Construction starts on NOAA laboratory in La Jolla

The project is being funded through stimulus funding and is expected to be completed by 2011

Construction has begun on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center replacement laboratory in La Jolla.

The $102 million project is funded primarily by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Designed by Gould Evans in association with Architects | Delawie Wilkes Rodrigues Barker of San Diego and Gibbens Drake Scott, Inc. of Raytown, Mo., the new building will replace the existing NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center and will house 283 staff members in laboratory and office spaces. Construction is expected to be completed in 2011. The project is seeking LEED gold certification.

The new building will incorporate a large sea- and fresh-water Ocean Technology Development Tank which will expand NOAA’s ability to develop and apply advanced technologies for surveys of fisheries resources and their associated ecosystems.

The San Diego chapter of the American Institute of Architects recognized the unbuilt NOAA La Jolla Laboratory Replacement project with one of four honor awards last year.

Gibbens Drake Scott is the prime contract holder with NOAA and responsible for mechanical, plumbing and electrical system design for this project. Gould Evans serves as architect of record, while Architect | Delawie Wilkes Rodrigues Barker serves as associate architect. Additional consultants include TranSystems Corporation and Jeffrey L. Bruce & Company of Kansas City and HDR Architecture, MWH Americas, RBF Consulting and Wimmer Yamada & Caughey of San Diego.

Page & Turnbull, Plant build Walt Disney Family Museum

General contractor Plant Construction has finished building The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco.

The 77,000-sq-ft museum presents the life and work of the animation pioneer and entertainment entrepreneur. The museum was converted from an old army barrack, a gymnasium, and a storage facility at the historic Presidio in San Francisco.

Architect Page & Turnbull and interior designer The Rockwell Group designed the project.

The Walt Disney Family Museum was built to tell the story of Walt Disney while adapting old, historic buildings for entirely new use. Three structures make up the museum, forming a recognizable “campus within a campus” at the Presidio.

The converted barrack will serve as the key public element in the Disney museum complex, providing space for the main exhibit galleries, a 113-seat screening room, a learning center, a museum store, and a café. The former gym will be used for offices, collections, and special exhibitions, while the old storage building will house the museum’s mechanical equipment.

The former gymnasium on 122 Riley Avenue that houses the Walt Disney Family Foundation’s collections and offices is the site of a 2,000-sq-ft hall that will be used for special programs and concerts until the special exhibition program begins in January 2012.

The permanent galleries of the museum are located at 104 Montgomery Street, one of the five identical barrack buildings built in the 1890s that flank the west edge of the Main Parade Ground. To accommodate the exhibits and better facilitate circulation, a 20,000-sq-ft addition was designed to occupy the U-shaped barrack courtyard.

URS to provide planning for Port of Long Beach

URS Corporation was selected by the Port of Long Beach to provide master planning, engineering design services, and program management services for Phases Two, Three and Four of the Pier G Terminal Redevelopment Program in Southern California.

The estimated $500 million terminal redevelopment will be designed to further the Port of Long Beach Green Port Policy and San Pedro Bay Clean Air Action Plan.

New wharves will include shore-to-ship power, new green buildings will be designed to high LEED certification levels, and the terminal container yard operations will be electrified.

URS’s scope of work will include master planning, preparation of construction drawings, specifications, cost estimates, and schedules for multiple phases, program management, and subsurface and other utilities investigation services.

The Pier G Redevelopment Program is expected to include up to 16 separate construction phases over the next 10 years. Specific design services will include: Master planning to develop a terminal plan that provides efficient container storage and throughput, as well as incorporate new landfill areas to reconfigure the terminal land masses to 275 acres; geotechnical and environmental investigations in support of the design and architectural and engineering design for new terminal buildings.

RJC, Straub to renovate Naval Post Graduate School halls

RJC Architects of San Diego and Fallbrook-based Straub Construction Co. were awarded the $24.8 million design/build construction contract for repair and renovation of Root and Spanagel Halls at the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey.

The project will consist mostly of replacing mechanical systems, upgrading electrical systems, refurbishing corridors, repairing doors and replacing flooring and sprinklers.

The halls house classrooms, faculty offices, satellite conference centers and broadcast studios for distance learning. Because those rooms will have to remain fully occupied and operational during the renovation, work on the project will need to be done between 3:30 p.m. and 6 a.m.

The Root and Spanagel Halls, designed in 1954 by Walter Netsch with Skidmore Owings and Merrill, are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

Blach, Hodgetts + Fund Architects complete performing arts center in Menlo Park

Blach Construction and Hodgetts + Fund Architects have completed a performing arts center for Menlo-Atherton High School in Menlo Park.

The city of Menlo Park and the high school partnered to fund the project, located on the school campus.

The 31,000-sq-ft, 65-ft-high building was carefully designed and landscaped to create a tree house-like environment and the impression it is following the contours of an already existing hillside.

Striking a balance of function, imagery, comfort and responsible allocation of natural resources, the center includes a 492-seat theater, lobby, box office, rehearsal and practice rooms, and stagecraft workshop for production of scenery and props. The facility also includes a glass-enclosed multiuse/cafeteria space. The wall of floor-to-ceiling glass doors surrounding the cafeteria open up to an expansive outdoor courtyard, which is situated among full grown trees and new plantings.

The theater boasts a professional-caliber fly tower for raising and lowering scenery; an orchestra lift to convert the stage for various types of productions or to extend the seating capacity; an orchestra pit accommodating up to 80 musicians; a robust lighting system with two catwalks for optimal control; state-of-the-art acoustics; and a professional, sound-proof control booth.

Clark awarded San Ysidro pedestrian bridge project

The U.S. General Services Administration has awarded Clark Construction an $11.6-million contract to construct a new east/west pedestrian bridge at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego County.

The contract was awarded to Clark Construction Group-California, LP of Costa Mesa.

The project is part of a three-phase project to improve traffic flow, safety and security at the port, and will realign Interstate Highway 5 to new Mexican inspection facilities to the west at El Chaparral.

The pedestrian bridge is part of the first phase to modernize and expand the port which is operated by the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The full project is currently scheduled for completion in 2014.

During the first phase of construction, the goal is to improve the efficiency of vehicular traffic crossing while addressing the challenges of CBP’s heightened security, and the goal of facilitating lawful travel into the U.S.

In preparation for the lane and inspection booth expansion project, GSA has already taken steps to clear the site by relocating employee parking.

The pedestrian bridge project will provide southbound pedestrian access to Mexico, after which the existing old pedestrian bridge and the administration building over Interstate Highway 5 will be demolished.

The new pedestrian bridge will serve as the southbound access point until a new southbound pedestrian access is constructed east of Interstate Highway 5. This bridge access is also expected to improve pedestrian cross town mobility.

If you have an item for the Contracts, Groundbreakings and Completions section, please call or e-mail Joe Florkowski. He can be reached by phone at (626) 932-6171 or by e-mail at joe_florkowski@mcgraw-hill.com