New Building

A new church for the St. Joseph Catholic Community in Sykesville has received preliminary approval from the Baltimore archdiocese.The approval came as the pastor, members of the parish Renovation Committee and architects met Thursday with Archbishop William Keeler."

Howard Community College is close to securing the funds it needs to build a $24.6 million Student Services Building. The project is slated to receive $12.3 million from the state in the proposed fiscal 2006 capital budget unveiled last week by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. HCC has asked the county to match those funds. Student services are now scattered throughout the campus, with most housed on the first floor of the library building. The new building would have all the services - such as the bookstore, student dining and financial aid - under one roof.

The Carroll commissioners decided yesterday to build a new long-term drug treatment facility on the grounds of Springfield Hospital Center in Sykesville, rather than renovate a 53-year-old vacant dormitory on the 500-acre Springfield campus. The decision pivoted on cost, with as much as a $6 million difference between construction and restoration. Once the state made land available on the hospital campus several months ago, building a treatment center became more practical. "A new building makes more sense financially," said Ralph Green, county director of permits and inspections.

Howard County Executive Ken Ulman is proposing a legislative package designed to move the county to the forefront of the environmental movement's push for "green" buildings. Ulman announced yesterday that he will introduce a combination of property tax breaks, governmental reforms and incentives for private home builders designed to speed the county onto an environmentally friendly track. The incentives and new laws, he said, will help change a hidebound culture in which new homes are built in traditional ways, without thought to the environment.

Just before the holidays at the close of last year, the pre-kindergarten through first-graders at Glenelg Country School made a short trip. They walked from their school building to another nearby - but it was a journey of high excitement and expectation. On that day, the children at the private school in Glenelg had their first look inside their new building. The children and staff moved into the state-of-the-art facility in early January, but its official dedication took place March 13 Headmaster Ryland O. Chapman III recalled that first visit.

Morgan State University formally opened yesterday a $23.3 million scientific research building that will allow young scientists and faculty to pursue frontiers in biology, chemistry and physics. The Richard N. Dixon Science Research Center includes 26 research laboratories, a greenhouse and a 100-seat amphitheater. The concrete-and-glass structure is joined by an overhead bridge to the old science building, which will remain in use. It was named after the former state treasurer, a Morgan graduate.

The Westminster Fire Department hit its $1.5 million fund-raising goal for a new fire station yesterday, officials said.A commitment of more than $13,000 by Shelter Systems Corp. of Maryland, a local manufacturer of wooden housing components, enabled the fire company to reach the mark, said James E. Bangerd III, fire company president."We knew we were going to hit it, but when you're talking about a project this big, it takes time," said Bangerd, a leader of the capital campaign, the most ambitious in the fire company's history.

A Harford County warehouse owned by SuperValu Inc. was sold to a Chicago-based real estate investment trust that plans to fill it with other businesses and add a new building next door, the buyer confirmed yesterday. In one of the area's first big industrial deals of the year, First Industrial Realty Trust Inc. bought the 527,600-square-foot warehouse off Interstate 95 and will lease a portion back to the grocery operator and wholesaler. SuperValu, which uses a little over a third of the warehouse, bought the building in 1994 for about $20 million and was asking $21.5 million.

The lobby of the Mason F. Lord Building looked almost like a classroom on the first day of school, with 13 chairs lined up in rows, 13 faces staring anxiously forward, and school buses lined up outside.But the chairs were wheelchairs, and the faces belonged not to fidgety students, but to apprehensive adults.As the morning progressed, more than 100 nursing home residents were transported from their rooms in the Lord building of the Francis Scott Key Medical Center to a new geriatric care facility several hundred yards away.

To Dean Christian S. Stohler, raising $21.5 million did not seem the hardest of tasks -- not for a prominent dental school at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, where a new building is needed to maintain the school's accreditation. But soon after becoming dean two years ago, he encountered unexpected hurdles -- among them, upset alumni -- that have left the school $16 million short of its goal. With the new building set to open in January next year, Stohler turned to the university's president, David J. Ramsay, who provided a $16 million "bridge loan" -- the largest loan the university has given to one of its schools.