The Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse at 40 Centre Street in Manhattan’s Foley Square, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is slated for a $193 million rehabilitation. The U.S. General Services Administration has tapped a design team led by Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners, along with associate designers Davis Brody Bond and Flack + Kurtz. Bovis Lend Lease is the construction manager.

City to Upgrade 500 Buildings

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Housing Authority recently released funding details about a multi-year, $2 billion program to upgrade the city's aging public housing stock. Nearly 420,000 residents live in the agency's buildings.

The infusion of funds includes $1.4 billion expected from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development over the next four years and a pair of municipal bond sales totaling $600 million to be issued through the city's Housing Development Corporation.

A $300 million first phase for the program will improve exterior masonry and roofing at 500 buildings in 129 developments across all five boroughs. A second phase will target upgrades for building infrastructure, including elevators, kitchens, bathrooms, intercoms, underground utilities, and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems. The planned scope includes construction of new facilities such as a 25,000-sq.-ft. community center with a 150-seat auditorium at Linden Houses in Brooklyn.

GSA Selects Courthouse Upgrade Team

The U.S. General Services Administration and the federal court system have picked the project team leaders for a $193 million upgrade of the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse in Lower Manhattan. Work on the 718,000-sq.-ft. historic structure - which houses 23 courtrooms, along with offices and judges' chambers - will take place in multiple phases, with construction starting next year and running through 2010.

The GSA selected New York-based Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners to design the project and Bovis Lend Lease of New York to perform construction management services. The project scope entails a major upgrade of building infrastructure, including selective demolition, interior construction, historic preservation, window and façade repairs, and upgrades to mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems. Later this year, the GSA will select three general contractors to provide preconstruction services for the project, one of which will become general contractor for the construction phase.

The 32-story courthouse completed in 1936 was Cass Gilbert's last design, and he died before it opened. During most of the renovation, court operations and offices will move to nearby facilities, including to leased space in Gilbert's famous Woolworth Building.

Big Box for Brooklyn

Build-out for a new 100,000-sq.-ft. retail store at 585 DeKalb Avenue in Brooklyn is underway. Completion of the $10 million Home Depot location is expected this summer in a building that was once a warehouse for International Business Machines Corp.

B.R. Fries & Associates of New York is the contractor on the project, which includes the insertion of a mezzanine level and installation of new elevators, staircases, and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems. On its second floor, the building currently houses offices for Job Corps, a U.S. Department of Labor worker training program that will remain in operation during construction.

The project also involves exterior sitework, including regrading, paving, and a new drainage system. Fries has constructed four other Home Depot stores in the New York City metropolitan area in recent years.

Plaza Hotel Set for Major Work

The new owner of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan plans to transform the Fifth Avenue landmark into a retail, condominium, and hotel complex. The project already has generated controversy because employee labor unions and some preservation advocates have criticized the plan to downgrade the Plaza's hospitality function.

Manhattan-based Elad Properties plans to convert much of the 97-year-old hotel into about 200 condominiums and 160,000 sq. ft. of retail space. The number of hotel rooms would drop from 805 to 150. The overhaul would cost "tens of millions of dollars," according to a press release.

Designed by the New York-based joint venture of Gal Nauer Architects and Costas Kondylis and Partners, the project would preserve historic and architecturally significant elements, including the hotel's Grand Ballroom, Plaza Court, and Oak Room. Tishman Realty & Construction of New York, the construction manager, is expected to complete work by late 2006.

Public-Private School Project

New York City and the Brooklyn office of Forest City Ratner Cos. are teaming up to develop the city's first new public school on private property. The $65 million school will be part of a $570 million mixed-use tower designed by Frank Gehry on a site next to New York University Downtown Hospital in Lower Manhattan.

The five-floor, 100,000-sq.-ft. school is expected to serve 600 elementary and middle school students. Now in schematic design, the 1-million-sq.-ft. tower will include condominiums, rental apartments, ground-floor retail space, an ambulatory care facility for the hospital, and two levels of below-grade parking. Construction is slated to begin next February and is scheduled for completion in September 2008.

Bayonne Condo Planned

Kaplan Companies of Highland Park, N.J., is planning to start construction in early 2006 on the Waterford at Bayonne, a $58 million, 145-unit condominium designed by Alberto & Associates of Haddonfield, N.J.

The 200,000-sq.-ft. structure on John F. Kennedy Boulevard in Bayonne, N.J., will have two levels of underground parking, a masonry and stucco exterior, and a combined steel and concrete structural system. Kaplan will self-perform construction management, said Jason Kaplan, the company's president.

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