Through the first eight months of the year, according to theBurbank, CA-based Construction Industry Research Board, officeconstruction is 64% higher than 1999. The Bay Area counties ofSanta Clara and San Francisco should take most of the credit,according to the report. Construction as a whole was up 11%statewide, according to the report, totaling slightly more than $41billion during the first eight months of this year.

"Office building is one part of it, and that's what's reallydriving the increase," CIRB director Ben Bartolotto tells GlobeSt."The Bay Area is going strong."

Bartolotto says that several large office projects in SantaClara and San Francisco counties--as well as up-and-coming AlamedaCounty, which forms part of Silicon Valley's eastern edge--made theBay Area the biggest construction boomer. Projects during theeight-month period totaled more than $75 million in the cities ofSanta Clara and San Jose, more than $50 million in San MateoCounty, and almost $33 million in the cities of Milpitas andMountain View, according to the board.