By Hannah Sawyer and Ed Mahon

Daily Record/Sunday News

Think Loud Development, LLC, has been awarded a $5 million state grant for the construction of an office building and data and telecommunications center, Gov. Tom Corbett's administration said Monday.

Think Loud, which includes some original members of the band Live, in 2012 announced plans to renovate the former Bi-Comp building in York, and then in 2013, the group said it would also bring a data center to the area - one of several to be built on a fiber optic line in the Northeast.

A news release from the Corbett administration states that the money will be used for the renovation and construction of a nearly 54,000 square foot office building and data and telecommunications center, which "will cater to enterprise, small to medium-sized businesses, healthcare, as well as carrier and wireless customers."

"That's big, and that's what you want in the city," said Leonardo McClarty, director of economic and community development for York.

Bill Hynes, CEO of Think Loud Development, said in an email that the grant is for the 210 York Street property and the "surrounding campus" near Santander Stadium.

Hynes later said additional state funding is expected for the project, which he described as partially complete. Hynes said the state program provides reimbursement.

The grant comes from the state's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, which awards money to projects "based upon their job-creation potential, their economic impact, as well as their viability and construction readiness," the release states. The 210 York Street project, which has involved converting an old printing warehouse into office space, is expected to transform the neighborhood, as well as "create or retain nearly 700 jobs and infuse more than $2 billion in tax revenue to the community," the release states.

Corbett praised the project, saying in a statement that Think Loud "saw the promise that its involvement in downtown York could bring to revitalizing the community. This project will serve as a technology hub and bring good paying jobs back to the downtown."

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Think Loud receives $5 million state grant for data center

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (PRWEB) July 14, 2014

Turner is pleased to announce that Building Design + Construction a prominent industry publication has recognized the project team at the JW Marriott Hanoi with a Gold Award as part of their 2014 Building Team Awards program.

The team, composed of 23 designers, consultants, and contractors from nine countries, and supported by owner Bitexco Group and hotel operator Marriott International, collaborated to meet the challenges posed by the high-end, structurally complex hotel project. The 450 guest-room hotels form takes its inspiration from the mythological imagery of the dragon, which plays a significant role in the rich cultural heritage of the country.

We rose to meet many challenges including international 5+ star standards, the complexity of the structural design, and coordination among such a diverse team to deliver a landmark project for Bitexco, the Marriott International brand, and most importantly, Vietnam. said Le Yen Thi, business development manager for Turners operations in Asia.

The award recognizes a project team who has set a standard of excellence in design and construction, while meeting the needs of the owner, the occupants, and the community and the JW Marriott Hanoi is the first project in Vietnam to receive this honor.

Juror Matthew Dumich, AIA, of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture said, Its as if someone said, No one knows how to do any of this stuff. Lets do it anyway. And it works.

About JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel The JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel is a 450-room, 5+ star hotel situated on a lake within the Vietnam National Convention Center Complex. This 75,000 square meter hotel and retail development includes three restaurants, two ballrooms, a living room, a meeting and business center, an executive lounge, a glass enclosed rooftop swimming pool with adjacent health club and poolside restaurant / bar, general public areas such as the main entrance lobby, retail areas, parking garage, and associated back of house areas.

About Turner Vietnam Turner entered Vietnam market in 2006 and completed its first project Bitexco Financial Tower in Ho Chi Minh City in 2010. In 2013, the company completed 2 projects including Pullman Saigon Center Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City and JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel in Hanoi. Currently, Turner Vietnam is managing Vietinbank Headquarters Towers in Hanoi and Eximbank Headquarters Tower in Ho Chi Minh City.

About Turner International Turner has operated in 60 countries since 1965, maintaining a regional and country-focused management structure to carry out building projects. Functioning on an agency project/construction management or consultancy basis from its headquarters in New York, the International group combines the strength and insight of the U.S. general contracting company, while respecting the various environments and cultures of the countries where the projects are located. With over 1,000 staff deployed in its territories, the company currently manages projects totaling more than 36 million square meters in building area with a value of US$40 billion. For more information please visit: http://www.turnerconstruction.com/office-network/asia

About Turner Construction Company Turner is a North America-based, international construction services company. Founded in 1902, Turner first made its mark on the industry pioneering the use of steel-reinforced concrete for general building, which enabled the company to deliver safer, stronger, and more efficient buildings to clients. The company continues to embrace emerging technologies and offers an increasingly diverse set of services. With an annual construction volume of $9 billion, Turner is the largest builder in the United States, ranking first in the major market segments of the building construction field, including healthcare, education, sports, commercial, and green building. The firm is a subsidiary of HOCHTIEF, a publicly traded company, and one of the worlds leading international construction service providers. For more information please visit: http://www.turnerconstruction.com.

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Building Design + Construction Recognizes Project Team at JW Marriott Hanoi with a Gold Building Team Award

Time again to look at the current construction market activity and analyze construction costs per square foot for various types of office buildings. How much does it cost to build an office building? Below is some data from RSMeans construction cost data that we keep a close eye on in order to estimate construction costs for all of our office building projects. This data is sorted by region from the most expensive to the least expensive.

price per square foot construction cost for two to four story office building

For the most common office building size, two to four stories tall, the range is from just over $130 per square foot in Winston-Salem to over $230 per square foot in New York. The spread here is largely due to the local cost of labor and regulations that allowvarious construction types that are allowed in low rise construction. For example, in some cases wherewood frame construction is still allowed, depending on location and occupancy,this would help tokeep costs lower. In areas that are restricted to non-flammable construction, price per square foot will go up.

By taking advantage of savings provided by vertical construction, you will see approximately a 4% savings in cost per square footby increasing the stories to between five and ten stories. While one might expect a larger savings for that economy of scale, several new requirements come with the mid-rise building that are often not dealt with on the low rise buildings. For example, elevator shafts and service corridors get more complicated as well as HVAC systems.

Price per square foot construction cost for five to ten story office building

The geographic spread in cost per square foot is identical to the low-rise data. This is still principally driven by local factors such as labor costs and local regulatory requirements.

Finally, the high rise buildings see the most economic cost per square foot. For buildings between eleven and twenty stories tall, there is approximately an 11% savings over the mid rise buildings and 15% over low rise. this is largely due to the fact that similar elevator, HVAC and service equipment requirements are required for mid and high rise, resulting in more economy of scale for going up.

price per square foot construction cost for eleven to twenty story office building

Again, the geographic spread is still the same, telling us that the cost per square foot isvery sensitive to geographic location. Note that over twenty stories starts getting into more unique building characteristics that will drive costs in various ways. For more information on estimating the cost of your office building during the early planning stages, contact any of us here at EVstudio and we can help scope the right size project for your pro forma.

Tagged as: Commercial, construction cost, Office

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Price Per Square Foot Construction Cost for Multi Story ...

In his 23 years as a real estate lawyer in Northern Virginia, Scott Barat the new managing partner of law firm Pillsburys McLean office has seen how ebbs and flows in the local economy have affected his firm.

During the rise and fall of the local real estate market, and the explosion and retrenchment of dot-coms during the 1990s, Pillsburys presence in Northern Virginia fluctuated in kind, going from a dozen lawyers to nearly 100 lawyers before scaling back to its current 45.

Now, as Barat takes over as managing partner for the local office, he is overseeing another period of expansion driven partly by the churn of the industries that the firms Northern Virginia outpost represents, such as real estate, government contracts, intellectual property and technology.

Now were in growth mode again, said Barat, who represents local real estate owners and developers in construction projects, including that of the regions tallest office building at 1812 N. Moore in Rosslyn. I see nothing but construction cranes out my window right now, which is construction lawyers favorite bird.

Barat said one of his goals is to raise the firms profile in Virginia by getting more involved in community events such as fundraisers, as well as business groups such as the Northern Virginia Technology Council, where one of the firms partners, Craig Chason, is a board member.

Id like to focus on getting the firms name out there, more than it already is, he said. We want Pillsbury to immediately come to mind along with the other top Virginia law firms.

Shaw Pittman the District-based legacy firm that Pillsbury Winthrop merged with in 2005 to form Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman opened its Northern Virginia office in 1984 primarily to represent real estate developers who were just getting interested in Tysons Corner. That was years before many national law firms began setting up in the area during the 90s to chase legal work in technology and real estate.

With the dot-com activity, everyone was opening up a Northern Virginia office, said Barat, who has worked at Pillsburys Northern Virginia office since 1991. It seemed like every other week there was a new one because of all the tech firms out here.

Like almost every other large law firm, Pillsbury, which has about 700 lawyers around the world including 160 in the Washington region, has been under pressure to grow revenue as demand for law firms services shrank during the economic downturn.

Its still a challenging legal market because competition is tough, but I think everyone is more optimistic than they were 18 months ago, Barat said.

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Pillsburys new local leader predicts period of growth

Building construction permits over $10,000 in value that were approved in Boulder between Jun. 30, 2014 to Jul. 6, 2014. Listed below are: the case number; address; total project valuation; owner name; contractor (if applicable); and description.

PMT2014-00485 1431 Bluebell Ave.; $152,040.24; David Krawitz; 1,592-square-foot remodel and 658-square-foot addition to a two-story (including finished basement) home. Remodel includes 1,389 square feet at the main level, and 203 square feet at lower level and garage. Addition includes 628 finished square feet and 30 unfinished square feet over the existing garage.

PMT2014-01615 909 14th St.; $830,000; 909 14th; Narvaes Western LLC; remodel of first two floors of building only for the Chabad at the University of Colorado. Finish work includes classroom on the first floor and lobby, remodel includes adding structural support, accessible access to second floor and accessible restrooms, fellowship hall with ancillary kitchen, accessible ramp, minor exterior finish work, entry vestibule and awnings, associated electrical, mechanical and plumbing work.

PMT2014-01805 2545 Central Ave.; $175,857.08; Flatiron Investment; Faurot Construction Inc; tenant interior remodel: Scope to include creation of new office space and open conference space. Scope will also include creation of new accessible bathroom.

PMT2014-01837 2570 Sumac Ave.; $500,000; Vidan Gonthier; Sightline Builders Inc.; construction of new, one-story, single-family residence with attached two-car garage, with four bedrooms and five bathrooms

PMT2014-02282 955 Jasmine Circle; $250,000.00; Cheri Belz; Ram Electric LLC; addition and remodel to existing single-family dwelling, with scope of work including demolition and subsequent new construction of porches and decks, relocation of driveway and associated MEPs.

PMT2014-02465 5777 Central Ave.; $15,000; BMC Properties; Sand Construction LLC; Suite 200: interior remodel of existing technical office of Cameron Cole to demolish interior offices for open floor plan, includes relocated lighting and mechanical. Remodel to rebuild 48 square feet of new wall.

PMT2014-02477 3295 Longwood Ave.; $142,960.15; Harold Stuber; addition and renovation to an existing two-story single-family dwelling. Scope includes a first floor addition for a bedroom, sitting area and a shop. Second floor addition includes a master bedroom suite and expanded kitchen. Existing second floor deck to be replaced with new and an additional second floor deck to be added over existing attached garage. Includes associated MEP's.

PMT2014-02582 541 Locust Place; $450,000; Perry and Jennifer Towle; addition of approximately 127 square feet and remodel of 2,884 square feet for a single-family dwelling. Additions to include an extension of the garage, a mud room and half bath into existing garage space, a breakfast nook, and a small addition of space to the master bedroom. Remodel scope includes reconfiguration of lower level walls, stairs between all levels, kitchen, and master suite. Scope also includes addition of new front porch, upper level deck, and removal and rebuild of two rear main level decks. Scope also includes energy efficiency upgrades.

PMT2014-02604 1500 Pearl St., No. 301A; $56,353.68; Boulder Central; City of Boulder Family; creation of office space for the city of Boulder Parking Services Division. Remodel work is for 738 square feet and includes electrical installation.

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Boulder building permits: July 14, 2014

Last month, seven construction workers in the Pittsburgh area were injured in two accidents involving scaffolding that collapsed.

The accidents occurred at an East Deer moving company and at a hotel construction site in East Liberty. They are being investigated by the Pittsburgh office of the U.S. Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

They occurred as OSHA, which is charged with regulating workplace safety, was in the middle of a big push to promote safety in the construction industry. The effort was organized by the agencys Philadelphia regional office, which covers Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia. The campaign includes teaching construction workers how to perform their jobs safely and inspecting construction sites.

Falls are the No. 1 cause of construction-related incidents in the Pittsburgh area, according to David Rhodes, assistant area director in OSHAs Pittsburgh office, which covers Allegheny and 12 other counties in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Of the 80 inspections following fatal construction accidents in the region over the last 10 years, 42 involved falls, Mr. Rhodes said. Another 18 were caused when moving equipment, vehicles or material struck the victim, he said.

Mr. Rhodes said the agency is investigating two construction-related fatalities this year.

Three construction workers died last year, he said. Two workers were electrocuted, and the third died when the lift he was using to inspect bridge work pinned him between the lift and a bridge girder.

Protecting construction workers whose jobs take them above ground level is a focus. Sites where fall protection equipment, scaffolding and ladders were not being used properly generated the most construction industry violations cited by OSHAs Pittsburgh inspectors in the most recent fiscal year, Mr. Rhodes said. They were followed by problems with trenches and the failure to protect workers from respiratory hazards, he said.

Mr. Rhodes said workers at accident scenes sometimes tell OSHA inspectors they knew they were supposed to take precautions but that they were in a hurry to complete the job. He got a similar response recently when visiting the site of a trench collapse.

One of the things OSHA is emphasizing is making sure workers are familiar with harnesses that prevent falls.

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Workzone: Agency building safety at construction sites

wwltv.com

Posted on July 10, 2014 at 11:14 PM

Updated yesterday at 11:20 PM

Monica Hernandez / Eyewitness News Email: mhernandez@wwltv.com | Twitter: @mhernandezwwl

NEW ORLEANS -- Neighbors in the Central Business District say they can't get any sleep because of noisy construction in the middle of the night.

It's going on while crews work to transform an abandoned office building into a new apartment building in the 200 block of Baronne Street.

Neighbor Catherine Beckett got so fed up overnight Thursday, she grabbed her cell phone and snapped video.

The video shows multiple trucks pouring cement in the middle of the night, and you can plainly hear a loud noise as they do so.

On the video, Becketts voice can be heard saying, Its 1:45 in the morning.

In the video, Beckett asked a worker if he knew about the noise ordinance, and he replied the company has a permit. When Beckett asked him about the permit, his answer, she says, sums it up.

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CBD construction overnight keeping neighbors awake

CHAMPAIGN Living quarters may be coming to the University of Illinois Research Park.

Developer Peter Fox of Fox/Atkins Development said he's considering including some top-floor apartments in the next office building that goes up in the research park.

That building will likely be located south of the I Hotel and Conference Center and north of the new Yahoo building under construction on South First Street.

Fox, who said there's a "50/50" chance of going ahead with the residential idea, envisions eight to 10 rental units atop the building, each of which might lease for $2,000 a month.

The units would likely be 1,500-square-foot, two-bedroom apartments with contemporary, European-style furnishings and outdoor decks, he said. The building itself would probably be at least three stories tall.

Fox said the apartments could appeal to people who work in the research park or to new faculty members and administrators who need temporary lodging while preparing to buy or build a home in the community. The proximity to the heart of campus would be a draw, he said.

People relocating to Champaign-Urbana can find suitable quarters in downtown Champaign and at Baytowne in north Champaign, Fox said, but there aren't many options close to campus that are similar to what he envisions.

Plus, the units could be an alternative for extended-stay guests who now stay at the I Hotel. Some services that hotel guests enjoy, such as maid service and in-house laundry service, could be extended to apartment residents, he said.

Research parks on other campuses are starting to include residential components, Fox said.

"You're seeing that at Research Triangle Park (in North Carolina)," he said, adding that many people want to "live, work and play" in the same area.

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Next Research Park building may include apartments

A life-size "slice" of the planned exterior of Apple's under-construction Campus 2 has popped up in Gundelfingen, Germany, reports German enthusiast site iFun.de. Pictured posted on the site show two stories of the expected four- or five-story (above ground) structure, which will be built as a massive ring-like office building with a large natural area in the center. The segment was likely created to test the materials chosen for the building's exterior.

The exterior sample structure was spotted at Josef Gartner GmbH, a company that specializes in custom-made aluminum and steel building envelopes and facades. The company has been in the building business since 1868 and has offices in the UK and the US among other countries. A similar mock-up of a section of the building has also been seen in Cupertino.

The campus, which is expected to open sometime in 2016, will incorporate a number of state-of-the-art technologies for energy efficiency as well as featuring unusually long curved glass panels and other natural materials. A company specializing in 3D imagery has created a rich "flyover" of what the finished project will look like from the air, while ground crews are still in the earth-leveling stages of construction, with some retaining walls and an 40-foot trench completed thus far.

by MacNN Staff

Original post:
Construction sample of Apple Campus 2 appears in Germany

A life-size "slice" of the planned exterior of Apple's under-construction Campus 2 has popped up in Gundelfingen, Germany, reports German enthusiast site iFun.de. Pictured posted on the site show two stories of the expected four- or five-story (above ground) structure, which will be built as a massive ring-like office building with a large natural area in the center. The segment was likely created to test the materials chosen for the building's exterior.

The exterior sample structure was spotted at Josef Gartner GmbH, a company that specializes in custom-made aluminum and steel building envelopes and facades. The company has been in the building business since 1868 and has offices in the UK and the US among other countries. A similar mock-up of a section of the building has also been seen in Cupertino.

The campus, which is expected to open sometime in 2016, will incorporate a number of state-of-the-art technologies for energy efficiency as well as featuring unusually long curved glass panels and other natural materials. A company specializing in 3D imagery has created a rich "flyover" of what the finished project will look like from the air, while ground crews are still in the earth-leveling stages of construction, with some retaining walls and an 40-foot trench completed thus far.

by MacNN Staff

Excerpt from:
Construction sample of Apple Campus 2 appear in Germany