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SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee helped break ground Thursday on a new seven-story office building in the South of Market neighborhood that boasts green materials and lots of bicycle parking.

The space at 270 Brannan Street is a reflection of the current construction boom in the city, with a modern, edgy design, a tech client already lined up to occupy the space, but also a sense of green.

To have a lower impact on climate change, weve applied to the U.S. Green Building Council for a LEED Platinum status, said land use and attorney for the developer Steven Vettel with Farella Braun + Martel.

The building will have more bike parking, 52 spaces, than car parking, with only a dozen spots. At the center of the building, plans are also in place for a landscaped atrium enclosed by a glass roof. There will also be a courtyard and rooftop desk.

Ultimately, the intention is to build and to keep this city vibrant and alive and a city for everyone, said Mayor Lee.

Splunk, an information technology company, has already signed up to lease the building at $12.2 million a year, even though it is not scheduled to open until December 2015.

The building is being developed as a joint venture between San Francisco-based SKS Partners and Mitsui Fudosan America

Designed by Pfau Long Architects, it has been praised by city leaders in incorporating an environmentally sustainable design with the surrounding South End Historic District.

Continued here:
Office Building In South Of Market Neighborhood Of San Francisco Touts Green Space, Sustainability

NEWPORT NEWS Before plans were announced to construct a new showroom facility on its corporate campus, Ferguson officials were preparing to go vertical with its fourth office building.

Denise Waters Vaughn, Ferguson director of corporate communications, said Tuesday there are currently no plans to revive former plans for another office building at Ferguson's Jefferson Avenue campus, despite the firm experiencing robust growth.

Prior to announcing plans for a new 15,000-square-foot showroom earlier this month, Ferguson officials back in 2007 had part of the nearly 10-acre site designated for a new office building.

Christine Dwyer, Ferguson public relations manager, said the scope and size of the proposed office building were not publicly released.

Original plans for the proposed building called for consolidating corporate operations for Wolseley Canada, Ferguson, and at the time, Stock Building Supply.

"The original plan was to centralize back office support functions, such as human resources, legal and finances, and expand into the new office building on the property where we are currently planning to build a new showroom," Dwyer said.

But then the Great Recession hit, forcing the large-scale wholesale supplier of construction-related plumbing products, to cutback on spending, layoff employees and dismiss its original plans to construct a new office building.

Ferguson currently operates in five buildings in Newport News: three on its corporate campus along Jefferson Avenue, and two other buildings that house its national information technology and accounting branches along Warwick Blvd., Dwyer said.

Officials are also set to relocate its national call center from Newport News into 45,000 square feet of space at 521 Butler Farm Road in the Hampton Roads Center in Hampton, creating 171 new jobs, while bringing 144 existing workers to the site.

"Employees of the national sales center were working in various locations around the headquarter campus, which is why our new space in Hampton is ideal," Dwyer said. "Although plans have not been finalized, the space will likely be used for additional offices and meeting rooms."

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Ferguson scraps plans for additional corporate office in Newport News

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SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) From the outside it looks like any other office building, but inside the new San Francisco offices of DPR Construction the hallmarks of green building are everywhere.

Light-sensitive skylights, huge ceiling fans and even a living wall let visitors know, this space is special. DPR, the buildings designer wants to get ahead of the game by using their first of its kind office as a living lab.

We are the first net zero energy designed office building in San Francisco, says DPR Regional Manager Mike Humphrey. We designed with flexibility to it to be experimenting.

Net Zero means that, in a course of a year, the 24,000 square foot building will generate more power than it needs; enough to sell some power back to the grid.

In the next decade, Californias Public Utilities Commission is looking to make net zero construction the standard for all new homes and offices.

Get a look inside DPRs facility here:

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DPR Builds San Franciscos First Net Zero Energy Office Building

Work is under way on the 16.5m refurbishment of a Liverpool city centre office building.

West Nile Developments (WND) has secured planning permission to transform the Grade II-listed site in Renshaw Street into a striking, modern office facility.

WND has secured a 5.6m loan from Merseysides Chrysalis Fund which was created to support economic regeneration in Liverpool.

The firms development manager, Paul Wellstead, said the project will bring 73,000 sq ft of flexible office space to the Liverpool market.

He told ECHO Business: We are thrilled to have been granted permission to bring this prominent and impressive listed building back into use.

The Watson Building dates from the early 1930s and is the only surviving element of the original Lewiss department store, the main building which was bombed in World War II and subsequently rebuilt in a simplified classical design.

Contractors Bowmer & Kirkland were the successful bidders for the construction work which is due for completion by late 2015.

Mr Wellstead added: Having fallen out of use many years ago, the Watson Building will be given a new future linked to the wider Central Village quarter, and offers the opportunity to act as a catalyst for wider regeneration.

Work has already started on site and we expect early interest from occupiers keen to tap into the excellent staff recruitment opportunities, given the location of the building close to Liverpool Central railway station and the city centres many retail and leisure facilities.

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Developer starts work on 16.5m Liverpool city centre office project

NEWPORT NEWS Before plans were announced to construct a new showroom facility on its corporate campus, Ferguson officials were preparing to go vertical with its fourth office building.

Denise Waters Vaughn, Ferguson director of corporate communications, said Tuesday there are currently no plans to revive former plans for another office building at Ferguson's Jefferson Avenue campus, despite the firm experiencing robust growth.

Prior to announcing plans for a new 15,000-square-foot showroom earlier this month, Ferguson officials back in 2007 had part of the nearly 10-acre site designated for a new office building.

Christine Dwyer, Ferguson public relations manager, said the scope and size of the proposed office building were not publicly released.

Original plans for the proposed building called for consolidating corporate operations for Wolseley Canada, Ferguson, and at the time, Stock Building Supply.

"The original plan was to centralize back office support functions, such as human resources, legal and finances, and expand into the new office building on the property where we are currently planning to build a new showroom," Dwyer said.

But then the Great Recession hit, forcing the large-scale wholesale supplier of construction-related plumbing products, to cutback on spending, layoff employees and dismiss its original plans to construct a new office building.

Ferguson currently operates in five buildings in Newport News: three on its corporate campus along Jefferson Avenue, and two other buildings that house its national information technology and accounting branches along Warwick Blvd., Dwyer said.

Officials are also set to relocate its national call center from Newport News into 45,000 square feet of space at 521 Butler Farm Road in the Hampton Roads Center in Hampton, creating 171 new jobs, while bringing 144 existing workers to the site.

"Employees of the national sales center were working in various locations around the headquarter campus, which is why our new space in Hampton is ideal," Dwyer said. "Although plans have not been finalized, the space will likely be used for additional offices and meeting rooms."

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Ferguson scraps plans for additional corporate office

When completed in 2017, L.A.'s Wilshire Grand Center will be the tallest skyscraper west of the Mississippi. At 1,099 feet tall, the $1 billion, 73-story hotel and office building will just edge out L.A.'s current skyscraper king, the 1,018-foot U.S. Bank Tower built in 1989. L.A.'s tallest spires will be around the same height as as the Chrysler Building, built in 1930. By contrast, New York has seven towers that rise more than 1,000 feet (and more in the works). Which prompts the question: Why isn't L.A. taller?

Lagging market demand and a history of sprawling development are only part of the story. Two hazards native to the land, high winds and earthquakes, are deeply inhospitable to supertall skyscrapers. Which makes the design of an L.A. tower something approaching a high-wire act.

The Los Angeles Times has been following the construction of the Wilshire Grand and contends that it is "arguably the most complicated high-rise ever built."

The San Andreas fault passes 35 miles northeast of Los Angeles, and the city is at risk for major earthquakes. Because of the Santa Ana winds that blow down from the Mohave desert and the Great Basin, L.A. also gets gale-force winds on a regular basis. "Calculated to sway during powerful Santa Anas and absorb ground movement during the most severe earthquakes, it is wedded aesthetically and technically to the unique footprint of the region," the Times writes of the building. While other skyscrapers are often anchored by steel or concrete columns rooted in bedrock, the Wilshire Grand is built on a massive concrete slab. Reporter Thomas Curwen writes:

Its specifications were drawn up by engineers, who after calculating the height and weight of the tower and the forces associated with earthquakes and windstorms, determined that it needed to contain 21,200 cubic yards of concrete and 7.1 million pounds of reinforcing steel.

By some calculations, those ingredients are enough to build an entire 10-story office building.

Such a foundation required 2,120 truckloads of concrete, poured continuously into an 18-foot-deep hole two-thirds the size of a football field. The process, described afterward by a thermodynamics expert as "a logistical nightmare," earned a Guinness World Record for the longest continuous concrete pour, lasting more than 18 hours. While huge underground foundations are not unheard of in skyscraper design (the new One World Trade Center in New York is 1,776 feet tall and features concrete footings 200 feet underground), L.A.'s unique geography certainly makes for a complicated job.

[Image: Renderings via Wilshire Grand Center]

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Why Doesn't L.A. Have More Supertall Skyscrapers?

You'd hope that a school of environmental studies would practice what it preaches. Well, Tel Aviv University's Porter School of Environmental Studies does so emphatically. Its newly inaugurated building is, it says, the first LEED Platinum-certified in Israel and the greenest in the Middle East.

Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certification has become a widely recognized mark of environmental good practice in the design, construction, maintenance and operation of buildings. Amongst the LEED Platinum-certified buildings that Gizmag has recently featured, BioCasa 82 in Italy was claimed to be Europe's first LEED Platinum home, the Munich-based NuOffice was claimed to be the world's most sustainable office building and Dubai's Chance Initiative was claimed to be the world's most sustainable building overall.

The PSES building was designed in collaboration by Geotectura Studio and Axelrod Grobman Architects with the aim of being a "living laboratory." As well as providing spaces for education and learning, it was decided that the building should be a demonstrative educational platform in itself, with users and visitors able to examine the environmental technologies installed therein.

Amongst the public and education spaces in the building are an auditorium, a spacious atrium that can be used for meetings and exhibitions, classrooms, lecture halls, research offices, meeting rooms and offices. The temperature in the PSES building is regulated using a solar energy-powered air conditioning system, along with a structure design optimized for local conditions. Grey water, meanwhile, is recycled and reused elsewhere in the building.

In addition to a green roof, the building features an "EcoWall" which is described as an iconic element of the building's aesthetic, but is also a functional part of its environmental efforts. The EcoWall provides protection from the sun in the building's atrium, but also capitalizes on its south-facing orientation by hosting the array of solar panels used to power the building's air conditioning. Terraces along the EcoWall can also be used for experimental research.

The PSES building also features a striking Capsule element as part of its design. The Capsule is a 3D elliptical structure that's suspended in the building's atrium and that pokes out of the EcoWall. Housed in the Capsule is a workshop and meeting room with "state of the art multimedia technology." The external surface of the Capsule is covered in connected LEDs that are used to display environmental information, such as energy statistics of the PSES Building and pollution levels in Tel Aviv.

The PSES building was inaugurated in May and held its first graduation ceremony in June.

The video below shows an animated rendering of the PSES building.

Source: Porter School of Environmental Studies

The rest is here:
New Tel Aviv University building is "greenest in the Middle East"

by GLENN FARLEY / KING 5 News aviation specialist

KING5.com

Posted on August 13, 2014 at 7:31 PM

Updated yesterday at 7:31 PM

EVERETT, Wash. Boeing executives, along with state and local officials including Governor Jay Inslee, knocked holes in the wall of a one-story office building built to house engineers who once designed the first 767.

The holes are real, but the sledge hammer whacks were largely ceremonial as they marked the official start of construction of Boeings massive composite wing factory for the new 777X airliner.

But while the company plans to tear down three buildings - one of which dates back to the design of the first 747 in the 1960s - work has already started.

In what was a large parking lot next door, heavy earth-moving equipment is already at work performing site preparation for the 1.3 million square foot factory that should be opened in 2016. What is to be called the Composite Wing Center should start producing its first part in 2017.

Boeing says some 90 dump trucks are making round trips every day, hauling some 70 loads of dirt into the site every hour to help level out the site. Some 80,000 cubic yards of dirt have been moved so far.

While some 190 construction workers are busy now, their ranks will swell to as many as 1,500 when construction is in full swing. Fourteen construction cranes will appear on Boeings Everett campus.

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Boeing kicks off construction of 777X wing factory

MANILA - Will the Senate investigation on the alleged overpricing in the construction of a Makati City parking and office building lead to the impeachment of Vice-President Jejomar Binay?

According to Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, any impeachment case against Binay will happen if there is sufficient evidence to warrant the filing of such a case.

"We will get there. Once we are done with this investigation, if we find anomalies committed by the Vice President then we can use this as a basis to file an impeachment complaint before the House of Representatives," he said in an interview on Mornings@ANC.

Trillanes said the issue of the parking building is a matter of public interest after it became the basis of a plunder case against Binay and his son, Makati Mayor Junjun Binay.

The Binays have denied the allegation, saying that Makati's resident auditor already said there is no overpricing in the P1.5 billion construction of the building.

"I believe this case is imbued with public interest because it involves the Vice President and a potential president of the country. It is high time that we investigate this so the public will know if these allegations are true," Trillanes said.

"On our part as legislators, we want to see the loopholes in the procurement law and legislate remedial measures to make sure this won't happen again," he added.

The senator, who filed the resolution calling for the investigation, said allegations of politicking should not deter senators from conducting the probe.

He pointed out that the Senate Blue Ribbon investigation on the P10 billion pork barrel scam "shocked the people" and allowed the public to see how lawmakers use priority development assistance funds.

"They were able to see the demeanor of the witnesses like Benhur Luy and make their own opinions about the matter," he said.

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Impeach Binay? We will get there - Trillanes

Major office towers could be coming to an area already plagued by overlong construction and heavy traffic near Union Station.

The project, which is in preliminary zoning review stages by Hines Interests Limited Partnership, could bring at least one 48-storey office tower to the hub of Toronto commuting at 45 Bay St. and the block to the north across from Union Station.

Renderings of the plans, which have since been removed from the Hines website along with a page dedicated to the project, show a three-tower development across Bay from the Air Canada Centre, where a parking lot now stands. The tallest tower, which appears to be higher than the TD Canada Trust Tower, soars up from the current GO bus terminal and is linked to a 48-storey tower at the Bay Street lot by a retail podium above the Union Station train tracks. A third smaller tower is built up from the roof of the Dominion Public Building at Yonge Street.

Zoning review applications were filed on Aug. 8 for 45 Bay and 141 Bay, but have yet to be reviewed by city staff.

Hines spokesperson Allison Kimmell would not elaborate on the plans when contacted by the Star. We havent made a public announcement about this yet, so at this time were not commenting on it, she said. She would not explain why the project page was removed from the company website, a move noted by forum users at UrbanToronto.ca. It is not clear whether Hines is the only development manager involved with the massive three-tower design.

In 2012, lot owners Ivanhoe Cambridge confirmed to the Star that a 50-storey office tower was planned for the space, but would not elaborate. The company now confirms that Metrolinx and Ivanhoe Cambridge are working together for a new development of mixed-use office space that integrates transportation and a bus terminal, said vice-president of communications Michele Meier.

Anne Marie Aikins with Metrolinx also confirmed this, but noted retail is not part of 45 Bay. She did not say whether that means retail is not a part of the adjacent developments, which the plans reviewed by the Star suggest.

Aikins couldnt say when the project will begin construction as it is still in the very early stages, but assures that it wont start while Union Station is in its current chaotic state.

We would certainly assure that this would be as painless as possible. Before our shovels even run in the ground, Union Station will be finished, she said. Things are moving. I know right now it looks like mayhem.

While no proposal has been submitted to the Toronto planning department for the project, the publicly available zoning review applications outline some of the plans. One application, which proposes structures for a park above the railway, suggests rooftop green space is planned for the retail area connecting the two main towers above the train tracks.

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Big office towers planned across from Union Station