The building theme extends to where those building products are sold. On August 31, Lowe's Companies, Inc.,

Flanked by Georgia Dept. of Economic Development Commissioner Craig Lesser (left) and Dr. Jean-Lou Chameau, provost and vice president for academic affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Samsung Electro-Mechanics President and CEO Homoon Kang dedicates his company's new radio-frequency integrated circuit design center, opened in September 2005 at the Georgia Electronic Design Center on campus, which also welcomed a project from Italy's Pirelli Labs. Initially looking for collaboration on projects, Samsung officials decided instead to open a dedicated center of their own after finding Georgia Tech to be more industry-friendly than other top engineering schools.

announced it would invest $150 million in a distribution network expansion that will result in a new distribution center (DC) in Lebanon, Ore., and expansions at the company's established sites in Valdosta, Ga.; Statesville, N.C.; and North Vernon, Ind.
   It's all part of the company's Rapid Response Replenishment (R3) initiative, as it modernizes a distribution system that until recently often had products and orders frequently travelling directly between vendors and stores.
   "With R3, we're moving safety stock out of the stores and into the distribution centers, while at the same time increasing in-stock levels," said Mike Mabry, Lowe's executive vice president of logistics and distribution. The move comes at a time when the company plans to open at least 300 new stores during the 2005 and 2006 fiscal years.
   The 770,000-sq.-ft. (71,533-sq.-m.) Valdosta site, opened in 1996, already employs 800 people and supplies more than 100 stores in four states. It was also the main staging area for re-supplying Lowe's

Viewed from inside the center, midtown Atlanta's rising skyline holds great promise as a live-work-play destination.

stores in the region impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Now it will see more than $20 million invested and more than 100 new jobs created. The expansion includes an addition of 350,000 sq. ft. (32,515 sq. m.) and a new structure totaling 210,000 sq. ft. (19,509 sq. m.). Alabama and Mississippi were competitors for the project.
   The announcement is just part of an ongoing DC explosion in Georgia. Two weeks later, Solo Cup announced a $35-million investment in a 1.3-million-sq.-ft. (120,770-sq.-m.) DC in Social Circle, which will employ 155 when it opens in September 2006. That facility is in the same county — Walton, just east of Atlanta along I-20 — that just saw groundbreaking for a $19-million DC expansion from Wal-Mart, which may employ up to 1,000 people.