![]() Work could begin later this year on the construction of a new behavioral health care facility in the northern Colorado county of Larimer. County officials have long wanted to build a large updated health care treatment and counseling facility, especially after a study released in 2015 showed that some 90 percent of those booked into the Larimer County Jail in Fort Collins had some sort of mental illness or substance abuse issue. Two years ago, county voters approved a quarter-percent sales tax to pay, among other things, for the construction of a new facility. Since then members of a local behavioral health policy council, as well as the Larimer County Commission, have reviewed site options for a facility that would house up to 64 beds and be built in a tree-lined, campus-like setting. The next step - determining the exact site for the new facility - has proved more challenging with commission members reviewing a series of locations ranging in size from around 50 acres to 90 acres, but failing to arrive at a final decision. Those sites have been located in both the cities of Fort Collins and Loveland. The county has indicated that it is willing to spend up to $4 million to purchase the land for the project, with another $20 to $30 million going to actually building the new facility. Reports indicate that a site selection will at last be made by the commission by this fall, with construction beginning shortly afterwards. If all goes as anticipated, the new behavioral health facility could be completed by late 2021. By Garry Boulard
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![]() Work could begin late this year on the building of a multi-sports, fitness and wellness complex at the northeast corner of Lake Valley Road and Florentine Road, adjacent to Prescott Valley’s Entertainment District. That site, on the growing southwest side of Prescott Valley, is currently vacant. The project will go up on a 12.5-acre site and will include a 50,000 square foot building housing a basketball court, golf simulators, combined restaurant and bar, and up to ten pickleball courts. To be developed by the company Espire Sports, the project, designed by the Prescott Valley-based Stroh Architecture, will additionally see the building of some forty cottages, located in two separate landscaped clusters, for recreational vehicle users. If all goes according to plan, work on the complex should be completed by the fall of 2021. By Garry Boulard ![]() A company based in Mesa, Arizona has announced plans to manufacture up to one billion face masks in response to the Covid 19 outbreak. US Power AZ PPE says it is stepping up production of the masks this week at its plant located in the Gateway Technology Center. In a press release, Kevin Thorpe, president of the company, said the masks would be designed for everyday use, but also for “healthcare professionals that serve on the front lines.” The company estimates that it will ultimately be able to manufacture and produce a minimum of around 50 million masks on a monthly basis. US Power AZ’s production launch mirrors a national drive for the stepped-up output of masks that is also seeing the building of new facilities to house their manufacture. The 3M company, the nation’s leading producer of N95 face masks, has two production facilities working overtime in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and Valley, Nebraska. Earlier this summer the company completed a 120,000 square foot addition to the Aberdeen plant after securing more than $200 million in orders for their masks. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based Honeywell International, known for its aerospace and building technologies, this spring repurposed its manufacturing facilities in both Phoenix as well Smithfield, Rhode Island to meet the mask demand. In an interview with the publication WRAL Tech Wire, Darius Adamczyk, chief executive officer of Honeywell, remarked that the company “very quickly mobilized a couple of facilities that we weren’t fully utilizing.” “Something that would normally take us nine months took us literally four to five weeks to create,” Adamczyk continued, adding: “We’ve gone from zero production to having two fully functioning facilities, making about 20 million masks a month.” Industry analysts say the stepped-up production of masks, which were formerly mostly produced in China, means that there will almost certainly be more mask manufacturing plants built in the U.S. in the months to come. In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Stacy Cummings, assistant Secretary of Defense, noted that the U.S. consumed around 50 million masks in normal times, but that in the three-month period after the Covid-19 outbreak the demand surged to 140 million. Cummings predicted that the country should be capable of manufacturing up to 450 million masks a year by this fall, with the rate increasing to 800 million per year by early 2021. N95 masks meet National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health standards in filtering out at least 95 percent of airborne particles. By Garry Boulard ![]() As part of a move to build a modern new shelter for the Animal Services Center of the Mesilla Valley, the Las Cruces City Council has given its approval to the selling of some $17.6 million in tax-exempt general obligation improvement bonds. Those bonds were originally passed by city voters in 2018 for a variety of construction and infrastructure projects, including the building of a new fire station, as well as upgrades to the city’s sports fields. Just under $10 million of the bonds will target the construction of the new shelter facility, which will go up on a portion of a larger site at 3551 Bataan Memorial West Drive. The current shelter, built in 1982, has been plagued with a number of structural and plumbing issues in recent years, and is also located at that site. As designed by ASA Architects of Las Cruces, the new shelter will house holding and adoption space, as well as administrative offices. According to statistics kept by the shelter, the current facility serves up to 10,000 animals on an annual basis, as well as accommodating prospective pet owners. Although the Covid-19 outbreak has decreased their numbers, the center was still visited by around five hundred people in May. At the same time that the city council approved selling the general obligation bonds, it also provided just over $500,000 in funding for the Animal Services Center’s operations and administration. By Garry Boulard ![]() Just over two years after the City of Santa Fe received more than $5 million in federal funding to build or improve new transit facilities, planning is well underway for the building of a new transit terminal that will go up on the south side of the city. That project, to be built at 2521 Camino Entrada, a block away from the Santa Fe Police Department, will replace an existing facility that has earlier been deemed structurally deficient by the city. A Request for Proposals issued by Santa Fe’s Public Works Department Facilities Division notes that the transit project will include the demolition of some building components, including existing concrete drives, as well as earth work and grading. Additional work will see the construction of new concrete drives and passenger platforms, as well as the building of subsurface infrastructure, including new drain lines and other related utilities. A total of eight shelters will be assembled and erected at the site, with office areas, restrooms, and lobby space to be built within those structures. The funding for the project was obtained from the Federal Transit Administration branch of the Department of Transportation and, more specifically, from that agency’s Bus and Bus Facilities Infrastructure Investment Program. That program is designed to fund the construction of bus-oriented facilities for states and cities across the country. The RFP has a submission deadline of August 27. By Garry Boulard ![]() Look for the increased construction of glass partitions, balconies, and wider lobby steps in both new and upgraded living and work spaces in response to Covid-19, say building designers. Designers are also putting their heads to the task of making work spaces seem larger owing to the fact that so many people are today working from their homes. Other changes, reports the Wall Street Journal, include “re-engineering ventilation systems, adding elevator banks, or reconfiguring common areas.” Design changes for rental complexes are also increasingly including lounges with glass dividers, multiple lobbies, and even gym rooms divided by walls. The demand for new designs in a Covid-19 world has additionally prompted the American Institute of Architects to issue a series of recommendations regarding how both living and working spaces should be reconfigured. “Prior to the pandemic we were encouraging clients to incorporate health and wellness features that research has shown to improve productivity,” said Jason deChambeau, a design principal with the Washington-based firm of Perkins and Will. Noting that such features include systems that clean the air, as well as circadian lighting, deChambeau said that what were once hard-sell items for clients are now very much in demand. Because of a greater interest in healthy building features, deChambeau, in an interview with the Commercial Observer newspaper, said his firm is also seeing more interest in such innovative concepts as holographic interfaces on elevator buttons, lights on faucets indicating whether or not the water is filtered, and built-in sanitizing stations. Large complex designs may very well see less of an emphasis on defined outdoor common spaces and more on connections to walking and biking paths. A Houston landscape architect recently observed to the publication Building Design + Construction that since the onset of the pandemic such common spaces have largely been abandoned by residents, while nearby trails are “brimming with users.” Such changes, over the long haul, are expected to benefit more than just apartment and condo residents. A North Carolina developer told the Wall Street Journal that he is thinking about listing a condo incorporating such changes at up to $750,000, instead of the $500,000 he was previously going to ask for units without those features. By Garry Boulard ![]() In a move to accommodate one of the fastest-growing recreational activities in the region, Lake Havasu City is planning to expand its pickleball court facilities at a local park. The city dedicated four new pickleball courts at the Dick Samp Memorial Park, located at 1628 Avalon Avenue, in the spring of 2017. But even at the time of that dedication, city officials acknowledged the probable need for more courts in the near future. Now the City of Havasu City has issued a Request for Proposals calling for the construction of an additional eight new pickleball courts. The project for the park, which also features two baseball fields and a playground, is being done in accordance with a field assessment report and park master plan prepared by the engineering firm of Shephard Wesnitzer and the Norris Design landscape architectural firm. According to the RFP, the project will also include the construction of player seating and shade structures, as well as irrigation and landscape work. As planned, the new pickleball courts will be comprised of two post-tension slabs. The RFP has a submission deadline of August 12. Pickleball as a recreation has seen a 650 percent increase in player participation in recent years, according to the USA Pickleball Association. The sport has proved particularly popular in Arizona for reasons of climate, with courts now open in some two dozen cities. By Garry Boulard ![]() Rio Rancho is moving ahead on a plan to make improvements to its dewatering system in the city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant 2. That plant is located at 100 Industrial Park Loop, three miles to the northeast of downtown Rio Rancho, and has a processing capability of up to 5.5 million gallons per day. Now, Rio Rancho has issued a Request for Proposals for work that will include replacing the existing belt filter press, polymer mixing systems, sludge feed pipe, and control panels in the facility. The project also calls for the removal and replacement of an existing HVAC system, and new windows, doors, lighting, and floor drains. Upgrade work is also planned for the structure’s first and second floor office space. August 13 is the submission deadline for the RFP. In a cost-cutting move designed to also increase the sustainability of the city’s treatment facilities, members of the Rio Rancho Governing Body this spring voted to decommission Wastewater Treatment Plant 1, a facility that was built in the 1960s. By Garry Boulard ![]() After a dramatic decline this spring, the demand for architectural services nationally has seen some stabilization and even a marginal increase, according to a new survey released by the American Institute of Architects. The organization’s Architecture Billings Index, which reported an overall billings low score of 29.5 in April, now reports a billings increase for June, raising the score to 40.0. That index, produced by the AIA’s Economics & Market Research Group, serves as an economic indicator based on responses from member firms. Those firms are simply asked whether their billings have increased, decreased, or stayed the same during the previous month. Scores above 50 indicate more billings that not. While scores less than 50, means the firm is currently in the deficit category when it comes to new work orders. While the average member response in the latest index gives the overall industry a score of under 50, the latest responses nevertheless represent an improvement over April’s numbers. Reports for firms doing multi-family residential work went up from a score of 30.3 in April to 44.7 in June. Firms doing institutional work saw their overall score increase from 36.1 in April to 38.9 in June; while the mixed-practice firm scores had improved from 29.0 in April to 35.3 in June. In a statement, Kermit Baker, chief economist with the AIA, noted that “while business conditions remained soft at firms across the country, those with multifamily residential specialization saw the most positive signs.” Even so, Baker noted that firms with commercial and/or industrial specializations will probably remain low for “an extended period of time, until hospitality, office, and retail facilities can fully reopen, and design demand for this space begins to increase.” Firms in both the West and Midwest saw the strongest overall index scores at 36.8, followed by the South at 35.9, and the Northeast at 34.2. But compared to the April numbers, firms in the West were down by just under 2; while the Midwest saw an index score increase of two. Southern firms also recorded a score improvement of two, with firms based in the Northeast showing the biggest score increase of 12. By Garry Boulard ![]() The town of Meeker, Colorado has issued a Request for Proposals for upgrade work to its busy animal shelter. Located at 109 Third Street, just to the south of the town’s main E. Market Street thoroughfare, the shelter regularly processes an estimated 130 animals a year, and has for some time been in need of some facility upgrading. That work will include both the remodeling of parts of the interior of the shelter as well as improvements to its exterior. The interior improvements will entail the repairing of walls, installation of acoustic ceiling tiles, floor drainage repairs, a lobby heating system installation, and both additional electrical outlets and new lighting throughout the facility. The construction of a new bathroom for the shelter will also be a part of the upgrading. Exterior work will take on the removal and replacement of windows, new stucco walls, and the installation of ribbed metal roof panels. With a population of around 2,200 people, Meeker is an agricultural community and summer tourist destination spot. The RFP has a submission deadline of August 18. By Garry Boulard |
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