Rudolph and Sletten finishes USC research tower

Rudolph and Sletten Inc. has completed construction on The Harlyne J. Norris Research Tower at the University of Southern California Health Sciences Campus.

The $79 million, 10-story laboratory research facility links two existing cancer research centers, connecting the trio of buildings through a first floor bridge. The addition of the Research Tower greatly expands the size and scope of on-campus cancer research facilities, allowing for the growth and consolidation of currently promising work.

In addition to research laboratories, the 172,440-sq-ft tower includes administrative and faculty offices, a conference center and a helipad. A 188-seat egg-shaped, cast-in-place auditorium, crowned by a rooftop meditation garden, provides for the latest in interactive teaching and communication technology. The underground levels contain glass wash, cryofreeze, and shell areas, along with mechanical and electrical spaces.

The steel brace frame building with metal deck floors has an exterior skin of precast, glazing and louver systems. The architect for the project is Lee, Burkhart, Liu, Inc., of Santa Monica. The building has won an AIA Citation Award as well as an AIA Merit Award for its design excellence.

The quest to find a cure for cancer led the Kenneth T. & Eileen L. Norris Foundation to make a $15 million initial gift to fund a research facility. The Tower was named in honor of Harlyne J. Norris, the wife of the late Kenneth Norris and is dedicated to the vision of “making cancer a disease of the past.”

CW Horton finishes renovation
of Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf Hotel

Hayward general contractor CW Horton has completed a $33 million renovation project at the Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.

The renovation was designed by James D. Looney, principal of Looney & Associates of Dallas and Chicago.

The 529-room hotel is one of the largest hospitality complexes in San Francisco’s most popular tourism area. Its new design also offers more than 9,000 sq ft of flexible meeting space including a new ballroom and a landscaped outdoor courtyard for private parties.

The primary improvement to the hotel’s meeting space is the addition of the 2,731 square foot Embarcadero Room. It features natural lighting and a unique outdoor foyer that also includes an outdoor living room and fire pits. The hotel’s existing meetings space includes the 2,278-sq-ft Presidio Ballroom and the 2,196-sq-ft Marina Ballroom. In addition, two breakout rooms are also being renovated to reflect the hotel’s fresher, more vibrant design.

Bernards, gkkworks and RRM Design
complete Newport Beach fire station

Irvine-based gkkworks has completed the Santa Ana Heights Fire Station and Fire Training Facility, an 11,027-sq-ft complex for the city of Newport Beach.

The construction cost was $7 million gkkworks served as construction manager for the $7-million project. San Luis Obispo-based RRM Design was the architect and Bernards of San Fernando was the general contractor.

The rustic-looking, 30-room complex includes a 4,000-sq-ft, four-story training tower that is equipped with such features as a confined-space area, smoke machine, roof vent, rappelling apparatus and multiple floors with movable walls for training exercises. The new training center is Newport Beach’s first such facility.

This is Newport Beach’s first new fire station since the last one was built about 10 years ago on Balboa Island.

Consolidated Contracting begins
Rodriguez Park-designed health center

San Clemente-based Consolidated Contracting Services Inc. has started building the San Ysidro Health Center’s new state-of-the-art 38,968-sq-ft Maternal & Child Health Center in San Ysidro.

Consolidated Contracting is serving as general contractor for the $14,352,264 project. The scope of work entails construction of a three-story building and two-level parking lot, a dentist office, and various exam rooms and offices. The facility will feature entrance canopies, trellises, balconies, decorative steel and tile, and retaining walls.

Located on a hillside, the project also involves the creation of caisson retaining walls, street improvements and traffic signals. The health center is slated for completion in December 2008.

Rodriguez Park Architecture and Planning is the project architect, with Kawasaki Theilacker Ueno & Assoc. serving as landscape architect; Degenkolb Engineers as structural engineer, BDS Engineers Inc. as civil engineer; MacDonald Engineers, Inc. as electrical engineer and Walsh Engineers as mechanical engineer. The San Ysidro Health Center is overseeing the project, which is partially being funded through the First 5 Commission of San Diego County.

EDGE begins terminal expansion in Carlsbad

Temecula-based EDGE Development has started construction on a new terminal for McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad.

A formal groundbreaking ceremony was held in November for the $20 million expansion project.

This expansion/modernization project calls for the demolition of existing buildings and the construction of a new 16,000 sq ft single-story terminal. As part of this project, new parking lots, landscaping, and access roads will be added. A new elevator building and pedestrian bridge provide pedestrian access to the terminal from the new parking lots. Other improvements include; a new security system, blast fence, infield grading and drainage, and reconstruction of the taxiway and apron. All improvements will be made while the airport remains open for public use.

Heery oversees new state court of appeal building in Santa Ana

Construction has started on a new state court of appeal building in Santa Ana.

The Los Angeles office of Heery International has been selected to serve as construction manager at risk for the more than $20 million facility, which is consolidating all of the offices for the Fourth Appellate District, Division Three into one central location.

This is the first new construction project to be handled by the recently created Administrative Office of the Courts. The three-story, 52,000-sq-ft structure will house one courtroom, judges’ chambers and administrative offices.

The court of appeal previously leased space in two locations, which were separated by more than a mile. Designed by Carrier Johnson, the new building will bring the offices and the courtroom together into a single location on West Santa Ana Boulevard, in the heart of a civic district that includes city hall and the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and Courthouse.  Project completion is scheduled for April 2009.