Published: Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014, 7:09p.m. Updated 2 hours ago

Depending on weather, Butler County hopes to break ground on a new district judge office in Cranberry in April or May and complete the project by the end of December, according to county Chief Clerk Amy Wilson.

The building is expected to have nearly 3,900 square feet of space, including a courtroom and offices for District Judge David Kovach, one administrative assistant and three clerks.

An earlier estimate put the cost of the new facility at $700,000.

Wilson said Cranberry has offered to install the infrastructure, connecting the building to sewer and water service.

She said she didn't know exactly how much the township's contribution would save the county, but that Cranberry was expecting to do a similar project nearby for about $8,000. She added that the material cost for the infrastructure is about $25,000.

County commissioners last year bought about an acre of in the 9000 block of Marshall Road, previously owned by the Bartling family. The county expects to save money by owning the court building instead of renting space.

The county budgeted $72,000 in rent payments for 2014 to Lue-Regent Associates for the current courtroom and offices in a building on Keystone Drive.

County officials believe they can shave off nearly $10,000 of the annual cost because repaying money borrowed to construct the new office building will be less.

The county owns buildings used by District Judges Kevin O'Donnell in Butler Township, Peter Shaffer in Butler and Timothy Shaffer in Slippery Rock.

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Construction of district judges Cranberry office to begin soon

HOUSTON -

A half-dozen people have filed a civil lawsuit claiming a company building a high rise along San Felipe between Kirby Drive and South Shepherd Drive is violating nuisance laws during construction, Local 2 Investigates has learned.

The lawsuit was filed Feb. 14 against 2229 San Felipe, LLC, according to Harris County online court records.

Ryan Bernard, who lives in the area, says dump trucks line up at about 6 a.m. most mornings and often have their engines idling.

Once you wake up, it's like that all day long," Bernard said. He lives in a condo across the street from the building which is under construction. "What we are hearing from the house is just pounding into the ground like shaking. The whole building is shaking.

He wears noise-canceling headphones.

Its seven days a week, Saturday and Sunday included," he said.

The civil suit asks a court to prohibit the construction at 2229 San Felipe high-rise office building. If the project goes forward, the suit asks for actual damages to include the loss in value of their respective properties.

The Houston Police Department said construction noise levels must not reach greater than 85 decibels. When Local 2 checked with the department recently, a spokeswoman said department didnt have a record of tickets being issued for noise ordnance violations.

Neighbors have objected to the project from the beginning saying a large office building doesnt fit their neighborhood or the small streets that surround it.

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River Oaks residents file lawsuit against high-rise construction company

The new courthouse will rise 22 stories and 389 feet on the block bounded by State, Union, B and C streets. Note top cornice which doubles as a shade structure for the east-facing corridors. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

The new courthouse will rise 22 stories and 389 feet on the block bounded by State, Union, B and C streets. Note top cornice which doubles as a shade structure for the east-facing corridors. / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

San Diego will break ground next month on its most expensive public office building ever: The $555.5 million, San Diego Central Courthouse.

Funded from increased court fines and fees, the 704,000-square-foot building at Union and C streets downtown will replace the obsolete county courthouse that opened 53 years ago.

I think, in part, we live in a very different world than when the current buildings we occupy were built, said David J. Danielsen, presiding judge of the San Diego Superior Court. I dont think any of us had any clue way back in the day of the potential danger of asbestos. I dont think anybody ever designed a building with modern terrorists in mind.

Due for completion in 2016, the building also breaks the mold in courthouse design. No more Classical columns or bell towers, such as those that existed in earlier San Diego courthouses. This courthouse is a 22-story skyscraper 389 feet tall.

Officials considered moving the facility to a suburban location but rejected that idea because of the concentration of legal and law enforcement activities downtown.

The trend will be toward these kinds of arrangements, said the project architect Javier Arizmendi at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in San Francisco. I think its more efficient in the way people will move through the building. It is much safer in terms of the way people are processed through the facility.

But unfortunately for urban planners, the building does not mix uses with retail or restaurant space that could keep the area vibrant after business hours.

We did look at that, said Clifford Ham, principal architect for the , principal architect in the Administrative Office of the Courts. We felt the ground floor perimeter is too valuable to us.

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$555M courthouse construction beginning

DULUTH -- Solar panels from three different manufacturers -- including two made in Minnesota -- will battle it out on the roof of a downtown Duluth office building to see which can generate the most electricity.

Three 10,000-watt solar systems will combine to be the largest photovoltaic system in northern Minnesota, tied into the electric grid and providing a hefty chunk of the electrical needs of the seven-story St. Louis County Government Services Center.

The panels will cost about $170,000 combined. But Minnesota Power is providing the county with about $116,000 in renewable energy rebates, making the cost easily justified, with a payback in just a few years.

Minnesota Power has hired the Natural Resources Research Institute at UMD as an independent auditor to monitor the electrical output of the three systems and to determine the county's precise energy savings.

The solar panels, which convert light to electricity without creating any emissions, and with no moving parts, will come from Mountain Iron-based Silicon Energy, Bloomington-based TenKsolar, and from Trina, a Chinese manufacturer.

"We know that Minnesota has the same solar capacity as Houston, Texas. Even on cloudy days we will get generation out of these units. And we also know they are most efficient when it's cold, so that's not an issue,'' said Tony Mancuso, the county's property management director. "Now we can see which one of these will hold up best to our climate. And which one gives us the most bang for the buck."

For example, Mancuso said, Silicon Energy's units are said to be among the most durable, and best able to shed snow. But they also are more expensive.

Craig Kedrowski, a regional account manager for Minnesota Power, said the system on the office rooftop is exactly the type that will help the Duluth-based utility reach its state-mandated mark of generating 1.5 percent of its electricity from solar power by 2020. Kedrowski said they hope to use the county project as a demonstration for other government agencies, private businesses and homeowners considering a move to solar.

Large, commercial solar energy systems tied into the larger electrical grid -- so--called distributed power generation -- are getting more attention as technological advances make them more feasible, Minnesota Power officials said, and as government mandates for renewable power increase.

"This gives us a good reading of which units will work best up here and what kind of maintenance they'll need,'' Kedrowski said. "And it will be an example of what technology is out there for other people considering going this route."

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Bloomington company competing in Duluth for solar supremacy

Wilmington, DE (PRWEB) February 20, 2014

DuPont today announced that a four-story, 170,000 square foot office building at its Chestnut Run Plaza facility has achieved LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification at the Gold level. This is the second Gold level LEED certification that DuPont achieved for new construction projects in the Wilmington area.

The company is a co-sponsor of National Engineers Week (Feb. 16-22, 2014) and held an event in which DuPont Chief Engineer Karen A. Fletcher joined Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary Collin OMara in celebrating the role that engineers play in designing environmentally friendly buildings and processes.

The LEED Gold certification is just one example of DuPonts commitment to provide the world with tools that reduce the amount of energy required, while assuring that the world has the supplies of the increasingly clean energy it needs to thrive, said Fletcher. DuPont engineers play a pivotal role not only in the design of green buildings, but also in building sustainability into the products we develop, the way we make them and our working environment.

With these two LEED Gold-certified buildings, DuPont is leading by example and demonstrating that sustainability and green engineering are key parts of the 21st century business model, said Secretary OMara. I hope that by highlighting these buildings and the benefits of green construction as part of National Engineers Week, engineers and engineering students will be encouraged to explore this vital and growing area of construction design today as a way to improve our environment for tomorrow.

At the event, DuPont engineers welcomed middle school students from Holy Angels School in Newark who recently designed and built a virtual, sustainable city in a regional engineering competition tied to National Engineers Week.

DuPont is thrilled to showcase the work of these students, whose design of a future city embodies the impact that engineers can have on communities across the world, said Fletcher. We hope more young people will consider careers in engineering if they are passionate about making a difference in society.

The LEED green building rating system developed and administered by the U.S. Green Building Council promotes design and construction practices that increase profitability, reduce environmental impacts and improve occupant health and well-being. DuPonts office building features more than 20 DuPont products and includes the following aspects of sustainable design:

DuPont (NYSE: DD) has been bringing world-class science and engineering to the global marketplace in the form of innovative products, materials, and services since 1802. The company believes that by collaborating with customers, governments, NGOs, and thought leaders we can help find solutions to such global challenges as providing enough healthy food for people everywhere, decreasing dependence on fossil fuels, and protecting life and the environment. For additional information about DuPont and its commitment to inclusive innovation, please visit http://www.dupont.com.

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DuPont Achieves Second LEED Gold Building Certification at Wilmington-area Campus

Official turf Cutting cermony for the new Council buildings in Lowestoft. Mark Bee, Colin Law and Dennis Cotton cut the soil.

Anthony Carroll Friday, February 21, 2014 6:30 AM

Construction work got under way this week on a 13.6m waterfront office block in south Lowestoft that will provide a new shared home for two councils.

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Once completed, the building by Lake Lothing in Riverside Road will house all staff employed by Waveney District Council and Suffolk County Council staff in Lowestoft, apart from their customer services employees.

The start of the work was marked by a ground-breaking ceremony on Wednesday, attended by Waveneys leader Colin Law and his county council counterpart Mark Bee.

As they celebrated the start of the 13-month construction project, they explained the rationale of investing millions of pounds in the new building and relocating hundreds of staff there from Lowestoft Town Hall and 10 local offices at a time when public finances were being squeezed.

The two councils say moving to the new building will help them save up to 3m of tax-payers money over 10 years by allowing them to dispose of the 11 buildings which are deemed unfit for purpose or inefficient.

Mr Law said: If we maintained our current buildings, it could have cost up to 16m over 10 years. At a time when funding for public organisations is under increasing pressure, we simply could not allow that to happen.

Instead we are creating a win-win scenario which will provide appropriate accommodation for our hard-working staff while better protecting the important services we provide to the local community.

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Council bosses celebrate start of new shared officer project in Lowestoft

One of Los Angeles' longtime developers is betting big on the revival of Hollywood as he launches work on a $138-million speculative office development near Santa Monica Boulevard.

After dusting off plans for an office complex first conceived before the 2008 recession brought development to a halt, Jerry Snyder has begun construction of his 959 Seward project, even though he has no tenants lined up.

Snyder, who has been in the real estate business since 1949, thinks demand is strong enough among businesses in creative fields such as entertainment to justify the risk of building a campus-style complex catering primarily to them in a part of Hollywood known as the Media District.

It includes parts of the area between Santa Monica Boulevard and Melrose Avenue, from Vine Street west to La Brea Avenue, and it is home to a variety of theaters, entertainment companies, trendy restaurants and stores.

The project at Seward and Romaine streets envisions the environment of a movie studio or tech campus, with on-site restaurant, fitness center and screening room. There will also be outdoor recreation space that will include a volleyball court.

"We think that a lot of the showbiz folks and the gaming companies would like to have this kind of space," Snyder said.

There will be two glass-enclosed office buildings up to five stories tall in a design by architecture firm Ware Malcomb. The project is rising on a lot across Romaine Street from Hollywood Center Studios, which dates to 1919 and is one of the oldest movie studios in the world.

For much of the 1920s, the Harold Lloyd Corp. operated out of production offices on the lot. Lloyd was one of the biggest stars of the silent era, making more movies than Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Mogul Howard Hughes shot much of his 1930 war film "Hell's Angels" there.

The studio was home to many shows filmed during the early era of television and was once owned by director Francis Ford Coppola.

During the 1980s, however, the studio and many other Hollywood enterprises took a deep downward turn as much of the entertainment industry decamped for the Westside and the San Fernando Valley.

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L.A. developer bets on Hollywood revival with new office complex

The lot at 114 Mt. Auburn Street, previously occupied by the business Charles Place, will be part of a recently announced $65 million development.

After the financial crisis stalled long-held design plans, real estate developer Carpenter & Company is set to break ground on a $65 million development project at 114 Mt. Auburn St. that will result in a multi-story office building to be fully leased to Harvard.

The groundbreaking, planned for Wednesday morning at 9:30 a.m., will kick off both the construction of the new building at the Mt. Auburn site, formerly the home of Chilis, as well as the redevelopment of the adjacent historic Conductors Building. According to the Boston Business Journal, the main building in the 70,000-square-foot space will be 100-percent leased to Harvard on a long-term lease. The 5,000-square-foot Conductors Building, which was built in 1912, is a designated historical space that will be simultaneously renovated.

According to a University spokesperson, although Harvard is in the planning process of determining how the new building will be used, it anticipates that the building will fulfill primarily normal office uses.

The new building will feature seven floors of office space and the possibility for retail on the ground floor, according to David P. Manfredi, the architect responsible for the project's construction phase. Manfredi said that natural lighting will be a key feature of the potential retail space.

There is a lot of transparency on the ground floor, he said.

Manfredi added that the building will be made of cast stone, brick, and copper, and will be constructed over the nearby MBTA electric transformer, which will continue to operate out of sight.

[The new building will fit] very much into the vernacular of Harvard Square, Manfredi said. What it really tries to do is take a historic material palette and reinterpret that in a new way.

Carpenter & Company, which is led by its president Richard L. Friedman, also played a role in developing the Charles Street Jail into the Liberty Hotel and led the development of the Charles Square shopping area, according to its website.

Although the architects designs have been ready for years, construction was significantly set back by the recession, Manfredi said. Despite the setbacks, he said he looks forward to working with the developers, including Friedman, who he has known for several years.

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$65 Million Redevelopment Project To Break Ground on Mt. Auburn St.

(PRWEB) February 19, 2014

At World of Modular 2014, the modular building industrys largest convention, expert speakers will discuss best practices research, lean construction, pod components, the latest innovations, passive house, LEED, net zero and much more. More than 600 developers, contractors, architects, builders, dealers and suppliers are expected at the event, slated for March 21-24 in San Antonio, Texas, and hosted by the Modular Building Institute.

At the current time, delegates are registered from the US, Canada, the UK, Korea, Australia and Turkey including representatives from six of the 20 largest general contracting firms.

Professor Mohamed Al-Hussein, Chair of the Industrialization of Building Construction Department at the University of Albertas Civil & Environmental Engineering Hole School of Construction, will discuss Why Greener, Faster, Smarter Isnt Just a Slogan. Al-Hussein will share how his research toward revolutionizing traditional construction processes by using industrialized methods is well underway and producing results like more energy-efficient buildings, healthier environments for workers and occupants, higher quality products, reductions in construction costs and time, and better design.

Professor Ryan Smith from the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Utah will examine Best Practices in Permanent Modular Construction. Supported by Oxford Brookes University and Edinburgh Napier University, Smith is conducting global research into the performance metrics and associated environmental, organizational and technological factors that contribute to successful permanent modular construction projects.

Though modular construction is generally considered to be sustainable because of reduced construction waste, several speakers will focus on how modular can be taken to the next level of green.

Leading commercial Passivhaus design builder Adam Cohen, of Passiv Science, will examine Market-Rate Passivhaus Construction: Myth or Reality? Having compiled an impressive set of firsts, including the first Passivhaus public school, university student center, dentist office, church, commercial kitchen and college dorm, Cohen will discuss potential opportunities and challenges for modular builders and end-users alike.

To put modular construction in a larger context, several speakers will discuss market trends and globalization. Sage Policy Group Economist Anirban Basu will offer a Market Forecast. Ethan Cowles of FMI Corporation will examine Market Drivers and Trends in Modularization and Prefabrication, focusing on how modular construction will play an increasingly vital role in improving the productivity of the entire construction value chain. Jim Dunn and Evan Gould from Stack Modular will present on Opportunities and Challenges of Globalized Manufacturing.

On the innovation front, keynote Troy Hazard, a television host and entrepreneur, will talk about Embracing Innovation & Evolution. Paul Bonaccorsi of Intelligent Offsite will discuss the growing use of pods by traditional general contractors who are incorporating this offsite phenomenon into what would otherwise be a 100 percent site-built project. Rob LaCosta from PCL Constructors will present on Automation in Modular Construction. Chris Giattina from Blox will discuss Harvesting Manufacturing Productivity into Design & Construction.

Find out more about the other industry experts speaking at World of Modular and why it is a must-attend event for anyone interested in networking with industry leaders and learning about the speed, efficiency and sustainability of the modular process.

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International Modular Construction Convention Comes to San Antonio, Texas in March

Construction workers under the aegis of Krishna District Building Workers Union staged a dharna in front of the Deputy Labour Commissioners office at Patamata on Bandar Road here demanding that the State Government should extend pension, health insurance and other welfare benefits to them.

Addressing the gathering on Monday, the union leaders said that there were 50 lakh construction workers in the State and many of them died while they were working. The deceased families were leading miserable lives as the Government was not implementing the welfare schemes properly.

The Building and Other Construction Workers Act, 1996, specified that the Government should extend pension, family health scheme and scholarships to children of construction workers, housing loans, financial assistance for purchasing necessary equipment, and unemployment allowance etc. The Government, however, had failed in extending these facilities to the construction workers, they said. The workers were obtaining loans at exorbitant interest rates for purchasing the tools and equipment. As the works were available for only five to six months, the workers were facing hardships in repaying the loans. The Government was supposed to pay unemployment allowance to meet their daily requirements.

The demands include hiking of ex-gratia to Rs. 5 lakh from Rs. 2 lakh for accidental deaths and to Rs. 2 lakh from existing Rs. 30,000 for natural deaths and refund of Rs. 458 crore diverted by the State Government to Welfare Board immediately.

Building Workers Union State President P. Narasimha Rao, city general secretary G. Achaiah, president Sk. Miravali, east zone-2 secretary T. Buchi Babu, rural mandal secretary Sivaji, treasurer Appa Rao and others were present.

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Construction workers stage protest at Vijayawada Labour Commissioners office