The General Services Administration has awarded a $61-million contract to ZGF Architects LLP to be lead design architect for new Dept. of Homeland Security headquarters facilities in Washington, D.C. The other short-listed firms competing for the project were Goody Clancy, Boston; Gund Partnership Inc., Cambridge, Mass.; Kallmann McKinnell & Wood Architects Inc., Boston; Robert A.M. Stern Architects LLP, New York City; and RTKL Associates Inc., Baltimore. ZGF, formerly Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects LLP, said in an April 1 release that its contract includes more than 2.1 million square feet of new office space for DHS at the St. Elizabeths Hospital

As potential donors gather today at the United Nations to assemble a fund to help rebuild earthquake-battered Haiti, the White House is asking Congress for additional spending to contribute to the reconstruction effort. Haiti is hoping to raise $3.9 billion at the March 31 donors' meeting to cover the initial, 18-month phase of what is certain to be a lengthy reconstruction. The estimated total rebuilding cost is $11.5 billion, the UN says. More than 220,000 were killed in the magnitude 7 quake on January 12, and an estimated 2 million people are living in temporary shelters in Port-au-Prince or have

The Dept. of Health and Human Services has awarded $508.5 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to build or renovate 85 community health clinics around the country. Competition was stiff for the Facility Investment Program grants, whose winners were announced on Dec. 9. HHS received about 600 applications for the funds, says David Bowman, a spokesman for HHS's Health Resources and Services Administration, which oversees the community health center program. Bowman says that the latest batch of ARRA awards involves larger awards than those contained in a round of HHS stimulus capital funding announced in June. That earlier

Construction's unemployment rate continued to to rise in November, climbing to 19.4% from October's 18.7%, while the nation's overall jobless rate declined slightly, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported. Job creation has become a prime topic in Washington, as congressional Democrats work on new measures aimed at bringing more people back to work. Infrastructure spending is emerging as one component of those possible measures. Construction Unemployment Rate, Last 13 Months 2009 November 19.4% October 18.7% September 17.1 August 16.5 July 18.2 June 17.4 May 19.2 April 18.7 March 21.1 February 21.4 January 15.3 2008 November 15.3 December 12.7 Note:

As the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act enters its eighth month on the books, the General Services Administration’s $5.5-billion ARRA-funded program to build or upgrade scores of federal buildings finally has taken off. As of July, it had awarded contracts totaling nearly $1.1 billion for projects involving about 120 buildings. At least 20 of those are already under way, according to Anthony Costa, of GSA’s Public Buildings Service department, who delivered the news during a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing on July 31. He added that the rest of the projects “will begin soon,” and says the agency plans

Robert A. Peck, FAIA, is coming back to the General Services Administration as the commissioner of the agency's Public Buildings Service, the GSA announced today. Peck served as PBS commissioner from 1995 to 2001, during the Clinton administration. He calls the public-buildings position "the best job in real estate.” It is certainly one of the biggest real-estate jobs in the country. PBS oversees design, construction, leasing, management, and security for the 354 million square feet of space that the federal government owns or leases. Peck, who expects to begin work at the GSA during the week of August 17, told

The National Science Foundation is seeking applicants for $200 million in grants to rehabilitate research facilities at academic institutions. The funding is coming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Letters of intent are due on July 1 and full proposals are due August 24. Universities, colleges, community colleges, research museums, and other research organizations and consortia are eligible to apply. According to the NSF, “funding will be limited to facilities where research and research-training activities focus on NSF-supported fields of science and engineering." The agency says it does not intend to use the money to finance new construction. The

Continuing the rollout of federal agencies’ economic-stimulus plans, the Interior Department’s National Park Service has released its $750-million list of projects to be funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The list, published on April 22, totals 766 projects, including work on buildings, monuments, trails, and water and sewer lines. Photo courtesy Ken Thomas/Wikipedia The Ellis Island site, in New York, will receive $8.8 million. Related Links: The Final Stimulus Bill, Sector by Sector HUD Releases Plans for Stimulus Grants How Architects Can Land a Government Contract Special Section: Construction Stimulus California receives the largest allocation, $97.4 million for

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced how it will divide $980 million that the economic-stimulus legislation—the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—provided for Community Development Block Grants. The CDBG aid will be split among about 1,200 state, city, and county governments. CDBGs, established in 1974, can be used for many different purposes. Over the program's history, the most popular uses have been affordable-housing rehabilitation and upgrades to infrastructure such as streets, sewers, and community centers. But for the stimulus CDBGs, HUD says in a technical guidance document released May 5 that it “strongly urges grantees to use funds

Today, President Barack Obama is expected to sign the $787-billion economic stimulus bill, officially called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Final congressional action came late on February 13 in the Senate, where three Republicans joined 55 Democrats and two Independents to pass the bill by a vote of 60-38, the minimum majority needed for approval. In the House, the legislation passed by a vote of 246-183; no Republicans voted in favor of it. While difficult to tally, it is estimated that roughly $130 billion of the bill is earmarked for construction-related spending. Below are some highlights. TRANSPORTATION: $49.3 billion