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Groundbreaking: Student Services Center at San Diego Mesa College

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The new four-story, 85,000-square-foot building will accommodate new facilities for student services, including Admissions, Financial Aid, Evaluations and Testing, Counseling, Student Government, Disabled Student Services, Information and Outreach, classrooms, conference areas and a café. The project also includes a new express elevator between the lower parking lot and the upper campus.

All of the departments are arranged around an open four-level atrium, where students can interact with each other and the various departments in a single location. Each department opens into the atrium without doors, encouraging students and department faculty to engage each other without barriers.

Each floor opens onto a series of outdoor terraces that move up the hillside from the lower parking lot to the upper campus. Stairs connect the upper and lower plazas to form an entryway. The colors of the building relate to the colors and textures of the trees that cover the hillside slopes adjacent to the project, connecting the building to its location on campus and creating a vibrant point at the new entryway to the campus.

The building is designed to meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Silver certification. Projected energy savings of 340,000 kilowatt-hours annually are 38 percent better than state requirements. Water-efficient plumbing, irrigation and landscape will result in a water savings of 40 percent on the building use and 50 percent on landscape. The project will include materials and finishes that include recycled content, attention to indoor air quality and the use of natural daylight.

INTERESTING FACTS: The project’s design maximizes both daylight and views to the outside, increasing user comfort and productivity and reducing the need for artificial light. All windows use high-performance glass that allows sunlight to filter into the building, but reduces the amount of ultraviolet light and solar heat entering the building.

Construction and design materials made with recycled content were used and materials are locally produced or harvested. High-efficiency plumbing and electrical fixtures were used and trees and shrubs have been selected for their compatibility to the area, to provide shade and to minimize the need for water. A high-efficiency irrigation system uses reclaimed water and utilizes a controller that adjusts itself to local weather, resulting in significant water savings.

FINANCING: Proposition S.

DESIGNER: Hanna Gabriel Wells

Architects.

GENERAL CONTRACTOR: PCL Construction.

MAJOR SUBCONTRACTORS: SnipesDye associates, civil engineer; Michael Wall Engineering Inc., electrical engineer; McParlane & Associates, mechanical engineer; MLA Design Studio, landscape architect.

START DATE: March 2009.

COMPLETION DATE: March 2012.

CONSTRUCTION COST: $45.6 million.

PROJECT COST: $55.6 million.

SQUARE FOOTAGE: 85,000 square feet.

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