LOS ANGELES — Construction is officially underway on the $72 million Cesar Chavez Administration and Workforce Building at Los Angeles City College (LACC), a major project that will anchor the center of campus and advance the Los Angeles Community College District’s (LACCD) sustainability goals. Designed by Steinberg Hart, the four-story, 67,230-square-foot facility will combine historic architectural character with contemporary instructional and sustainable design elements.

When complete in early 2027, the new building will serve as a prominent gateway to the LACC campus, providing sweeping views of the Hollywood Hills. The building will house instructional rooms, IT help areas, campus safety operations, a multipurpose room, and faculty and student resource spaces. A fourth-floor outdoor terrace will provide a gathering space with panoramic views, but natural light will be prominent feature inside as well thanks to fritted curtainwall facades on the east and west lobbies that help to maintain temperature and reduce glare while maintaining privacy and visual connection to the surrounding campus.

Jacobs will serve as the project manager, with McCarthy Building Companies serving as general contractor. McCarthy Building Companies recently broke ground on the project — continuing a longstanding relationship with LACCD.

“We are excited to bring the Cesar Chavez Administration & Workforce Building to Los Angeles City College as it will offer a variety of much needed resources while also serving as an anchor to welcome students and staff,” said Michael Kim, senior vice president at McCarthy Building Companies, in a statement. “This is our tenth project with the LACCD, and it is such a pleasure to create robust educational facilities that produce significant learning outcomes.”

Sustainability is central to the project’s design, which aligns with LACCD’s goal of achieving net zero by 2040. The facility will include an 80 kW AC solar array system and a battery energy storage system (BESS) capable of providing up to eight hours of backup power. The surrounding central quad will feature native vegetation, light-colored paving, and a Solar Reflection Index (SRI) “cool” roof to mitigate the urban heat island effect. All sustainable elements are being designed to meet LEED Gold certification standards.

Founded in 1929, LACC is the oldest of the Los Angeles Community Colleges and has played a pivotal role in shaping higher education across the region, including serving as the original home of what became the University of California, Los Angeles. Today, LACC continues to serve one of Los Angeles’ most diverse communities, including East Hollywood, Hollywood, Silver Lake and Echo Park. The Cesar Chavez Administration and Workforce Building was funded by Measure CC.

The post New Cesar Chavez Administration and Workforce Building Breaks Ground at Los Angeles City College appeared first on Â鶹¸ŁŔűÍř.

The post New Cesar Chavez Administration and Workforce Building Breaks Ground at Los Angeles City College appeared first on Â鶹¸ŁŔűÍř.

BALTIMORE — More than four years after breaking ground on a new Health Sciences Facility, The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) is anticipating a December completion for its new Health Sciences Facility III.

HOK Architects, based out of its Washington, D.C., office, designed the facility in association with Design Collective of Baltimore. The construction manager on the project was the Barton Malow Company headquartered in Southfield, Mich. Jacobs headquartered in Dallas collaborated on laboratory planning and programming. LEED Gold certification is anticipated for the new science facility.

The budget for the 428,970-square-foot building was $305.4 million. Expected to advance UMB’s position as academic research leaders, the facility is aimed to be a critical tool in recruiting and retaining the best faculty, students and staff.

The new facility at the University of Maryland has a 10-story wet lab tower that connects to a five-story dry lab tower through a multistory collaboration space. Nearly 70,000 square feet of open wet labs and support labs will house collaborative research for 92 principal investigators, providing flexible lab design and systems. Perimeter labs are flanked by formal and informal meeting spaces focused on the central multistoried communicating space. The connected five-story dry lab tower supports 18 principal investigators.

A 4.5-foot-thick mat slab creates a “bathtub” effect to protect the shared imaging center’s equipment from possible flooding due to Baltimore’s high water table. The three schools also share a nanomedicine center.

“The Health Sciences Facility III further strengthens our footprint in west Baltimore and, as a result, our economic impact on the city and the state,” said Jay A. Perman, M.D., president at the University of Maryland. “We’re privileged to be able to help revitalize our critically important Baltimore neighborhoods and the state of Maryland as a whole, and at the same time, enable biomedical research and education that has the potential to save lives.”

The new research facility will be the largest state-funded higher-education project to ever be delivered on UMB’s campus, and will enable the School of Medicine to retain its position as one of the leading biomedical research institutions in the world, according to Perman.

In addition, the new facility will house new research programs for the Universities Schools of medicine, dentistry and pharmacy. “Specifically for growth, no existing programs were intended to move,” said Timothy O’Connell, principal in charge and regional leader of science and technology at HOK. “Each dean had their own vision for how the facility should be designed so HOK used an iterative design process with multiple teams to drive decision making.”

Multiple teams helped to successfully schedule the groups to make quick efficient decisions, including the building project team, the faculty scientific advisory committee, the executive committee, and the operations and maintenance committee, according to O’Connell. The planning, programming and concept design was completed in 16 weeks.

The post University of Maryland New Health Sciences Facility Designed to LEED Gold appeared first on Â鶹¸ŁŔűÍř.

The post University of Maryland New Health Sciences Facility Designed to LEED Gold appeared first on Â鶹¸ŁŔűÍř.