New York State renews design-build authority

The New York State Legislature passed a budget for 2015-2016 that included a two-year renewal of design-build authority for select agencies.

The governor supports the measure. The state first approved design-build in 2011, and has entered into dozens of design-build contracts in the interim.

As in the 2011 legislation, design/build can only be used by the following agencies:
• Thruway authority
• Department of Transportation
• Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
• Department of Environmental Conservation
• New York State Bridge Authority

Funding will support a statewide initiative to finance large-scale, complex infrastructure projects across the state and allow “innovative project delivery methods, including design-build and public-private partnerships.”

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.