“We have been challenged to design a facility for the emerging generations of physicians and health professionals who will adopt the latest technologies and research in their practices.”
—Jonathan Kanda, director, Medical Education, CO Arquitectes
A vacant city-owned lot on Arizona State University’s Phoenix campus will house a 200,000-square-foot School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering facility. Designed by CO Architects in collaboration with DFDG Architecture and constructed by McCarthy Building Cos., the building will join the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix and several biotech research companies in the downtown Phoenix Bioscience Core District. The design and works of the headquarters building are currently being carried out. It is scheduled to break ground in the summer of 2026, with completion expected in the summer of 2028. The facility will house two new programs, expanding ASU Health’s multidisciplinary curricula. The school will teach future doctors how to improve patient care by combining medicine, engineering, technology and the humanities. The building will include space for its clinical partner, HonorHealth.
“We look forward to bringing together our national expertise in building simulation labs and our local team’s proven competency on complex jobs to collaborate with these exceptional design partners and support ASU’s vision,” said Carlos Diaz, vice president of operations for McCarthy Building Cos. The ASU School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering building is designed to help address workforce shortages beyond Phoenix and public health. Other firms on the project team include Meyer Borgman Johnson, Spectrum Engineers, Dibble Engineers, TrueForm Landscape Architecture Studio, Bowman Fire & Life Safety and WSP USA Buildings.
Mortenson Named Denver NWSL Stadium Construction Manager
The $225 million Denver Summit FC NWSL Stadium, located in the Santa Fe Yards District, will be built by Mortenson. Designed by Populous, the outdoor arena will feature a roof and open for the 2028 NWSL season. The 14-acre site will include the 14,500-seat stadium, premium spaces, dedicated supporter sections and a 3.5-acre public park. Preconstruction has begun, and full construction will begin in the spring of 2026, with a goal of opening in 2028. The project is targeting LEED Silver certification. This project is the second purpose-built women’s soccer stadium in the USA
Weitz Co. builds $1 billion Four Seasons Telluride
The Weitz Co. has begun construction on the Four Seasons Resort and Residences in Telluride, Colorado. Located on a 4.5 acre parcel adjacent to the Telluride Gondola and lifts 1 and 4, the property occupies the last remaining snow site in the town of Mountain Village. Upon completion, the 532,000-square-foot resort designed by Olson Kundig and Clements Design will include 52 luxury hotel rooms, 43 hotel residences and 26 private residences, making it the first new hotel and luxury residential development in Telluride in more than 15 years.
Nunn Construction, Wold Architects Break Ground On McClave PK-12 School
The McClave School District in rural southeastern Colorado has begun construction on its first purpose-built, complete PK-12 campus. Made possible by a BEST grant and a community-supported bond election, the 70,000-square-foot school comes together after years of planning and collaboration between the district, Wold Architects, Artaic Group and Nunn Construction. The school has wings dedicated to primary and secondary education, a modern vocational and technical education shop and a competition gym. The project began in January and is scheduled to continue until 2027.
$168 million Signal Butte WTP hits key milestone
Construction on the $168 million expansion of the Signal Butte Water Treatment Plant in Mesa, Arizona has completed work on an 8 million gallon potable water tank. McCarthy Building Cos. is the general contractor and Black & Veatch is the engineer of record for the multiphase plant expansion project. Situated on 84 hectares, the project is being delivered in two phases to keep the existing plant fully operational. Phase I, which began in January 2024 and is expected to be completed in October 2026, includes the construction of a second tank, key system redundancies to improve reliability and provisions that will support the future expansion of Phase II of the plant, which is expected to be completed in early summer 2027.
Phase II of the project will double the plant’s treatment capacity from 24 million to 48 million gallons of water per day. Planned work includes adding a flocculation system with mirror sand ballast, ozone generation and sodium hypochlorite generation for disinfection, six additional filters and solids handling improvements.
ADOT awards $129 million police highway contract
The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) awarded Pulice, a FlatironDragados company, a $129 million highway contract to improve mobility and capacity on the State Route 303L corridor northwest of Phoenix. The Bob Stump Memorial Parkway 303L project aims to ease congestion and prepare the fast-growing region for future traffic demands near the 3.5 million-square-foot TSMC semiconductor facility, a major economic driver in the area.
Utah AGC Convention
Utah AGC 2026 President Gary Ellis of Jacobsen Construction (right) accepts the “gavel” from outgoing president Brett Nielsen of Whitaker Construction at the association’s annual convention in Salt Lake City.
Photo courtesy of Utah AGC
Utah AGC members gathered in Salt Lake City January 29-30 for their 104th annual convention. “Work is still moving; members are planning, bidding and staffing projects, but they’re more selective than they were a few years ago. The strongest confidence is in infrastructure, power and data center-related work,” said Joey Gilbert, president and CEO of the 700-member association’s chapter. “On the private side, areas like office and warehouse are softer and financing costs remain a concern. But Utah’s fundamentals (population growth, job creation and business investment) are giving our members confidence that 2026 will be stable rather than a pullback.”
Gary Ellis, president and CEO of Salt Lake City-based Jacobsen Construction, became the chapter’s president for 2026, succeeding Brett Nielsen, president and CEO of Brigham City-based Whitaker Construction.
Nielsen said last year as president he was pleased to have launched the chapter’s Construction Leadership Committee to train new emerging industry leaders. “This is aimed at 35 and under, and we want to help them learn from each other and grow their careers in the industry and at AGC,” said Nielsen. “Southern Utah, particularly the St. George area, has been one of our fastest growing markets as more projects and contractors move to this region.”
