Completed in early 2010, the 88,000-square-foot Health and Wellness Building and Aquatics Center at CSM is part of a larger $170 million initiative for the San Mateo County Community College District.

 

With funding utilized from San Mateo County’s voter-approved Measure A general obligation bonds, SMCCD contracted with McCarthy Building Cos. Inc. for all design-build aspects of the $86 million project, while Kwan Henmi Architecture/Planning was brought on as lead architect.

 

Situated prominently at the campus entrance, the Health and Wellness Building houses workforce development programs — cosmetology, nursing and dental assisting — as well as a fitness and aquatic facility. Named the San Mateo Athletic Club, it includes 14,000 square feet dedicated to cardiovascular and strength training areas and more than 5,000 square feet of space dedicated to group fitness, spinning classes, yoga and Pilates. In addition to students, the club also hosts community members who join through private health club membership. The new aquatic center is comprised of a therapy pool and 50-meter Olympic-sized competition pool located adjacent to the Health and Wellness Building.

 

“It is now one of the preferred venues for NCAA competition events in the areas,” says Jeff Stahl, principal in charge at Kwan Henmi. “It also has a Jumbotron for competition use.”

 

The project was sorely needed because the facilities where the health and wellness programs were located were in disrepair and costs to bring those facilities up to current code and teaching methodologies was excessive, says Rick Bennett, executive director of construction planning for the district.

 

One of the biggest highlights of this project is its LEED Gold certification. Originally, the owner specified that it wanted to achieve LEED-Silver certification, but is delighted that its expectations have been surpassed by leap and bounds.

 

“This project has been an extraordinary success,” Bennett says. “SMCCD is thrilled to offer a facility that has been designed and constructed with a high degree of environmental consciousness.”

 

To achieve Gold status planners paid close attention to the installation of materials. The use of linoleum flooring resulted in 32 percent of the total building materials being manufactured from recycled materials. Low-emitting materials were also used for interiors as much as possible.

 

During construction, approximately 16,000 tons of waste was diverted from landfill (97 percent) and McCarthy recycled the concrete materials from demolished buildings, which were crushed and will be reused as aggregate base under sidewalks, roadways and parking lots.

Design and installation of 100 percent outside air in the air-handling units, resulted in an energy efficiency rating that is 36 percent below Title 24 requirements. Storm-water management was incorporated through the use of bio-retention basins and Kristar media filtration units, water-efficient landscaping and the conservation of potable water use reduced water usage by 46 percent compared to conventional buildings.

 

“Careful attention [was also paid] to window location,” Stahl says. “Solar orientation resulted in achieving maximum daylighting points, while controlling glare, minimizing heat gain and preserving dramatic views.”

 

In addition to LEED Gold certification, the project was also honored with the 2011 Sustainable San Mateo County Green Building Award for non-residential, which recognizes outstanding construction projects designed and built in accordance with principles of sustainable resource use and environmental sensitivity.

 

“It’s gratifying to be part of a project that promotes sustainability and supports the growing green building movement,” says Bill Niemann, project executive for McCarthy Building Cos.

 

 

Considered the first new construction on the community college’s Gresham campus in 30 years, the center will be operated by and serve as a regional headquarters for Head Start, which is a national child development program run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The building will also provide a new home for the community college’s early childhood education program and space for approximately 60 college students studying the subject. 

 

The $5.4 million, 23,500-square-foot center was designed by Mahlum Architects of Portland and will be constructed by Chicago-based Walsh Construction. The building is expected complete by the summer of 2011.

 

"The current program is housed in inadequate facilities," says Kurt Haapala, an associate principal with Mahlum Architects. "It’s in buildings that are temporary facilities which weren’t really designed to support children’s needs."

 

The new center will feature eight classrooms capable of housing 124 children in half-day sessions. Each classroom will contain low windows that children can easily see out of, as well as 30-inch deep walls with room for storage, window seats, and places where children can crawl and play.

 

"It’s really important at that age that they develop core competencies – fine and gross motor skills for example," Haapala says. "So we tried to create environments that were good quality indoor environments with good lighting and good comfort.

 

"The outside play area and interior classrooms are all about experiential-based learning – places where children can crawl up and see the world differently," he adds. "In certain areas, we incorporated in light and shadows, hot and cold, contrasting colors – all of these types of things help small human beings understand the world better. We also designed some of the rooms and equipment to be at their scale, so there are little toilets, little sinks, and little spaces to crawl up on, like balcony windows."

 

Outdoor play areas, including a "farm" with garden area, will be constructed of soft surfaces. Large windows will provide views into and out of exterior play zones for children. The building will also house a kitchen, where meals for 13 Head Start programs in the Gresham area will be prepared. Children will be able to see into the kitchen and watch staff cook and prepare meals.

 

"Some kids are passive learners," Haapala explains. "That is to say, if there is an activity going on that they don’t want to participate in and they are off in the distance observing, they are actually participating, just in a different way. So we’ve created these little nooks that actually look out into corridors so kids can crawl in and feel comfortable and safe in the environment and observe teachers working with other children, or teachers working with college students."

 

The Early Childhood Center was designed with as much an emphasis on observing as it was on playing and learning. College students can view into the windows of the same nooks and crannies their subjects are exploring. Mahlum Architects has also proposed a camera and audio system for the facility, allowing students and faculty to watch children interact from the building’s collegiate classrooms.

 

"College students will be able to actually use the technology to zoom in and display images of the children on screens in the adult classrooms," says Haapala.

 

The center will include a family welcome room with fireplace and sofas. The building is expected to earn LEED Silver certification and feature a variety of green elements, including a rooftop solar array, heavily insulated walls, clerestory lighting, and radiant heating in the floors. 

 

School officials at East Los Angeles College, along with neighborhood and community leaders, hope the 160,000-square-foot performing arts center will bring with it world-class talent, international acclaim, and a refreshed sense of urban revival.

 

The recital hall is also planned to be a flagship venue and practice space for performing arts in East Los Angeles and its surrounding communities.

 

But before taking part in any performance, visitors must first take in the building’s unique designs, created by the international architectural firm, Arquitectonica, based in Miami, Fla.

 

“The straight exterior lines of the complex are hard to miss, but there’s only one true right angle to be found in any of the three buildings on site,” says Terry Bottorff, of Taisei Construction Corp., the contractor for the project. “As a whole, the complex’s series of buildings are supposed to [resemble] large pieces of granite pushed out of the earth. Everything is on angles and skewed structurally. The only things that are really straight in the buildings are the columns and brace frames.”

 

Bottorff added that the project has about twice the normal amount of structural steel members typically used in box buildings of this size.

 

Upon gaining entry to the building, visitors are greeted with long hallways broken up only by doors and a muted series of gray and off-white colors. The 77,078-square-foot building includes a 335-seat recital hall and rooms for painting, sculpture, printmaking, dance, ceramics, design and drawing studios, music and practice classrooms, and other functions.

 

The main recording studio, one of the largest rooms in the building, is wired to record performances in any of the buildings on the complex. To maintain natural sounds and control noise bleed, the music and practice rooms are outfitted with 400-pound doors and two layers of sheet rock on every wall.

 

Another building on the site will house the college’s famous Vincent Price Art Museum and its collection of more than 2,000 art pieces valued at $5 million. The 40,382-square-foot building, shaped like a trapezoid, includes 7,800 square feet of gallery storage space in its basement. The three-story structure is equipped with space for workshops, seven gallery spaces and a 120-seat lecture hall for art history.

 

The theater building is 58 feet high and L-shaped like the recital hall. With a handful of rooms inside for various uses, the building hugs the landscaped courtyard with 42,110 square feet of space. The building includes a 167-seat drama theater, 118-seat black box theater, costume workshop, rehearsal and make-up classrooms.

 

The project’s planners have applied for LEED Silver certification. Construction manager Taisei diverted nearly 90 percent of all construction waste for recycling, changed the irrigation system from sprinkler heads to a drip system, and installed energy-efficiency fixtures such as waterless urinals and occupant sensors to further reduce energy and potable water loss.

 

About half of all the steel used in the complex was recycled and all wood used on the job, including dance studios and stage floors, was certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. Slightly more than a third of the complex’s electricity will come from renewable resources as part of a two-year renewable energy contract.

 

Bottorff said the firm is exceeding the requirement to acquire at least 20 percent of all materials within 500 miles of the construction site.

 

The East Los Angeles Performing and Fine Arts Center project is part of a $6 billion construction and modernization program that’s currently under way at all nine of the Los Angeles Community College District’s campuses. Funding for the project and other projects throughout the district was secured through the passage of Measure J in 2008.

 

 

The community college, which serves a population of 28,000 students, has undertaken a facilities master plan with funds from a $394 million bond measure – passed in 2002 and is the largest bond ever for a single-campus community college in California. Funds from the bond will support development of new classrooms, labs, instructional equipment and critical health and safety improvements at the college.

 

Taisei Construction Corp., based in nearby Cypress, and the architectural firm, LPA Inc., headquartered in Irvine, have begun construction on a new $20.6 million Math, Business and Allied Health Building on the community college campus.

When completed in December 2011, the 115,000-square-foot, four-story structure will house 72 faculty offices, 58 classrooms and three division suites.

 

Construction of the cast-in-place concrete structure will create approximately 200 jobs.

 

Design officials expect to save 10 percent in construction costs by using cast-in-place concrete verses a steel frame.

 

"Instead of having 15-foot floors, we were able to cut down each floor’s height by three feet," says Steve Flanagan, principal and lead designer for LPA. "Our design saved about 7,200 square feet of building structure and finishing materials associated with it."

 

"The reduction in the overall size of the building also means that there will be much less square footage to heat and cool," says Flanagan. "Since the concrete will be exposed, contractors will have to construct the concrete as a finished material."

 

While the project is not pursuing a LEED certification, when finished it will be equivalent to a LEED Silver-rated building. Sustainable features of the L-shaped building include low-flow water fixtures, a roof that uses a white vinyl membrane to reduce heat buildup, and a variety of green and permeable ground materials to facilitate storm runoff. Inside, occupancy sensors and naturally lit areas will reduce energy consumption.

 

Flanagan says that the building’s rubber, linoleum and concrete flooring will last longer and result in lower maintenance costs.

 

Recently, El Camino College opened a $13 million Learning Resources Center, which houses a basic skills lab, campus archives and digital processing center. In 2008, the college completed a $30.9 million, three-story humanities building, where 13 computer labs, 49 offices, and classrooms are located.

 

Future plans call for a new stadium, student services center, math and computer science building.