Cutting-Edge Campus for Caltrans: District 7 Headquarters to Debut Next Month

The 1 million-sq.-ft. complex in downtown Los Angeles has a giant cantilever hanging 40 ft. above the sidewalk; a three-story-high, neon art piece; and the largest solar energy system of any building in North America.

By Greg Aragon

	PHOTO BY GREG ARAGON

A new downtown Los Angeles landmark--located between the wavy, reflecting steel panels of the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the alabaster and stained glass of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels-is six weeks away from opening its doors.

The $168 million headquarters for Caltrans District 7, a 13-story building, is one block from Los Angeles City Hall, on the northern edge of the city's skid row.

"It is an innovative, modern avant-garde building," Pavel Getov, project architect with Santa Monica-based Morphosis, said of the 1 million-sq.-ft. complex. "[Caltrans] was not looking just for a building, it was looking for design excellence."

Caltrans is certainly getting a building that commands attention. The L-shaped structure has a giant cantilever dangling 40 ft. above the sidewalk off its north wall, a 200-ft.-long, three-story-high, neon art piece wrapping around an outdoor "urban lobby," and 1,500 photovoltaic panels--the most on any building in North America--speckling the south wall.

The project is headed by First and Main Design/Build Associates, a design/build entity of the Irvine office of Clark Construction Group; Morphosis (design architect); and Los Angeles-based Gruen Associates as associate architect.

The design/build team also includes the developer, Urban Partners of Los Angeles; Los Angeles-based John A. Martin & Associates (structural engineer); and Los Angeles-based Ove Arup & Partners California (mechanical/electrical, fire protection and telecommunications engineer.) The state's Department of General Services is the owner.

Slated for an Oct. 26 grand opening, the 750,000-sq.-ft. building and 1,142-space, 400,000-sq.-ft. underground parking garage is bounded by First, Second, Main and Los Angeles streets.

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Because the stocky structure spans an entire city block, Getov said that Morphosis went with a different approach in planning the interior.

"This building is actually a high-rise that is laying down," he said. "It is a horizontal high-rise in a way in which we have two cores instead of one core. One core is very traditional with an elevator that stops at every floor, but the other one is with an elevator that stops at every third floor."

He said it was designed this way to increase communication between floors via the stairs, thus "stimulating human interaction between different parts of the building."

The headquarters was built using 30,000 cu. yds. of concrete, 10,500 tons of structural steel and 500 tradespeople at its peak. It was constructed with a concrete foundation and a steel moment-resisting structural frame.

Construction began in March 2002 on a tight, 29-month design/build schedule. Jim Hammer, Caltrans' deputy of administration, said that the jobsite required extremely "close coordination, quick decision making and collaboration" at all times.

"The advantage of the design/build process is that it fosters a true team effort, rather than a combative change-order game common in design/bid/build delivery," Hammer added. "By recognizing each individual team member's ability to contribute, the project staff-from the state, tenant, designer and contractor-defined goals and set up activities to accomplish them on a fixed time frame."

Marc Kersey, Clark's project executive, was well aware of the project's fast-track timeline. "We had a shotgun start," he said. "From the beginning, design and construction significantly overlapped."

Tasks such as excavation, placing foundations and ordering certain materials became an exact science.

"You've got to procure structural steel that takes six months from the time you finish the design until the time you get it to the job," Kersey said. "So just four months after we started the design, we had to have a 100-percent complete structural design so that we could order the structural steel in time to start in November 2002."

The project is currently substantially complete, with crews finishing up punch-list items. When it opens next month, the complex will house 1,857 Caltrans employees and approximately 425 Los Angeles Department of Transportation employees.

Features will include an auto shop, warehouse, teleconference room, public cafeteria and a child-care facility for employees and the public. Approximately 1,100 perforated, operable panels in front of the building windows will open and close with the touch of a computer. The panels will allow clear views when that side of the building is in the shade and close when the side is exposed to direct sunlight.

The building's other exterior panel system, the photovoltaic panels, will not only generate 84 kilowatts of power back into the grid, but will also act as a sun screen for the south-facing windows.

The existing Caltrans office building across the street was first built in 1949 and will be demolished when the new facility is completed.