Photo: GSA Blogs
More than six years after ground was broken—and after a nearly two-year construction stoppage—the federal government officially opened the new NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction at the University of Maryland’s M Square Research and Technology Park last week (October 15). The 268,762-square-foot, four-story building is now home to more than 800 NOAA scientists, data managers and other employees. The agency’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction; Satellite, Data and Information Service; and Air Resources Laboratory all are housed in the Energy Star–certified structure (which also is expected to achieve LEED-Gold certification). The building, which was designed by Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum (HOK), contains office space, laboratories, a data center, a deli, a 500-seat auditorium and a four-story atrium, as well as a 685-car garage.
When fully built out, the 130-acre, 2 million-square-foot M Square—a public-private partnership between the university and Corporate Office Properties Trust—will be Maryland’s largest research park. Other federal agencies with facilities at the park, which is adjacent to the College Park/UMD Metrorail station, include the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) and the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA).
Developer Opus East broke ground on the NOAA building on March 13, 2006, but trouble erupted several years later in response to the government’s request that the develop fund more than $30 million in additional building improvements. Though GSA would have re-paid the funds upon lease commencement, they would not agree to make progress payments and, with capital markets in a death spiral, the project’s lenders were unwilling to go along.
Opus East stopped construction in 2009 and, that May, sued GSA for more than $37 million in disputed change orders and payments. (At the time, the building’s shell and interior were 90 percent and 50 percent complete, respectively; the original agreement called for the developer to pay for the shell and GSA the interior.) Opus East officials cited the NOAA project dispute and lawsuit as one of the factors leading to the company’s filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation two months later.
The Opus East lawsuit eventually was dismissed, lead lender Bank of America took over the building and Douglas Wilson Companies was named as the court-appointed receiver. On March 7, 2011, GSA signed a new lease and construction agreement, and construction resumed the following month with Skanska USA as the contractor. (Opus East had acted its own design-build contractor, with HOK as architect). Under the new contract, HOK returned as the project’s lead design and interior architect; most of the original subcontractors also returned. Later in 2011, Acquest Development took over the project and was given permission to purchase the mortgage note from Bank of America. In March 2012, Acquest secured nearly $72 in funding for the project from Bostonia Partners, enabling it to complete construction.
The roots of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) date back more than 200 years, to 1807, when the nation’s first scientific agency, the Survey of the Coast (later known as the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey), was established. NOAA itself was formed as part of the Department of Commerce in 1970—amid rising concerns about the environment—as a conglomeration of three existing agencies: the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey; the Weather Bureau, formed in 1870; and the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, formed in 1871. Some environmentalists and others have long argued that NOAA would fit better within the Department of the Interior; just two weeks ago, President Obama proposed moving it there. Today, NOAA refers to itself as “the original whole earth agency” and “[possibly] the most important agency you’ve never heard of.”
NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts; to share that knowledge and information with others; and to conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources. From its 19th century beginnings, it has evolved into an operational science agency with conservation, management, and regulatory responsibilities. Its activities fall into five broad categories: fisheries, oceans and coasts, satellites, scientific research, and weather. With a staff of more than 12,000 and a presence in every state, NOAA had a budget of $4.9 billion in 2010—making it the largest agency within Commerce, with about 60% of the department’s total funding.
NOAA’s headquarters campus, located in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, houses the agency’s line offices, staff offices, and program groups, including the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service; the National Marine Fisheries Service; the National Ocean Service; the National Weather Service; the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research; and the Office of Program Planning and Administration. The agency inhabits nearly all of the Silver Spring Metro Center (SSMC). NOAA owns SSMC 1 and it leases nearly all of SSMC buildings 2, 3 and 4, totaling almost 1.2 million square feet of government-occupied office space. In total, NOAA reports that the SSMC headquarters is home to 4,200 workers who make up 80 percent of NOAA’s Washington-area employees. NOAA has occupied the Silver Spring Metro Center complex for more than 20 years.