Campus Construction Craze: Activity Brisk at Area Universities

The work includes construction of 700,000 sq. ft. of new buildings at the UC Merced campus, and $150 million of contracts at Cal State Fresno either underway or scheduled to break ground soon.

By Thomas York

The 178,000-sq.-ft. Leo Kolligian Library at UC Merced will be finished when the new campus opens in September. The project team includes Swinerton Builders (general contractor) and architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Fernau and Hartman. The cast-in-place concrete structure is comprised of three-story and four-story wings that are connected by an atrium consisting of clear glass and zinc panels (photo courtesy of UC Merced).

The San Joaquin Valley cities of Fresno and Merced have a lot in common these days--most notably, an explosion in higher-education projects.

Construction activity at the University of California's nascent Merced campus and at California State University Fresno underscore the boom that has kept more than 1,000 construction workers on the job.

And the surge in construction comes when the region's unemployment rate is above 11.5 percent, much higher than California's 5.7 percent jobless rate.

The work includes construction of 700,000 sq. ft. of new buildings at the Merced campus, which should be sufficiently finished to accommodate the first class of 1,000 students arriving in September.

The San Joaquin Valley campus is the first to be constructed since UC Santa Cruz was built from the ground up in the early 1960s.

"This is a new campus that's starting from the ground up," said Chris Young, project manager for San Francisco-based Swinerton Builders, general contractor for three of the five contracts awarded so far. "We're taking an old golf course and turning it into a complete new campus."

The value of the contracts awarded so far totals $280 million and includes:

• $78 million for the 174,000-sq.-ft. sciences and engineering building. The Sacramento office of Flintco is the general contractor, while EHDD of San Francisco and Leo A Daly of San Francisco are the architects. The three-story building will accommodate the campus' schools of engineering and natural sciences, and features research labs and faculty offices.
  
  
• $77 million for site work and infrastructure, including construction of a 20,000-sq.-ft. central plant and 17,000-sq.-ft. facilities management building. Swinerton is the general contractor for most of this work. ARUP of San Francisco designed the plant and communications building, while ARUP and the San Francisco office of the SmithGroup designed the facilities building, which does not yet have a general contractor. This portion of the work includes site grading for the new buildings plus rough grading for the housing complex, as well as installation of sewage and water piping and electrical conduits.
  
  
• 58 million for the 178,000-sq.-ft. Leo Kolligian Library. Swinerton is the general contractor, while Skidmore, Owings & Merrill of San Francisco and Berkeley-based Fernau and Hartman are the architects. "This is going to be the new university's flagship building," said Swinerton's Young. The cast-in-place concrete structure is comprised of three-story and four-story wings that are connected by an atrium, or "lantern," consisting of clear glass and zinc panels.
  
  
• $31 million for the 150,000-sq.-ft. Valley Terraces student housing complex and 10,000-sq.-ft. dining commons. Fresno-based Mauldin-Dorfmeier Construction is the general contractor; BAR of San Francisco and the Fresno office of The Taylor Group are the designers.
  
  
• $29 million for a 60,000-sq.-ft. classroom and faculty office building to accommodate the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts. Swinerton holds the construction management contract, while Thomas Hacker of Portland, Ore., is the architect. The building will feature a 360-seat auditorium, plus classroom, computer labs, lecture halls and faculty offices.

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Lindsay Desrochers, the university's vice president for administration, said the buildings have been placed around a central courtyard, which will become the focus of student activity on campus.

"We are trotting along," she said. "Construction is going very well for us as we get ready for our first group of students this fall."

Flintco Project Manager Jay Harris said the building team on the new sciences and engineering building is seeking a silver-level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council.

"Workers are separating concrete, steel and wood waste into separate bins, which is then shipped to a recycling center, and stringent measures have been put into place to reduce dust," Harris said. In addition, many of the building's components features recycled materials and sustainable designs to cut down on the use of power and water.

Harris said he expects to have most work finished by the time students arrive in September. "It's a very aggressive schedule for such a complicated building," he added.

To the south, the Cal State Fresno is awash in new building projects. Administrators said the seven projects totaling more than $150 million are either underway or will soon break ground. They include:

• A $90 million renovation of the campus' existing Madden Library. Once completed, the school will boast a 295,000-sq-ft. structure that will house the school's collection of 1 million books and periodicals on four floors. Los Angeles-based AC Martin Partners is the architect. A general contractor has not been selected.
  
  
• Construction of the 71,000-sq.ft. Science II Building, the largest academic building to be built on campus in a decade. Selma-based Lewis C. Nelson and Sons is the general contractor for the $22 million project. Construction will be completed this spring.
  
  
• Construction of an $18 million, 92,000-sq.-ft. student recreation center that will host the Pete Peters Educational Center and the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. It was finished in December. Denver-based Sink Combs Dethlefs of Denver designed the project, while Lewis C. Nelson was the general contractor.
  
  
• A $3 million, 5,000-sq.-ft. Downing Planetarium Museum building, which was completed in December. Don Pickett & Sons of Fresno was the general contractor. The Vernal Group of Fresno was the architect.
  
  
• Construction of the 70,000-sq.-ft. International Water Technology Center. Work got underway in October on the first phase, a $3 million hydraulic testing facility. It will be completed in August 2006. The Taylor Group designed the center. A general contractor is expected to be selected this month.
  
  
• General contractor Harris Construction of Fresno completed a $5 million expansion in December of the Ricchuiti Academic Center, which provides meeting rooms and offices for the school's athletic teams. The Taylor Group was the architect.

Officials are also spending $18 million to improve its campus-wide communications infrastructure. The architect is P2S Engineering of Los Angeles. The general contractor is San Diego-based Helix Electric Inc. of San Diego.

"There is a growing need for more higher education opportunities in Central California and the building boom at Fresno State will allow us to keep pace with the needs of our current and future students," said Shirley Armbruster, director of news services for the campus.

Cal State officials have also announced a major commercial development to better serve the campus community. They said developers will break ground later this year on a $300-million hotel, office and retail project on 45 acres of land next to the recently completed Save Mart Center. Kashian Enterprises of Fresno and the Pierce Co. of San Diego will be the project's developers.