchased Nevada's largest architecture firm, JMA. Financial terms were not disclosed. Image courtesy of JMA JMA's current projects include the $146.2-million, 308,990-sq-ft Las Vegas City Hall, under construction now in downtown. Photo courtesy of JMA JMA owner Thomas Schoeman will stay on board as company president. Schoeman hopes the acquisition will help double the size of JMA within five years. Michael Baker Corp. (BKR) stock was valued at $24.95/share on June 9, down 38.6% from a 52-week high of $40.64. The 71-year-old engineering, design and survey firm had $499.4 million
Spring is in the air for two firms selected to construct a new spring training and western headquarters facility for the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball team in Mesa, Ariz. Populous, Kansas City, Mo., beat out nine competing firms to win the design contract, while Hunt Construction Group, Scottsdale, Ariz., bested eight others for the general contractor job. Image courtesy City of Mesa Conceptual drawings show possible layouts for the Cubs' new spring home. Image courtesy City of Mesa The new spring training venue pictured here in a concept drawing will replace the Cubs' existing facility in Mesa, Hohokam Park.
GARRIDO DOEBLER Sallie Doebler has joined Jaynes Corp.'s Las Vegas office as director of business development. Doebler previously was president of her own business development consulting firm, Business Source Nevada, serving the commercial real estate industry. She also served as the business development representative for a regional commercial general contractor for six years prior to founding her own firm. She is the current president of the Southern Nevada chapter of NAIOP, a commercial real estate development association. Jaime Garrido was named director of client services for McCarthy NM, a division of McCarthy Building Cos. based in Albuquerque, N.M. Previously, Garrido
Article toolbar Because laboratory buildings can consume up to 10 times more energy than office buildings, Arizona State University needed efficient systems to achieve its sustainability goals for the new seven-story Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building IV on its Tempe, Ariz., campus. Photo: Sundt Construction Stout Building Nearly 18,000 cubic yards of concrete have been placed in the seven-story ISTB IV building to date. Science lab experiments will require a building with low vibration transfer. Using strategies such as variable exhaust and intelligent sensors, the structure, now under construction, is modeled to use 41% less energy than a typical research
The steady slide in revenue among the Southwest's leading design firms continued for the fourth straight year in 2010, according to figures provided by the firms participating in this year's survey. Design revenue from projects located in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico totaled $1.24 billion in 2010, down 5% from the previous year and 29% below the peak of $1.74 billion in 2006. “The economic downturn has been a sobering experience and has reinforced our focus on being a company that provides diverse service offerings across a range of sectors,” says Tim Lines, managing vice president of the desert/mountain regions
To industry giant AECOM, one is an important number. Not only is it the company's rank on ENR's 2011 list of top U.S. design firms, it also is part of the firm's new mantra, “One AECOM,” which represents its efforts to unite employees under a single identity. photo by Patti Reznik Photography Wrapping Up Crews finish the exterior skin of the 14-story, $263-million Maricopa County Court Tower, which AECOM co-designed. Photo by Daniel Watts Dominated by an amoeba-like art piece, Civic Space packs a wide array of functions and sustainable design principles into 2.5 acres in downtown Phoenix. Related Links:
The first phase of a large solar carport was completed last month at Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center, located in Phoenix at 650 E. Indian School Rd. Built by SunWize Technologies, Inc., the carport is an ambitious undertaking. It is the nation’s largest solar carport, and once all phases are complete will house 40 carport structures and 18,000 solar panels. The first phase will produce 630 kilowatts, but once the project is complete, the carport will produce up to 4.45 MW of energy. The project started mid-2010 and the final phase is expected to finish early 2012. SunWize split
Jack Schaefer, a Nevada construction industry leader, died on April 15 of pancreatic cancer while in hospice care in Las Vegas. He was 64. Schaefer had served various leadership roles for the Las Vegas chapters of the Associated General Contractors and Nevada Contractors Association. Schaefer was a well known labor negotiator who also sat on several local construction union trusts and apprenticeship training boards, including those for the laborers, operating engineers and cement masons, among others. Born in Aberdeen, S.D., Jack Alan Schaefer served as a captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War from 1966 to 1969. He
The proposed $6-billion, DesertXpress high-speed passenger train project recently cleared its first major hurdle with the March 24 release of its final environmental impact statement. Circle Point, San Francisco, prepared the report on behalf of the Federal Railroad Administration. A record of decision is expected this spring. Photo courtesy US DOT Fares would be $50 to ride the steel-wheel trains. DesertXpress will follow the Interstate 15 alignment between Victorville, Calif. and Las Vegas, using existing right-of-way either along the median or roadside, and will build two passenger stations, a maintenance-storage-operation facility and three electrical substations. The project�s overhead catenary electric
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