A Warm and Fuzzy Detention Center?

Secure and softer environment being built in San Mateo

Architect says native flora, hillside site and wood-frame buildings, create a more homey feeling for the $90 million county youth center. The 16-building, 276,000-sq.-ft. complex will cover 23 acres and should be finished by March 2006.

By Thomas York

Within two years, San Mateo County kids in trouble with the law will have a new place to call home.

Crews from the San Jose office of Granite Construction and the Pavex Construction Division of Watsonville-based Granite Rock Co. have completed grading for the new $90 million San Mateo County Youth Center. The complex will replace the existing 55-year-old youth detention facility, which the state and county consider outmoded.

In mid-June, Campbell-based Sanco Pipeline was installing underground utilities for the 16-building complex that will cover 23 acres near the Interstate 280-Highway 92 interchange. The buildings, which total 276,000 sq. ft., should be finished by March 2006.

The San Jose office of Turner Construction Co. is the construction manager at risk for the project, which features a 180-bed juvenile hall, 30-bed girls' camp and 24-bed group home. The facility will also include a health clinic, juvenile courtrooms, probation offices and classrooms.

	RENDERING COURTESY OF KMD ARCHITECTS

San Francisco-based KMD Architects is the designer.

Jim Miller, a KMD director and project architect, said the new juvenile hall won't have the look or feel of an institution.

"The idea is to put them into a secure environment where they're responsible for daily life," he said.

James Sowerbrower, the county's project manager, said everyone involved worked hard "to fit the facility into the neighborhood." He said the detention building would look like "an IBM research building."

The buildings are clustered on the site in a downhill pattern, which helps them blend in with the topography, Sowerbrower added. The structures range from wood-frame to two-story, steel-frame construction.

"The variety [of construction methods] helps soften the impact," Miller said.

The county held meetings with neighbors to ease concerns. As a result, local residents helped designed a landscape that will shield the complex from residential areas.

Keeping operating costs down was also a consideration in the design phase.

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Miller said KMD placed juvenile court rooms and related offices close to the detention facility and probation office to eliminate the need for costly buses and guards.

A pre-fabricated central heating and power generation plant will provide cooling, heat and electricity to the complex.

Still, Miller and Sowerbrower said the focus is on helping kids, not just cutting costs.

"We're building an environment that encourages the kids to be self-disciplined and self-governing so that they can take advantage of all the space that's there," Sowerbrower said.

The county received two federal grants for the work-$21 million to help fund the new juvenile hall and $600,000 to help pay for health services. The county issued revenue bonds to pay for the rest of the project.

Site preparation included preserving local flora, said Ken Schroeder, Turner's project manager.

The county was required to protect two endangered plants-the crystal springs lessingia, which sprouts each spring in the crevices of the serpentine rock at the site, and fragrant fritillary, a spring flower in the lily family that sprouts from bulbs.

Schroeder said the county hired a plant specialist to harvest lessingia seeds, and then plant them along the north site perimeter to ensure preservation of the flowers.

"The planted seeds are now sprouting nicely," he said.

Protection from natural hazards was also a concern during the site work, Schroeder said.

Granite Construction was required to monitor excavation and grading because the site features serpentine rock containing natural asbestos. Common in the Bay Area, serpentine rock is a metamorphic rock, resulting from a hot water alteration of magnesium silicates.

"Where we exposed the rock, we kept the site wet and conducted air monitoring around the perimeter of the site," Schroeder said.

Meanwhile, most of the contracts for the project have been awarded for the construction phase. Contractors were pre-qualified for the competitive bidding.

Martinez-based Galletti & Sons Inc. was awarded the concrete contract, while Gayle Manufacturing Co. of Woodland and the San Leandro office of Olson & Co. Steel were awarded the steel-framing contract.

Turner awarded the masonry contract to Fresno-based Bratton Masonry Inc. and the electrical contract to San Jose-based Cupertino Electric.

The contract for installations of access controls and video security monitoring at the new juvenile hall went to Lassco Sound & Systems of Salt Lake City.

When completed, the center will be in compliance with current regulations for the care of children in detention and earn certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

"We are going to be the first detention facility in the country to receive a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) rating," Sowerbrower said.