Columbia Construction Company was awarded a project by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to serve as their construction manager for the new Laboratory for Ocean Sensors and Observing Systems (LOSOS). A groundbreaking ceremony was held on August 4, and was led by Dr. Susan Avery, president and director of WHOI. Ellenzweig, of Cambridge Mass., is the Architect. Other team members include Bard, Rao + Athanas Consulting Engineers, LLC (BR+A), MEP/FP; Stephen Stimson Associates, Landscape Architects; Acentech, Acoustical Engineers; Holmes and McGrath, Inc., Land Survey/Civil Engineers; and LeMessurier Consultants, Structural Engineers.
Construction of the 27,000 s/f building is expected to begin in March 2011, with an occupancy date of June 2012. The project cost is estimated to be $10 million.
The building will house laboratory and office space for the NSF-sponsored Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI).
WHOI is the lead implementing organization for the coastal and global components of that initiative. The structure will also include laboratory and office space for the Martha's Vineyard Coastal Observatory (MVCO), a state of the art underwater research facility and test site constructed and operated by WHOI; the Ocean Bottom Seismometer Instrument Pool (OBSIP), an NSF-funded facility providing instrumentation in support of marine geology, seismology and geodynamics research; and the Environmental Sample Processor Lab (ESP), where procedures will be performed for genetic identification of marine organisms and for clarifying their role in biogeochemical cycles.