WAYNE CITY, ILL. — Holland Construction Services Inc. has broken ground on a new K-12 grade school in Wayne City. The new school will include separate wings for K-2nd grade, 3rd-6th grade, junior high and high school, which will lay adjacent to a common area, shared reading room and cafeteria. The new facility will also feature a competition gymnasium and a smaller elementary school gym. Construction of the 105,000-square-foot school is scheduled for completion in August 2016. The school district’s existing facility was built in the 1930’s with multiple additions added throughout the years. After construction is complete, all grades will move to the new building and the current school will be demolished. O’Fallon, Ill.-based FGM Architects is designing the new school.
PHILADELPHIA — The University of Pennsylvania (Penn) has unveiled the design for The Pennovation Center, a 58,000-square-foot innovation center located in Philadelphia. Situated on the university’s 23-acre Pennovation Works site, the project includes the transformation of an existing industrial building into a collaborative working environment for entrepreneurs, researchers and industry partners. The project team includes HWKN as design architect, KSS Architects as architect of record, Land Collection as landscape architect, Bruce Mau Design as design consultants, and Ballinger as structural and MEP engineers, as well as Focus and Atelier Ten. The Pennovation Center is slated to open summer 2016 with the Penn Engineering lab opening this fall.
WILMINGTON, DEL. — Odyssey Charter School, a Delaware public charter school, has acquired 36 acres of land located in Barley Mill Plaza in Wilmington. The acquisition and redevelopment of the new school campus was financed through the issuance of $34.7 million in bonds by The Delaware Economic Development Authority. Odyssey Charter School currently serves 933 students in grades kindergarten through seventh. The school plans to add grades eighth through 12th in successive years until to become a full K-12 school in the beginning of the 2019-20 academic year. Scott Matthews and Geoff Grosso of Tarabicos Group LLP served as legal counsel to Odyssey Charter School, while Emilie Ninan of Ballard Spahr LLP served as bond counsel in the transaction.
ALPHARETTA, GA. — The city of Alpharetta has chosen a team led by MidCity Real Estate Partners and Morris & Fellows to develop Alpharetta City Center, an $80 million mixed-use project in downtown Alpharetta. The public-private partnership will develop 75,000 square feet of restaurant/retail space, 33,000 square feet of office space and 220 units of residential housing. Located across Main Street from the historic district, the development is bound by Main Street, Academy Street and Haynes Bridge Road. The site includes Alpharetta’s new City Hall, a new Fulton County library, public parking deck, city park and Town Green located within new grid streets completed by the city. The project team includes South City Partners, Hedgewood Homes and architect Smallwoods, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates. The development team is set to break ground in the third quarter.
CORAL GABLES, FLA. — The city of Coral Gables has selected Cooper, Robertson & Partners of New York to design its Streetscape Project in downtown Coral Gables. The selection marks the start of the design phase of the much-anticipated project, which will provide a facelift to Miracle Mile and Giralda Avenue. The approximately $20 million project, which received the go-ahead from the City Commission last August, will widen sidewalks, plant trees, create garden areas and add outdoor dining along newly landscaped curbs. The plan also calls for benches, kiosks, mid-block parks, intimate public spaces and plazas for events and gatherings. It will also feature better signage for businesses and parking garages, more welcoming connections to garages and alleyways and permanent valet stations.
CALVERTON, N.Y. — Riverhead Charter School (RCS), a $14.1 million charter school, has opened in Calverton. Situated on 5.8 acres at 3685 Middle Country Road, the 50,000-square-foot school features a two-story classroom wing with 16 classrooms, an auditorium/gymnasium, a library, an administration wing and a kitchen wing. The new school building was financed through two bonds totaling $21.3 million. Capital Markets Advisors served as RCS’s independent financial advisor for the transaction. RCS is the only K-8 charter school in New York’s Suffolk County. The project team includes Stalco Construction as general contractor; BBS Architects, Landscape Architects and Engineers as architect, interior designer, site designer, and mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineer; SCC as construction manager; and PW Grosser Consulting as civil engineer.
O’FALLON, ILL. – Holland Construction Services Inc. has completed construction on the new O’Fallon Fire/EMS headquarters, and parks and recreation maintenance facility. Holland served as construction manager on the $5.8 million project. The 16,400-square-foot, five-bay firehouse features workstations, sleeping quarters, a weight room and a training/conference center. The 7,500-square-foot parks and recreation maintenance building includes four apparatus bays and multi-purpose administration space.
NORFOLK, VA. — The city of Norfolk has opened the first phase of the Norfolk Consolidated Courts Complex, a 315,000-square-foot complex that combines three courthouses into one. Both phases will cost approximately $121.5 million to develop. The eight-story Phase I will consolidate the Circuit and General District courts into a single facility. Phase II, which is slated for an early 2017 completion, will add the Juvenile and Domestic Relations courts. The design team, including architect Fentress Architects and general contractors Archer Western and Heery International, is constructing the complex to achieve LEED Silver certification.
ST. LOUIS — McGrath & Associates has completed construction work on Ameren Missouri’s $8.5 million switching station located at 1901 Martin Luther King Drive in downtown St. Louis. The entire switching project, estimated at $42.5 million, is part of a larger Ameren Missouri investment to upgrade electric service in downtown St. Louis over the coming decades. McGrath constructed 70 structural piers with eleven concrete pad foundations, a perimeter fence and a new city sidewalk. McGrath also provided site work on the project, removing abandoned sewer pipes and cisterns, including remedial soil excavating.
MIAMI — Skanska USA has signed a $101 million contract to build The Patricia & Phillip Frost Museum of Science in Miami. The 250,000-square-foot property will be located within the new Museum Park complex adjacent to the Perez Art Museum Miami overlooking Biscayne Bay and PortMiami. The new museum will include a planetarium, 500,000-gallon saltwater aquarium, five-story Innovation Center, sustainable roof with a hydroponic garden and exhibition galleries. The architect, Grimshaw Architects, is designing the museum to achieve LEED Platinum certification. Skanska USA plans to complete the museum in the summer of 2016.