The Austin office of SpawGlass Contractors Inc. recently celebrated the topping out of the new Austin Police Department Forensics Facility and Central East Substation project.

Begun in June 2002, the project combines a 28,000-sq.-ft. police substation with a 50,000-sq.-ft. forensics facility as well as several special operations units and community outreach functions.

The forensics facility will feature a state-of-the-art DNA lab; crime scene investigation labs and offices; a crime scene reconstruction room; drug analysis, breath alcohol and ballistics testing labs; multi-media studio; vehicle inspection station; and evidence control and storage for other types of forensic evidence.

A 70-ft.-long, single-lane, indoor firing range for ballistics testing will also be included in the project.

Austin-based TAG International LLP is the architect for the project, which is scheduled for completion early next year.

The Dallas office of Turner Construction Co. was recently awarded a contract to build the new $24 million Transitional High School in Cedar Hill.

Turner will assume construction-manager at-risk duties on the project. The architect is Duncanville-based Booher McGee & Associates and the program manager is Huckabee/Dikita of Cedar Hill.

Completion is scheduled for spring 2005. The first phase of the two-phase project is a ninth grade center. The facility will expand to a four-year high school with capacity for 2,500 students once the second phase is completed by fall 2012.

The 215,000-sq.-ft. structure built during phase one will support the full student body expected to attend the school. Phase one site work includes extensive earth and utility work, tennis courts and practice fields for football, soccer, baseball and softball.

The second phase will add gymnasiums, an auditorium and additional classroom space.

The Houston office of Cadence McShane Corp. is nearly completion of construction services it is providing for an eight-story, 1,400-vehicle parking garage at the Marq-E Entertainment Center in southwest Houston.

The post-tensioned concrete parking garage includes precast interval concrete spandrel panels with architectural reveals. The accent colors and designs on the façade will complement the palette and theme of the existing mall buildings.

Walter P. Moore & Associates Inc. of Houston is providing engineering services for the project and also serves as architect of record. Completion is scheduled for September.

The Houston office of Sacramento, Calif.-based Panattoni Construction Inc. recently completed the second phase of the Beltway 8 Corporate Center in Houston.

The 102,500-sq.-ft., two-story office project is located in a business park between Interstate 10 and U.S. Highway 290 developed by Panattoni Development Co.

Phase II was designed by the Houston office of Kirksey Architects and provides office users with an efficient floor plan and attractive office environment. The building meets the international energy code and features a radius curtainwall entrance, fountain, brick pavers and aluminum trellis.

Hill Country Bible Church members recently agreed to spend up to $5 million to construct a new church on former dairy farm land in Pflugerville.

According to a report in the Austin Business Journal, the congregation has targeted a 51-acre tract of farmland in the middle of Pflugerville's growing residential area. The church currently meets in retail space and an expanding membership has caused it to look for a permanent facility.

The $5 million approved by the church is expected to cover land acquisition - expected to close later this year - and the first phase of construction to involve a 25,000-sq.-ft. multipurpose building. Church officials hope to break ground for construction next spring and open the new building by April 2005.

Fort Worth-based Speed Fab-Crete recently completed work as design-builder for a new Jerry's Chevrolet preowned automobile sales facility in Weatherford.

The unusually-shaped, six-sided building is finished in a rustic appearance with rough cedar planking, heavy timber posts, low stone walls and column bases, pitched metal roofs with gables and an outdoor patio equipped with charcoal grill and smoker. The project architect was Callahan & Freeman of Fort Worth.

The 12,000-sq.-ft. facility includes 14 sale stations, seven work-wash bays, including one for truck bed liner installation, and general support offices.

Precast concrete walls form the building's exterior serving as support to a stone wainscot. A distinctive low roof overhang, supported by timber posts, dominate the structure's appearance, creating a covered porch along five sides of the building. The interior offers vaulted ceilings with exposed timber beams and trusses and other wood treatment and accessories.