FILE - In this July 21, 2012 file photo, Chinese people chat in front of an administration office building for the Xisha, Nansha, Zhongsha islands on Yongxing Island, the government seat of Sansha City off the south China's Hainan province. China is building a school on the remote island in the South China Sea to serve the children of military personnel and others, deepening the facilities in the city it created in its campaign to claim the world's most disputed waters. (AP Photo/File) CHINA OUT

BEIJING (AP) China rejected a suggestion by the Philippines on Monday for a regionwide ban on construction in the South China Sea after Beijing began building a school on a rugged outpost it created to strengthen its claims to disputed waters.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said he will propose that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations call for such a moratorium. "I think we would use the international community to step up and to say that we need to manage the tensions in the South China Sea before it gets out of hand," del Rosario said.

In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters that the Philippines was making "irresponsible remarks." She said China was committed to resolving issues with countries on a bilateral basis, and that island disputes between China and the Philippines were not an issue for ASEAN.

Hua said the Philippines was constructing its own facilities in the Spratlys, an island chain which is claimed by both countries, having announced plans to upgrade a runway and naval facilities and build an airport.

"The Philippines has been taking provocative actions to escalate tensions on the one hand, and making irresponsible remarks about what China has legitimately done within her sovereign rights on the other," Hua said. "That is totally unjustifiable."

China claims virtually the entire South China Sea, and parts of it are also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia. Some see the competing claims as a possible flashpoint for a major conflict.

On Saturday, China began building a school on the largest island in the disputed Paracel chain to serve the children of military personnel and others, two years after it established a city there to administer the South China Sea area it claims, including potentially oil-rich islands.

Vietnam also claims the Paracel chain. Tensions in the area have escalated since China placed an oil rig last month in waters about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the islands, leading to confrontations between Chinese and Vietnamese vessels.

Del Rosario told ABS-CBN News that China is accelerating its "expansion agenda" in the South China Sea to get it completed before ASEAN countries and China draw up a code of conduct that sets rules to prevent incidents in the region.

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Philippines against South China Sea construction

State infrastructure spending helped the countrys construction output increase 27.2% year-on-year in April, the Hungarian Central Statistics Office (KSH) announced today.

KSH reported that construction of buildings increased 9.6% between April 2014 and the same month last year, while civil engineering work increased a healthy 46.5% in that period.

Construction output actually dropped 1.3% between March and April of 2014, but the trend of new orders looks positive, KSH reported.

According to KSH, the bulk of construction work in the period between April 2014 and a year earlier involved railway-reconstruction, road construction work and public utility projects.

Based on seasonally adjusted indices, the construction of civil engineering works rose by 3.5% between March and April. Meanwhile, construction of buildings actually decreased 11.1% from March to April, after a sharp rise in February-March.

The volume of new orders in April increased 35.1% as compared to April 2013. The number of new contracts for building construction rose by 49.3% in the same period, due to some large contracts for industrial and educational buildings, KSH said. New orders for civil engineering work grew year-on-year by 26.9% due to high-value contracts for public utility projects, according to the office.

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Construction output goes up by 27.7%

When former Deere & Co. Chairman William Hewitt envisioned a new administrative center more than a half century ago, he wanted a building that not only would honor the farm equipment maker's sturdy Midwestern roots but set the tone for the global company that Deere wouldevolve into.

This month, employees at what now is called John Deere World Headquarters in Moline, observe the 50th anniversary of the acclaimed architectural gem. Like the company itself, the building has stood the test of time and even some reinventions of space.

''We're very fortunate, this building is very adaptable to a change of the times," said Craig Mack, Deere's manager of general office facilities.

While the Cor-Ten steel building's exterior has changed very little in its five decades, its interior has had to accommodate the shifts in office functions and culture. Mack recalled how the company's computer once filled the entire ground floor in the East Office building, but today, updated infrastructure must power a computer on every desk. In 1964, the idea of teleconferencing was science fiction lore. But today, Deere employees around the globe meet face-to-face in a Telepresence Room in the West Office building.

Mack, who in 1979 joined Deere mid-career as an architect in the engineering department, sees his role as "maintaining the stewardship of the building'' while overseeing necessary modernizations.

''For the Quad-Cities, this was quite a facility 50 years ago," he said during a recent tour.

In the past six to seven years, the three-building complex has undergone a major overhaul with new energy-efficient windows, carpeting, LED lighting, Wi-Fi capabilities throughout, a telephone system upgrade and reconfigured work spaces.

"We're trying to be as green as we can be but still keep the image of the building," Mack said.

Under construction from 1961 to 1964, the headquarters was built to accommodate the company's growth and unite 900 employees from six separate Deere locations under a single roof. The staff and 250 vanloads of supplies and files moved in on April 17, 1964, but the official grand opening was held June 4-5 of that year.

With 400 guests on hand at the celebration, Deere unveiled themulti-million-dollar center. The event was described as "the greatest gathering of top-flight business personnel in Quad-City history," according to the Davenport Times-Democrat, a predecessor of the Quad-City Times.

See more here:
Deere World Headquarters building in Moline turns 50 years old

State infrastructure spending helped the countrys construction output increase 27.2% year-on-year in April, the Hungarian Central Statistics Office (KSH) announced today.

KSH reported that construction of buildings increased 9.6% between April 2014 and the same month last year, while civil engineering work increased a healthy 46.5% in that period.

Construction output actually dropped 1.3% between March and April of 2014, but the trend of new orders looks positive, KSH reported.

According to KSH, the bulk of construction work in the period between April 2014 and a year earlier involved railway-reconstruction, road construction work and public utility projects.

Based on seasonally adjusted indices, the construction of civil engineering works rose by 3.5% between March and April. Meanwhile, construction of buildings actually decreased 11.1% from March to April, after a sharp rise in February-March.

The volume of new orders in April increased 35.1% as compared to April 2013. The number of new contracts for building construction rose by 49.3% in the same period, due to some large contracts for industrial and educational buildings, KSH said. New orders for civil engineering work grew year-on-year by 26.9% due to high-value contracts for public utility projects, according to the office.

Here is the original post:
Construction dips in March-April, but rises 27.7% for the year

When former Deere & Co. Chairman William Hewitt envisioned a new administrative center more than a half century ago, he wanted a building that not only would honor the farm equipment maker's sturdy Midwestern roots but set the tone for the global company that Deere wouldevolve into.

This month, employees at what now is called John Deere World Headquarters in Moline, observe the 50th anniversary of the acclaimed architectural gem. Like the company itself, the building has stood the test of time and even some reinventions of space.

''We're very fortunate, this building is very adaptable to a change of the times," said Craig Mack, Deere's manager of general office facilities.

While the Cor-Ten steel building's exterior has changed very little in its five decades, its interior has had to accommodate the shifts in office functions and culture. Mack recalled how the company's computer once filled the entire ground floor in the East Office building, but today, updated infrastructure must power a computer on every desk. In 1964, the idea of teleconferencing was science fiction lore. But today, Deere employees around the globe meet face-to-face in a Telepresence Room in the West Office building.

Mack, who in 1979 joined Deere mid-career as an architect in the engineering department, sees his role as "maintaining the stewardship of the building'' while overseeing necessary modernizations.

''For the Quad-Cities, this was quite a facility 50 years ago," he said during a recent tour.

In the past six to seven years, the three-building complex has undergone a major overhaul with new energy-efficient windows, carpeting, LED lighting, Wi-Fi capabilities throughout, a telephone system upgrade and reconfigured work spaces.

"We're trying to be as green as we can be but still keep the image of the building," Mack said.

Under construction from 1961 to 1964, the headquarters was built to accommodate the company's growth and unite 900 employees from six separate Deere locations under a single roof. The staff and 250 vanloads of supplies and files moved in on April 17, 1964, but the official grand opening was held June 4-5 of that year.

With 400 guests on hand at the celebration, Deere unveiled themulti-million-dollar center. The event was described as "the greatest gathering of top-flight business personnel in Quad-City history," according to the Davenport Times-Democrat, a predecessor of the Quad-City Times.

Excerpt from:
Deere World Headquarters building turns 50

An art exhibit critical of the Chinese government will not be taken down from the lobby of a prominent state office building this week after all.

Georgia Building Authority officials had a change of heart after the exhibits sponsors asked them to leave the paintings up until July 5, the previously agreed-upon finish date.

The paintings greet visitors of the James H. Sloppy Floyd Building near the state Capitol with images of torture, murder and organ harvesting. Members of the Falun Gong movement, a spiritual practice from the Buddha school, said that an early exit from the building would have been expensive.

We already made effort to continue the exhibition at another location at the end of the two-month period, said Frank Xie, in an email obtained through open records by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. An early termination will incur great amount of expenses to our non-profit organization.

The exhibit began on May 2, after an application from the Falun Gong Association of Atlanta was accepted.

It was approved at a time when Georgia continues to court investment and business from China, the states second-largest export market. The Chinese government outlawed Falun Gong practices in 1999, calling it a cult.

A GBA official told Xie on Tuesday that the paintings would have to be taken down by the end of the day.

We are completing construction and have parties interested in displaying their items, wrote Kashara Blake-Parks, an administrative operations specialist.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported on the exhibits planned removal that afternoon, five days after reaching out to the GBA for comment about the exhibit.

Xie emailed the GBA, urging them to allow the exhibit to continue. He said GBA Executive Director Steve Stancil called him to straighten things out soon after.

Read the rest here:
State building to keep controversial exhibit

By Ashley Barker abarker@scbiznews.com Published June 13, 2014

Summerville Medical Center is planning to build a 40,000-square-foot medical office building at 295 Midland Parkway, according to a news release.

The two-story, $8 million facility will be connected to Summerville Medical Center and will give patients access to robotic surgery, bariatric surgery, MRI, obstetric services and a maternal fetal telemedicine program.

A groundbreaking event will be held at 10 a.m. June 25.

Summerville Medical Center has added many specialty services in recent years, according to CEO Lisa Valentine.

That growth will continue as we build this important addition to our medical campus. This venture gives our patients closer choices and additional convenience when it comes to their health care options, Valentine said in a statement.

The project is currently in the pre-leasing stage and several medical practices have shown strong interest in the project, according to Terry Cunningham, vice president of operations.

Nashville, Tenn.-based Hospital Corp. of America, the parent company of Summerville Medical Center, will own the building, and Lee & Associates Charleston will oversee leasing. Barton Malow will develop the construction project, which is expected to be complete in the spring of 2015, according to the news release.

Reach staff writer Ashley Barker at 843-849-3144 or @AshleyNBarker on Twitter.

Read more:
$8M medical office building planned in Summerville

By Suzanne Baker sbaker@stmedianetwork.com June 12, 2014 1:20PM

A construction crew works at the site of the new administration building for Community Unit School District 300 in Algonquin on Monday, June 9, 2014. District 300 is considering how it will name the new offices at the corner of Golden Eagle and Harnish drives, just south of Jacobs High School. | Suzanne Baker ~ Sun-Times Media

storyidforme: 67728566 tmspicid: 24115815 fileheaderid: 11889302

Updated: June 12, 2014 1:20PM

ALGONQUIN The community could have a say in the name of the new district office building in Community Unit School District 300.

At his first official board meeting on June 9, the districts new superintendent, Fred Heid, suggested the School Board consider naming the new district offices after a person instead of just calling the building the Central Office.

Heid, whose official title is chief executive officer until his superintendent credentials are validated by the state, said the district has plenty of time to consider possible names. While construction of the district administrative offices is underway, Assistant Superintendent for Operations Chuck Bumbales still is looking for work to be finished by the end of 2014.

Chuck right now is working aggressively to meet the timeline because he has promised me we will be in there by December sometime, Heid said.

Currently, two-thirds of the central office staff is working from unused space at Hampshire High Schools. The remaining third are scattered around the district. Once the building at Golden Eagle and Harnish drives is complete, all the central office staff will be housed under one roof.

Heid asked the board for direction as to whether the district should revisit the districts naming conventions before reaching out to district stakeholders for input.

Continued here:
Public could name new central office building

The owners of the recently refurbished office building on Wisconsin Avenue just north of the Bethesda Metro station have signed six long-term leases.

Akridge, which now owns the 1960s-era building with Rockwood Capital, acquired it through a General Services Administration auction in 2010. The building had housed National Institutes of Health offices for many years, but had been vacant since 2002, according to a company news release.

The building, at 7550 Wisconsin Ave., is the first new office building in the Bethesda submarket since 2001.

The new tenants are an unidentified local lodging real estate investment trust, Carnemark Systems and Design, KVS Title, LSoft International, Sandy Spring Bank and SunEdison.

The leases bring the 110,000-square-foot buildings occupancy to more than 65 percent. The building meets standards for gold certification for new construction by the U.S. Green Building Council. It has full-service rooftop entertainment space and a private fitness facility.

Originally posted here:
Bethesda office building lines up tenants -- Gazette.Net

The Daily Briefing Buckeye Forum Podcast

The Dispatchpublic affairs team talks politics and tackles state and federal government issues in the Buckeye Forum podcast.

After nearly three hours of listening to residents express their opposition, Upper Arlington City Council members voted 4-3 last night to approve the controversial rezoning of 1.34 acres of wooded green space north of the Municipal Building that would allow construction of an office building.

For those council members in favor, it came down to a need for economic development to address the citys financial woes, and serving all residents, not just those neighbors who turned out in force last night.

Those opposed to the measure believe the land around any city hall is sacred.

The rezoning actually takes in more than 5 acres, which includes the Municipal Building only because that is the minimum required by office and research district zoning.

But only the small point to the north where Kenny and Tremont roads converge would be positioned for development, City Manager Ted Staton said.

Councilman Kip Greenhill, who voted against the plan, said he thought that in 25 years, someone might ask him, Why did you build your city hall behind a commercial development?

That seemed to be the opinion of most of the 150 people in the audience, a majority of whom are residents of the Trouville condominiums to the south of the Municipal Building, and neighborhoods across Kenny Road to the east.

An attempt by one resident to obtain a temporary restraining order earlier in the day to stop the meeting was turned down by Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Pat Sheeran.

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Upper Arlington council OKs rezoning to allow office building near city hall