Due to completion of new Class A office space not expected until later in 2018, office market researchers expect the Upstate office market to see lower vacancy rates across most of the market.

In the fourth quarter of 2016, the absorption in the Greenville downtown office market was over 200,000 square feet, marking the second time during the year the absorption hit that mark, according to a report prepared by CBRE. Additionally, vacancy in the market is close to a record low.

Combine that with cap rates getting tighter in larger markets and researchers suggest a future where investors actively enter the Upstate market in search of inventory.

Small markets like Greenville-Spartanburg have largely been off the radar of firms looking for stable investment-grade product, the CBRE report said. The rising rates coupled with increasing activity and a lack of new product are attracting some of these investors to the market.

The report cited over 2.1 million square feet of office inventory trading hands over the third and fourth quarters of 2016 and investment groups from New York, Atlanta and Richmond, Va. spurring the investment in the market.

Bryana Mistretta, research coordinator for Colliers International in South Carolina, said as development availability in downtown Greenville continues to grow scarce, the push to the West End and east of Main Street will prevail in the immediate future.

She said market competition will likely force landlords to update entryways and amenities within their buildings Because of the growth around the I-385/I-85 corridor, the office development eye may turn north of Greenville.

Spartanburg will be the area to watch over the next two years as several new developments are moving through the pipeline and employers and residents start taking notice, Mistretta said, in her recent market report.

Presently, only one office project is under construction in the Greenville downtown office market and one in Spartanburg, according to CBRE, NAI Earle Furman and Colliers International:

On top of the projects in the works, there were four large building transactions in the downtown market, according to Colliers International:

Asking rates for office space has continued to rise. Class B central business district rates hit a high of $20 per square foot, according to CBRE while Class A space averaged nearly $26 per square foot in downtown Greenville, $21.95 per square foot in suburban Greenville and $22.60 in Spartanburg.

Delivering new product may be difficult in the market due to construction labor costs rising to keep pace with demand for new space, according to CBREs report.

Locally, there are more than 3,000 multi-family units under construction, the CBRE report said. Given that many local multi-family contractors are also involved in office developments, it is reasonable to expect construction costs to remain elevated until the multi-family development pipeline slows.

Reach Matthew Clark at 864-235-5677, ext. 107.

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Upstate office market expected to see lower vacancy rates in 2017 - GSA Business

Charlestons International African-American Museum is set to cross another hurdle this week as the project goes before the Board of Architectural Review for a final round of approval. Board members have spoken highly of the plans for the museum, which last went before the BAR in September 2016. The 35,000-square-foot facility at Gadsdens Wharf is estimated to cost around $75 million, with a tentative completion date of 2019.

Designs for the museum show that it will include a section dedicated to the Gullah-Geechee people, a family history center that will allow visitors to learn more about their ancestors, and an exhibit called Atlantic Connections, which will endeavor to uncover the cultures and diversity of the 100,000 Africans who arrived at Charleston Harbor in chains during the peak of the slave trade.

If the development clears the preliminary and final rounds of approval, the project is set for construction at 663 King St. just below the overpass of the Septima Clark Expressway.

Members of the board will also discuss preliminary plans for the construction of eight new buildings at 124 Spring St. Collectively referred to as Sanctuary Court, the development would feature a mix of residential and mixed-use buildings branching off of Spring Street and standing three stories tall at their highest.

Charlestons Board of Architectural Review-Large will meet Wed. March 8 at 4:30 p.m. on the first floor of the Gaillard Center.

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International African-American Museum seeks final approval from the BAR - Charleston City Paper

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah (AFNS) -- Developers at Hill Air Force Base are breaking ground on another new construction project this week, creating more space for new jobs near the base.

Air Force and Utah officials participated in a ceremony March 3, 2017, to mark the progress at Falcon Hill National Aerospace Research Park. The new 21,000-square-foot building will be leased by the Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative, which will operate an Innovation Center in the building.

The USTAR Innovation Center will focus on providing the tools and resources needed to support start-up companies in maturing and commercializing their technology. Once complete, the new facility will house approximately 8,000 square feet of office space and state-of-the-art labs, and 13,000 square feet of space dedicated to manufacturing, research and development projects.

Having USTAR at Falcon Hill is a significant boon for the community here, and is just the first of many outside the fence tech-focused office projects we envision for this area, said Taylor Woodbury, the chief operating officer at Woodbury Corporation. Much like the Silicon Slopes area down south, our goal is for this new USTAR building to be the cornerstone of the Silicon Hill movement that will help create a thriving tech community in northern Utah.

In addition to Hills vital national defense mission, the base is an economic hub for Utah, providing a $3.34 billion impact annually. The base hosts the Air Forces first operational F-35A Lighting II wing and is home to maintenance on several aircraft, including the Air Forces fifth generation fighters the F-22 Raptor and the F-35. The base is also home to the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Systems Directorate, which will oversee the $62 billion replacement program for the Minuteman III missile.

The project is part of the ongoing Enhanced Use Lease Program at Hill AFB, one of the largest projects of its kind in the Defense Department.

Its exciting to see new organizations capitalize on the benefits of our EUL program. As the Falcon Hill project continues to grow we hope to see similar private and public projects that will add synergy to the Air Force mission, said Col. Jennifer Hammerstedt, the 75th Air Base Wing commander.

The program allows the Air Force to lease land to a developer to create and lease commercial space and infrastructure. The new building is expected to be complete in late 2017.

Were continuing to see the benefits of this program at Hill, said David Williamsen, the chief of the EUL Program Office here. The benefit to the Air Force is affordable infrastructure and the synergy created by having contractors being able to work on the Air Force mission either on the base or in close proximity to the base.

Falcon Hill is the first EUL program of its kind to be entirely market-driven, Williamsen said. This is the seventh major construction project completed by Sunset Ridge Development Partners as part of the EUL project. The most recently-completed office building, now occupied by Air Force Nuclear Weapons Centers Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Systems Directorate, opened in December 2014. A retail facility, housing Starbucks Coffee, opened in 2015.

Over the life of the program, more than 100 potential projects both inside and immediately outside Hill AFB gates may be completed. In the coming months, the developer plans to begin construction on a new, 74,000-square-foot software building on base.

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Developer begins construction on innovation center at Hill AFB - Minuteman

The contemporary new home of Glidewell Investments & Insurance Group in Missoula, Montana, barely resembles the 1960s concrete block structure that preceded it.

Designed by Eric Hefty & Associates in Missoula, Hefty created a design that met his clients desire to present a modern, stylish appearance. They were expanding and wanted an impressive look, according to Hefty.

Approximately 2,000 square feet of RHEINZINK Flat Lock Tiles helped accomplish the goal. The .08mm panels were finished in prePATINA graphite-grey.

I like the RHEINZINK material but had never used it before, Hefty said. The use of the zinc was an easy sell with the owner. Ive worked with them before and we have an excellent relationship. The design drawings didnt adequately show the beauty of the materials and everyone was even more excited when they saw the new building.

To give the building greater dimension, Hefty designed unfinished steel frames on the exterior as an accent component with a steel wainscoating around the base. Both the steel and RHEINZINK are natural and they fit together really well, said Hefty. Im thinking of using them both on another project Im designing. Its a great combination of materials.

Fabrication of the Flat Lock Tiles was done by RHEINZINK distributor and systems partner Sheet Metal Supply (SMS), Mundelein, Illionis. Installation of the panels was done by Sapphire Construction, Florence, Montana. There was a good dialogue with SMS and the installer, according to Hefty. We used standard sheet sizes and there was very little waste.

The 10,000-square-foot building is located in an emerging area of the city and qualified for tax relief from Missoulas redevelopment agency. The city approved the project as soon as we presented it to them, Hefty said. Zinc is a great material to work with. The patina gives it a life of its own. I think this is the only building in town that has zinc on it. I anticipate theres going to be more as other people see it.

RHEINZINK America, Inc. led the introduction of architectural zinc in North America and continues to offer one of the industrys most reliable, trusted brands. Architects and contractors are supported by unparalleled customer service and technical assistance. RHEINZINK is readily available through an established network of qualified distributors and systems partners across the United States, Canada and Mexico. Ideal for roofing, faade, gutter and interior applications, RHEINZINK is environmentally friendly, 100 percent recyclable and offers a potential lifespan of 100 years or more.

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RHEINZINK Panels Highlight Transformation Of 1960s Office Building - Constructionmagnet.com

The James A. Farley Post Office Building is the main United States Postal Service building in New York City. Its ZIP code designation is 10001. Built in 1912, the building is famous for bearing the inscription: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." Formerly the General Post Office Building, it was officially renamed in 1982 as a monument and testament to the political career of the nation's 53rd Postmaster General.

The Farley Post Office is home to "Operation Santa", made famous in the classic film Miracle on 34th Street (1947), and it is the inspiration for the post office in Terry Pratchett's novel Going Postal (2004), with its "Glom of nit" legend. It also made an appearance in the 2016 video game Tom Clancy's The Division.

The Farley Building consists of the old general post office building and its western annex. The Farley building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and occupies two full city blocks, an 8-acre (32,000m2) footprint straddling the tracks of the Northeast Corridor and the Farley Corridor (sub-district B)[2] in western Midtown Manhattan. The building fronts on the west side of Eighth Avenue, across from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden. It is located at 421 Eighth Avenue, between 31st Street and 33rd Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan.

The Farley Post Office once held the distinction of being the only Post Office in New York City open to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But in 2009, due to the economic downturn, its windows began to close at 10:00p.m.[3]

The James A. Farley Building was constructed in two stages. The original monumental front half was built in 1912 and opened for postal business in 1914; the building was doubled in 1934 by the then Postmaster General, James A. Farley, and replaced the 1869-80 Post Office at Park Row and Broadway. Postmaster General Farley's historical association to the landmark is due to this expansion. Farley's building supply firm, the General Builders Supply Corporation, had received a federal contract under the Hoover Administration to provide building materials for the construction of the Post Office Annex. The General Builders Corporation supplied building materials toward the construction of such landmarks as the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, and the United Nations Headquarters. Farley was accused by then Senator Huey Long of Louisiana of receiving preferential treatment from the Roosevelt Administration, a charge that later proved to be false, as Farley would be cleared by the Senate of any wrongdoing in what would be known as "The Long-Farley Affair of 1935".[4][5]

Where the landmark backs up to Ninth Avenue: along the side streets, McKim, Mead, and White's range, which continues its Corinthian giant order as pilasters between the window bays, was simply repeated in order to carry the facade to Ninth Avenue. The original building was one of the last built under the Tarsney Act. Up until 1893, all federal non-military structures were designed by in-house government architects in the Office of the Supervising Architect in the United States Treasury Department. The 1893 act introduced by a Missouri Congressman permitted the Supervisory Architect to pick private architects following a competition. Supervisory architect James Knox Taylor picked McKim for the New York post office. In 1913, the act was repealed partially in light of a scandal in which Taylor had picked his former Minnesota partner Cass Gilbert to design the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House.[6]

The monumental facade on Eighth Avenue was conceived as a Corinthian colonnade braced at the end by two pavilions. The imposing design was meant to match in strength the colonnade of Pennsylvania Station (McKim, Mead, and White, 1910) that originally faced it across the avenue. An unbroken flight of steps the full length of the colonnade provides access, for the main floor devoted to customer services is above a functional basement level that rises out of a dry moat giving light and air to workspaces below. Each of the square end pavilions is capped with a low saucer dome, expressed on the exterior as a low stepped pyramid. Inside, the visitor finds an unbroken vista down a long gallery that parallels the colonnaded front. The north end of the gallery houses a small Museum of Postal History.

The building prominently bears the inscription: Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds, which is frequently mistaken as the official motto of the United States Postal Service. It was actually supplied by William Mitchell Kendall of the firm of McKim, Mead & White, the architects who designed the Farley Building and the original Pennsylvania Station in the same Beaux-Arts style. The sentence is taken from Herodotus' Histories (Book 8, Ch. 98) and describes the faithful service of the Persian system of mounted postal messengers under Xerxes I of Persia. The U.S.P.S. does not actually have an official motto or creed, but nonetheless the inscription on the building is often cited as such.

The ceiling of the front reception hall is decorated with carved national emblems or coats of arms of ten major nations at the time of the building's construction: the United States, the United Kingdom, the German Empire, the French Third Republic (represented by the cipher "R.F." for Rpublique Franaise since lacking an official national emblem), the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Italy, the Kingdom of Spain, Belgium, Austria-Hungary, and the Netherlands.

Upon opening in 1914, it was named the Pennsylvania Terminal. In July 1918, the building was renamed the General Post Office Building, and in 1982, was dedicated as the James A. Farley Building. (97th Congress, H.Res. 368 3/2/1982). James Farley was the nation's 53rd Postmaster General and served from 1933 to 1940. He was also the supreme democratic party boss of New York State[7] at the time, was responsible for Franklin D. Roosevelt's rise to the Presidency,[8] and is the first Roman Catholic politician in American history to have crossover appeal as a candidate for the office of the Presidency of the United States of America. Farley (a native New Yorker) was instrumental in the political careers of Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt (having served as campaign manager to both). Farley was a Democratic Party candidate for President of the United States in 1940 and opposed the F.D.R. third term.

The building was designated a New York City Landmark in 1966.

The Farley Building was instrumental to maintaining service levels in the New York City area following the September 11 attacks, when it served as a backup to operations for the Church Street Station Post Office located across the street from the World Trade Center complex. Advances in automated mail processing technology, coupled with adjustments to postal distribution and transportation networks, now make it feasible to absorb associated mail volumes at the Morgan Center.[clarification needed]

The Farley post office stopped 24-hour service beginning on May 9, 2009, due to decreasing mail traffic.[9] Effective May 9, 2009, the new hours at the James A. Farley Main Post Office are: Mon Fri: 7 a.m. 10 p.m., Saturday: 9a.m. 9 p.m., and Sunday: 11 a.m. 7 p.m. There is no window service on federal holidays, but the building is open and self-service kiosks are accessible.

Portions of the landmark James Farley Post Office are being adaptively reused and converted to house a new concourse for Amtrak. The Amtrak facility within the historic Farley Post Office will be named the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Station.[10] Beyond retail lobby services, other postal operations that would remain in the building will include Express Mail, mail delivery, truck platforms, and a stamp depository. Administrative offices for the Postal Service's New York District will also be headquartered within Farley, and Operation Santa Claus will remain at the landmark post office.[citation needed]

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James A. Farley Post Office Building - Wikipedia

In 1916, New York City instituted the first-ever American zoning regulation in direct response to the construction of the Equitable Building, a hulking, sun-blocking high-rise that positively loomed over the streets of Lower Manhattan. Under the landmark 1916 Zoning Ordinance, skyscrapers which were being erected fast and furiously during the first half of the 20th century in New York, Chicago and other quick-growing urban areas were required to be designed in such a way that they didnt block sunlight and air from reaching the city streets below, much like the Equitable Building rather rudely did. In turn, the game-changing code gave way to now-ubiquitous setback-style skyscrapers like the Empire State Building, which tapers as it gets taller as to not to cast permanent shadows on the man-made canyons below.

Over the years, zoning laws have changed radically as has skyscraper design. However, the precedent set by a century-old building code remains: dont hog all the fresh air and sunlight.

The area around and directly along the High Line you know, Manhattans tourist-snaring linear park located on a defunct elevated railway that has prompted numerous rail-to-trail park projects in cities across the globe since first opening in 2009 has given way to several high-profile high-rise buildings that breathe new life into the traditional setback skyscraper. One notable example is Bjarke Ingels Groups The Spiral, a planned 65-story office tower perched at the northern terminus of the High Line that not only tapers to allow sunlight to pass below but is also wrapped in a cascading ribbon of lushly planted terraces and hanging gardens a continuous green pathway all the way to the top.

While nowhere near as imposing as The Spiral, Solar Carve Tower is a 12-story mixed-use building nestled between the High Line and the Hudson River at 10th Avenue and 14th Street that really goes out of its way to not impose. In fact, politeness and an assertive need to not loom over the High Line and the surrounding streets is the towers raison d'tre, an element firmly embedded in the mid-rise structures DNA.

Studio Carve Tower initially faced opposition that it would cast shadow above its famous neighbor, the High Line. Through innovative design strategies, Studio Gang has ensured it will do nothing of the sort. (Rendering: Studio Gang)

Designed by Studio Gang, the eponymous Chicago-based firm of architect and MacArthur fellow Jeanne Gang, Solar Carve Tower has been in the works for several years now. In 2015, the project, after a handful of false starts and some community opposition, was officially given the go-ahead. Earlier this week, new renderings of the under-construction tower were released to the public, further generating interest in its unusually thoughtful and highly environmentally sustainable futuristic design.

The 213-foot-tall Solar Carve Tower is a showcase of sorts that demonstrates the firms groundbreaking work in solar carving, a design strategy in which tall buildings are sculpted by the angles of the sun as a means of dramatically minimizing blocked light and views.

MacArthur fellow Jeanne Gang is best known for Aqua Tower, a sustainable skyscraper in Chicago. Solar Carve Tower, a smart, sensitive office building rising next to Manhattan's High Line Park, is pictured above. (Rendering: Studio Gang)

Specifically designed to avoid obstruction of light and air flow by all means possible (and not irk its lower-slung Meatpacking District neighbors), Solar Carve was designed in a similar vein as NBBJs conceptual No Shadow Tower for London. As Studio Gang explains, this integrated response allows the building to benefit the important public green space of the High Line privileging light, fresh air, and river views to the public park while also becoming a new iconic silhouette on the New York skyline.

Elaborates Gang in a 2016 interview with ArchDaily: We noticed that new buildings around our site were beginning to crowd the High Liness solar access and that if we were to follow traditional zoning requirements, we would be contributing to that kind of destruction of the public realm. So we sculpted our building using the angles of the sun. We treated the High Line as public space to be protected by not blocking its sunlight.

A diagram explaining how Solar Carve Tower's form was 'sculpted' according to the angles of the sun. (Rendering: Studio Gang)

Boasting a distinctive chiseled form and a faceted, gem-like faade, Gangs solar ray-sculpted tower is developed by Aurora Capital and William Gottlieb Real Estate and will include over 165,000 square feet of commercial space including 17,000 square feet of dedicated retail space on the ground floor. All but one floor of the tower is equipped with a private terrace while the roof will be topped with a massive (10,000 square foot) communal green space complete with a variety of shrubs and trees. Offering a seamless connection to nature, the towers second floor will also include a lushly planted oversized terrace positioned at the same height as its also lushly planted neighbor just across the street, the High Line.

Per the New York Post, the tower is aiming for LEED Silver designation and, as such, incorporates numerous sustainable design elements and eco-friendly features including a bike storage facility (and adjacent locker room for bike commuters) and, of course, ample natural daylighting that reduces energy use. The vegetated roof and terraces also help to naturally insulate the building and keep it cool during sweltering NYC summers.

Despite facing some hiccups in its early stages, Solar Carve Tower has emerged as a shining example of how to masterfully design a mid-rise building in a dense urban area thats stunning as it is sensitive; a showstopping edifice from an acclaimed American architect that sticks out while also striving not to offend the neighbors.

In addition to abutting the High Line, Solar Carve Tower is located directly opposite Pier55, a controversial public-private offshore park project under construction in the Hudson River. (Photo: Studio Gang)

Directly across the way from the Solar Carve Tower on the banks of Hudson River, another big-name project has faced even greater opposition: Pier55.

Designed by Thomas Heatherwick, Pier55 takes the form of a performing arts-centric floating pier-park that, according to critics, will disturb marine life in the river while serving more or less as a vanity project for its founders (and primary funders), billionaire media mogul Barry Diller and his wife, the fashion icon, Diane von Furstenberg. The lawsuit-riddled Pier55 has drawn numerous comparisons to another highly divisive, majority privately funded floating river park, Londons Thames-straddling Garden Bridge, which is also designed by Heatherwick. Following a temporarily halt in construction brought on by a headline-garnering court battle, work on the $130 million park is moving ahead ... for now.

As for Studio Gang, the firm's New York-area projects outside of Solar Carve Tower are decidedly far less controversial including an innovative FDNY fire station and training center in the Bronx and a simply breathtaking expansion at the Museum of Natural History.

Matt Hickman ( @mattyhick ) writes about design, architecture and the intersection between the natural world and the built environment.

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This stunning Manhattan office building is also unfailingly polite - Mother Nature Network (blog)

A plan to build a state-funded $108 million school in Bloomfield for Two Rivers Magnet High School has been scrapped amid budget concerns, the Capitol Region Education Council said Friday.

The 400-student, environmental-themed Two Rivers High in Hartford will also cease to exist next school year and students will instead be shuttled to New Britain to attend CREC's Academy of Science and Innovation, school officials said Friday.

CREC leaders blamed Connecticut's fiscal uncertainty and state enrollment caps for the shake-up. At an afternoon press conference, Executive Director Greg Florio said the state Department of Education and state construction officials confirmed to CREC this week that the Bloomfield project would be pulled.

A stunned Two Rivers High community was informed of the plans Thursday. The school is the first full-day magnet program that CREC plans to close and consolidate.

At least $8 million had already been spent on the Bloomfield construction project, including money to buy the land, according to CREC, a taxpayer-funded regional education agency that operates 17 magnet schools under the state's Sheff v. O'Neill desegregation agreement.

Town of Bloomfield records show that CREC planned to build a 880-student high school on 29 acres at 29 Griffin Road North, near the Farmington River and Farmington River Park. CREC bought the property in 2013 for $3.8 million; now the agency is working with the state to decide what to do with the land.

Martha Stone, an attorney for the Sheff plaintiffs, said she heard late in the week that the state was axing the Two Rivers High project. "You've broken promises to kids who have already had broken promises," Stone said. "You're closing schools in the face of thousands of students clamoring to get in? ...That is just wrong."

Two Rivers high school opened in 2012 and has been temporarily housed in an office building in the Colt Armory complex near CREC's Hartford headquarters. The agency renovated that U-shaped building for $6 million to house Two Rivers High, and CREC officials said Friday they were unsure what will happen with that space.

The $108 million price tag for Two Rivers' permanent home was pricey even for Sheff magnet-school standards. State lawmakers approved the project in 2013.

Hartford Rep. Angel Arce, whose district includes the school neighborhood, chastized CREC leadership for the abrupt notice on Two Rivers' demise. Arce interrupted the press conference to question Florio, saying that he and another Hartford state lawmaker just heard the news two hours earlier.

"My biggest concern is those students don't lose their seats," Arce said.

About one-third of Two Rivers' magnet high school students are from Hartford. The rest are suburban students. CREC also operates the gleaming Two Rivers Magnet Middle School in East Hartford, which attracts about 650 students from across the region.

Families that recently applied for admission to the high school through the state-run magnet school lottery will be able to re-submit their applications with new choices, CREC Superintendent of Schools Dina Crowl said. The regular deadline for the 2017-18 lottery already passed.

Florio talked about mounting financial pressures from the state. Between 2008 and 2010, he said, the state asked CREC to open 11 magnet schools to meet integration goals under the Sheff settlement. Hartford Public Schools is another major operator of the region's magnet schools.

But as school operating costs have increased over the years, the state's annual aid to CREC has remained a flat $10,443 per student. CREC and Hartford school officials have been worried that state magnet aid will be reduced this year. Cities and towns whose students attend CREC magnets are required to pay tuition to fill the gap, a growing burden for districts that are already anxious about their budgets.

And the state has capped CREC's enrollment at 8,240 students, with minor adjustments expected to accommodate new grades at a couple of existing schools, CREC said.

An enrollment cap means that Two Rivers' high school would be stuck with only 400 or so students for the foreseeable future, far short of plans to fill the 880-student Bloomfield building, Florio said.

Donald Harris, chairman of the CREC Council and the Bloomfield board of education, said he wasn't surprised when he heard the Two Rivers high school project was canceled. "For me," he said, "it's too bad. It's really too bad."

The decision was "a tough choice during a very tough budget season," Florio said. "Although consolidating the two schools is not the road we envisioned, it is the most cost-effective way of addressing these budgetary challenges without hurting the quality of education that CREC proudly provides."

Abbe Smith, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education, said in a statement Friday that CREC informed the state last month that they were considering merging Two Rivers High with another magnet program "to address the system's fiscal challenges."

CREC Academy of Science and Innovation, formerly known as the Medical Professions and Teacher Preparation Academy, "offers a strong, rigorous STEM-themed education in a brand-new state-of-the-art facility," Smith said.

Two Rivers Principal Robert McCain will become the principal of that consolidated school in New Britain, which will continue to focus on science, technology, engineering and math in the 2017-18 year. With the influx of Two Rivers students, CREC expects to fill the New Britain school to capacity with about 770 students, said Tim Sullivan, CREC's assistant superintendent for operations.

Students in a prekindergarten program at the Academy of Science and Innovation will be moved to other schools, Sullivan said.

Staff cuts are possible as details of the merger are figured out, Florio said.

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CREC: State Cancels $108 Million Construction Project; Two Magnet Schools To Merge - Hartford Courant

Crain's Chicago Business

Farming tech firm picks larger office for new crop of hires Crain's Chicago Business ... moving to a larger Chicago office, where it plans to hire 40 to 60 employees in the next two years. The San Francisco-based company aims to move by November to just over 21,000 square feet in the Fulton West office building under construction at ...

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Farming tech firm picks larger office for new crop of hires - Crain's Chicago Business

Construction has begun on a new Foothill-De Anza Community College District office.

The 24,000-square-foot, two-story building will be built on an existing piece of a parking lot at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills and is slated for completion in March 2018.

According to the district, the building is expected to cost $18 million and will serve as office space for about 70 district administrative employees, including the chancellor, human resources, business services, purchasing and the districts charitable foundation.

The new building will also house the districts monthly board of trustees meetings in a new boardroom that seats up to 215 people. Small meeting rooms and extra storage for records will also be built.

The districts administrative employees have been working in five temporary portable trailers since November 2013, the district said.

The employees were moved to the trailers in anticipation of a renovation of the district administrative offics that were originally built in the 1960s. The renovation was completed in 2015, but the district determined the site to be more appropriate for the colleges educational technology services department.

Kevin McElroy, the Foothill-De Anza Community College District vice chancellor of business services, said employees are eager to get into the new building.

Getting back under a single roof, into a facility with adequate storage space and convenient meeting spaces, will feel like a real privilege and truly improve both work flow and the natural osmosis between staff members, McElroy said in a press release.

Alten Construction is contracted to build the new district office.

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New main office under construction for Foothill-De Anza college district - The Mercury News

Miami Herald

CocoWalk to get new office building | Miami Herald Miami Herald Just a few weeks after the announcement of a new office building planned for the Mayfair complex in Coconut Grove, a separate group of developers has ... Coconut Grove Office Market | CocoWalk RedevelopmentThe Real Deal Magazine all 2 news articles »

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CocoWalk to get new office building | Miami Herald - Miami Herald