Contractors Selected on Howard University Projects

Power Design, Inc. has been named as the electrical contractor on Howard University’s newest student housing development located in Washington, D.C. 

The development will accommodate more than 1,000 students and will help establish a residential neighborhood for them.

Power Design recently started construction on another student housing project that will include approximately 1,360 beds in 700 units.

The new residence halls will feature two-person semi-suites, a communal social and study lounge, and game rooms.

Electrical Contractor: Power Design, Inc. 11600 Ninth Street North St. Petersburg, FL 33716           Phone 727.210.0492 Fax 727.210.0503

General Contractor: Clark Construction Group, LLC 7500 Old Georgetown Road Bethesda, Maryland 20814 Phone (301) 272-8100 Fax (301) 272-19283

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Howard University Interdisciplinary Research Campus

Howard University and Turner Construction Company, will break ground on a new Interdisciplinary Research Building at 2201 Georgia Ave., NW, Washington, D.C.

It is a cornerstone of the University’s academic renewal initiative, and its prominent gateway location on the Georgia Avenue Corridor is a public expression of Howard’s commitment to 21st century research.

The new 81,000 square-foot mixed-use academic building will support and promote interdisciplinary research and educational collaboration.

The IRB is designed as an energy-efficient (LEED) facility which will incorporate cutting-edge technology and the latest educational, environmental and research standards.

It will include wet and dry laboratories, instructional space, research support space, ground floor retail, and centralized offices for faculty, students and academic staff.

The Interdisciplinary Research Building is slated to open in the Fall of 2014.

General Contractor:
Turner Construction Company
1110 Vermont Avenue NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202) 789-0770

E-J Electric Flying High at JFK’s Terminal 5

E-J Electric Installation Company is in the midst of a multiyear project for Turner Construction at New York City‘s John F. Kennedy Airport. The contractor is wiring the newly constructed $875 million, 635,000-square-foot JetBlue Airways terminal, which includes 26 gates.
The terminal has begun servicing 360 flights in and out daily. E-J Electric is providing the electric installation, including switchgear, feeders, low-voltage data and fire safety, and supplemental power from three generators. 

The Y-shaped Terminal 5 building connects to JetBlue’s previous location, Terminal 6, once the Trans World Airlines Flight Center used by TWA. T5 offers modern facilities and room for growth, as the airline continues to expand its operations and both domestic and international flights.

JetBlue, JFK’s fastest growing airline, started flying in and out of the airport a decade ago with just one gate for a handful of flights. Since then, JetBlue grew a gate at a time, reaching the 13 gates maximum that were available to it at Terminal 6.

In 2005, the airline added seven temporary gates in a separate facility, requiring passengers to take a JetBlue bus to access their planes. As a result, the airline needed a permanent space and began planning T5, making allowances for continued expansion.

The airline’s architect designed T5 to include 26 gates, with 13 on each end of the Y and room for 10 more. The company’s T5 master plan included up to 20 security lanes, the departure and arrival gates, free Wi-Fi access throughout the entire terminal, 22 restaurants and food outlets, retail stores, and large children’s area.

JetBlue hired Turner Construction as general contractor, and Turner employed a total of 80 subcontractors, including E-J Electric for the electrical portion.

E-J Electric and Turner already have completed numerous projects together, including Yankee Stadium, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Interfaith Hospital and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

E-J Electric, whose electricians have worked at JFK for years, was selected to do electrical wiring tasks, including both normal and emergency power in addition to low voltage.

Since E-J Electric’s workers already had considerable experience in airport work, getting them to comply with Federal Aviation Administration and Port Authority regulations was fairly straightforward. For instance, each electrician must gain security clearance on a job-by-job basis. This project required all workers to take a safety training class before starting work on the project. They also had to carry a picture ID badge at all times.

Manufacturing Ends for the 75-Watt Light Bulb

Happy New Year, and Welcome to 2013!
 
As with 100-watt incandescent bulbs (which were phased out last year), it is now illegal to manufacture 75-watt incandescent bulbs - or to import them into the United States. While some people have little or no strong feelings either way, there are those who are wholeheartedly in favor of the new law, and others who are adamantly opposed.

View our exclusive Guide to Energy Efficient Lamps, which outlines all the costs factors to consider before you make a purchase.

 The Law: Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007

Light bulbs from 40 watts through 100 watts must be 25% more efficient, by the following dates:

- January 1, 2012 for 100 watt bulbs
- January 1, 2013 for 75 watt bulbs
- January 1, 2014 for 60 watt bulbs 
- February 28, 2014 for 40 watt bulbs

Since most current incandescent lamps do not meet this standard, this effectively bans them as of the above dates.
  

CFL's - Compact Fluorescent Lamps                                                                                          

At about $4.00 a pop, compact fluorescent lamps are about four times more expensive than standard lamps. Those cute little curly shaped CFLs do last longer and will save you a lot of money...

But, if the bulb is broken, they can create a hazardous waste nightmare in your home. And while they do come with a disposal warning label - few people read a warning label on a light bulb. Furthermore, many of the CFL’s made in China can start a fire when the ballast burns out.

 

Recent studies have linked CFL lamps to a number of health problems including fatigue, eye strain and migraine headaches, and if broken, compact fluorescent are hazardous to your health. Some manufacturers have started to label their boxes with warnings on how to deal with a broken bulb. In fact, some states will now require that you recycle these bulbs at special facilities because of the large amount of mercury contained in each bulb.

The problem is the toxic mercury inside and which poses a big problem for landfills and if the bulb breaks, for homeowners.
  

 LED's - not CFL's - are the Future of Lighting

Replacing just one incandescent bulb with an LED lamp from Lighting Science can save more than $430 over the lifetime of the bulb.

 

LED lamps are brighter, don't flicker, don't require special handling, and last up to fifty times longer than incandescents! What's more, they use even less energy than hazardous compact fluorescent bulbs. An LED 75-watt equivalent lamp puts out as much light as a 75-watt incandescent bulb, but uses only one-tenth the power. Plus, it can burn for 11 years.

Sure, LED's will cost more than a standard bulb. But because they last so much longer and save so much more in electricity costs, they more than make up for it in less than a year's usage.

View our exclusive Guide to Energy Efficient Lamps, which outlines all the costs factors to consider before you make a purchase.  

Find about PECO Rebate Programs available in the Philadelphia area for lighting upgrades.. 

 

 75 Watt Incandescent Light Bulbs Are Still Available... For Now

 

Many have already embraced the new light bulbs, while others will use the old fashioned bulbs as long as they possibly can. Americans are stockpiling 75 watt incandescent lamps for their own use. As the deadline has passed, it's only logical that the price of these lamps will increase as the available supply decreases.

 

If you are among those who might wish to have a light bulb choice in the future, that choice will need to be in your pantry, as eventually, it will not be on the shelves of your local supply house. 

As of January 1, 2013, these bulbs can no longer be made in, or imported into, the United States.

Diamond Green Apartments Rise near Temple Campus

Mosaic Development is building the $30 million Diamond Green project - a five-story, LEED-certified, 92-unit modular apartment complex - to house 350 students. The mixed-use project near Temple University will include 26,000-square-foot of retail space.

Gregory Reaves and Leslie Smallwood-Lewis stood at the window of a third-floor unit at Diamond Green Apartments just as a SEPTA commuter train pulled away from Temple University Station, bound for Center City.

“See,” Reaves, said, smiling. “You couldn’t hear the train, could you? That’s solid construction.”

Undergrads are not known for adhering to a vow of silence, leading many property owners to shun them. Reaves and Smallwood-Lewis believe, however, that quiet surroundings and proximity to the Temple campus will quickly fill their five-story, 92-unit building with 350 paying students.

Together, the two are Mosaic Development Partners, a West Philadelphia firm best known for its January 2011 acquisition of the Blue Horizon boxing arena on North Broad Street for an $20 million hotel-and-restaurant complex with a jazz bar and fitness center.

Former employees of the Goldenberg Group, they also are turning the old Thomas Edison High School at Seventh Street and Lehigh Avenue into 38,000 square feet of retail space.
[See Philadelphia | Blogger, 4/24/12]

For the Diamond Green complex, Mosaic is collaborating with Orens Brothers, developers also involved in the Blue Horizon, and Metamorphosis Community Development Corp., a nonprofit founded in 2005 to represent the interests of the African American neighborhoods surrounding Temple.

Metamorphosis was instrumental in assembling the 0.9-acre site at 10th and Diamond Streets. Orens Bros., in business since 1979, redeveloped 2200 Arch, 444 North Fourth, and the Pitcairn Building into condominiums and apartments.

The $30 million, 126,000-square-foot mixed-use Diamond Green project, with 26,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, is being financed with a construction loan from Fox Chase Bank and Third Federal Bank, with $7 million in private equity and $750,000 from the city Office of Housing and Community Development’s affordable-housing support program.

 Construction, which began immediately after ground breaking in late-November, is expected to be completed in mid-August.  Eventually, buildings on a site between the apartment building and Norris Street will be razed and affordable housing built in its place.

Diamond Green is the latest addition to revitalization of the neighborhood east of Broad Street. Final additions are being made to the Philadelphia Housing Authority’s Norris Apartments along 11th Street west of Diamond Green.

That 51-unit low-rise complex, designed by architects Blankney Hayes, is on the site of the old Norris Homes high-rise and is the first PHA project to be LEED-certified, with roofs crowned with solar panels.

Designed by Wulff Architects, Diamond Green is unusual for several reasons, and is the largest modular project thus far in Philadelphia.

A total of 106 self-contained modules, each weighing about 50,000 pounds and complete with construction materials, fixtures, and furniture, are being lifted into place by crane.

The modules, built in the Middleburg, Pa., factory of Professional Building Systems, are linked into mostly four-bedroom/two-bathroom units with furnished kitchens, offices, and common living-room areas. Every floor has a card-operated laundry room, eliminating the need for sacks full of quarters.
 

High School Being Converted to Shopping Center, Apartments

Two Philadelphia real estate developers — Mosaic Development Partners and Orens Brothers Real Estate Inc. — have teamed up to redevelop the former Thomas Edison High School on Lehigh Avenue in Philadelphia.

The duo is scheduled to break ground May 4 on an $15 million project that will be called Edison Square.

The project will include a 38,000-square-foot shopping center with a Save-A-Lot grocery on the site of the older portion of the school at 701 W. Lehigh Ave., and a 56-apartment building for low-income seniors in the art deco-style northern annex that will be salvaged.

A portion of the building was damaged by fire last year.

25 Story Tower Proposed For 38th and Chestnut

In a case that could set precedent, the Episcopal Cathedral Chapter is making a complicated claim of acting in the “public interest”, in its request to the historical commission to tear down two buildings on the Philadelphia register of historic places. The Philadelphia diocese wants to build a 25-story apartment tower at 38th Street and Chestnut - adjacent to the Cathedral and International House of Philadelphia.

Citing reports from the Partnership for Sacred Places and engineering and construction firms, the Cathedral’s plan is to complete a $4 million-plus renovation of the Cathedral itself (originally the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Savior, built in 1889 and rebuilt after a fire, in 1906) to be completed as part of the construction of the retail and apartment tower.

The church’s argument is that the Cathedral’s preservation, more pressing than originally thought, is too expensive given the church’s current budget. The only answer, according to Church officials, is to develop church-owned property, creating a sustainable stream of revenue.

This, they say, will benefit the public interest by saving a major landmark.

The question before the Historical Commission’s architectural committee is whether to grant the claim and allow the demolition of the church’s 1903, 4 story brownstone Parrish House (both the church and Parrish House were designed by noted ecclesiastical architect Charles M. Burns).

The Historical Commission will also have to decide to allow a contemporary glass entrance addition to the Cathedral. Preliminary applications suggest that BLT Architects will design the tower.

The Cathedral has previously provoked controversy with aggressive remodeling of the church’s interior in 2001, following a plan pushed by the former head of the church, the Very Reverend Richard Giles. That renovation, designed by architect George Yu, substantially altered the interior. It was decried by Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron and other architectural observers.

The Cathedral has chosen Radnor Property Group, with substantial experience in preservation and mixed-use projects.

Two Office Buildings to Become 150 Room Hotel

The Biddle building at 1217 Sansom St. and the Bailey building at 1218 Chestnut St. in Center City will be transformed into Hotel Indigo, said Michael H. Sonnabend of PMZ Realty Capital, which is arranging the financing for the project.

The full-service boutique hotel will be managed by InterContinental Hotels, the parent company of Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Candlewood Suites, Staybridge Suites, Crowne Plaza and, of course, Hotel Indigo.

The eight-story Biddle building comprises 40,000 square feet and the 10-story Bailey building has 101,000 square feet.

Construction will cost an estimated $50 million and is expected to commence sometime this summer.