Stockton/Modesto Market Report

Two big construction projects are simultaneously under way on the campus of University of the Pacific in Stockton

By Greg Aragon

Construction in the Stockton area has also gone to school. Two of the biggest such projects are the $37 million University Center and the $27 million Biological Science Building, both located on the campus of the University of the Pacific in Stockton.

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Milpitas-based Devcon is serving as general contractor for both projects. Gensler of San Francisco is the architect for the University Center and Fong and Chan, also of San Francisco, is the architect for the Biological Science Building.

“The University Center is a contemporary building that fits comfortably in a historic campus setting,” says Dennis Schmidt, principal architect with Gensler. “The design utilizes key elements of the existing campus’ Ivy League-style without being subservient to an Ivy League kit of parts solution.”

The 55,000-sq-ft project, which broke ground in February, is s slated to finish in August.

Highlights of the new two-story, peaked-roof building include a 7,000-sq-ft dining room; 5,000-sq-ft meal serving area; 5,000-sq-ft event space for weddings, parties, conferences and other large functions; and 3,000-sq-ft pub. The building, to be open 24 hours a day, will also house a Barnes & Noble-operated book store, along with various student offices and conference rooms.

Melissa Mizell, Gensler senior associate and interior architect, said that red brick being used predominantly on the exterior “provides a contextual scale and material harmony with the existing historic campus.”

“The architecture is respectful and fits in well with the campus vernacular, with its brick exterior, muntined windows and pitched roof, yet it accomplishes bringing the outside in through skylights, clearstories and large windows and doors that open up to terraced outdoor spaces,” adds Mizell.

“During good weather days, the building’s natural ventilation can be used to supplement and even replace the need for using forced mechanical ventilation.”

The project team hopes that natural cooling, along with other green features, will garner the University Center a LEED silver certification by the USGBC.

“The student center is a complex building and the green factor makes it even more complex,” says Krissy Schreiber, project engineer for Devcon. “Tracking all the materials to make sure everything is certified properly to get LEED credits is a real challenge.”

Schreiber points to the project’s wood trusses as an example. She said the wood has to be FSC (forest stewardship council) certified. This means every piece has to be meticulously tracked from its original source forest, and a new tree has to be planted in place of any extracted wood.

“There is a whole chain of custody that you have to follow from the forest to the person that cuts the tree down to the person that shapes it, fabricates it and installs it,” says Schreiber.

Another way the project aims for LEED certification is by using as many materials as possible that are harvested or manufactured within 500 mi of the jobsite.

“Every single product that we use, we have to get info from the subcontractors saying where and how many miles from here was it manufactured,” Schreiber says. “Even on the tiniest products like the nails, screws, you have to know.”

She says the project gets one LEED point if 10% of the cost of all materials used comes from within 500 mi of the project.

“As long as you plan well, a LEED project doesn’t necessarily add any time to the construction schedule” says Schreiber. “But it does add a lot project management time because of all the paperwork.”

She says on this project, tracking LEED statistics and data is adding an additional 10% to her overall project management time.

The school’s other big construction project is the new Biological Science Building, located about a quarter mi across campus from the University Center.

After breaking ground in May, the two-story structure is scheduled to be completed in July.

A typical classroom-type building, with a corridor down center, this 54,000-sq-ft building will add space to the college’s growing biology program and will offer professional programs for dentistry and pharmaceutical students.

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