Creating a Campus Community

New UC Merced wraps up construction of main facilities while other projects get the go-ahead.

By David Silva

Four new buildings representing the academic core of the recently opened University of California's Merced campus have been completed, and the second of two student-housing facilities is set to open in late 2007.

Two wings of the campus' $58 million, 178,000-sq.-ft. Leo Kolligian Library opened last month (photo courtesy of UC Merced).

The $400-million campus-representing the first new UC school in 40 years-officially opened its doors in September with key components of the facility still under construction. Students have had to use alternative facilities while workers put the finishing touches on the university's sciences and engineering building, classrooms and faculty office building, the Leo Kolligian Library and the Joseph Edward Gallo Recreation and Wellness Center.

With three of the buildings now completed and the fourth on target for completion by this fall, university officials say students and faculty will at last be able to call themselves a fully functioning community.

"These buildings were all initially intended to be open when we formally opened in fall 2005," said Tom Lollini, UC Merced's associate vice chancellor of design and construction and campus architect. "But because of a variety of issues, including rain delays and procuring labor from the Central Valley, the buildings finished late."

The $78 million, 174,000-sq.-ft. sciences and engineering building is a three-story facility that houses the campus' schools of engineering and natural sciences, research labs and faculty offices.

The Sacramento office of Flintco was the general contractor, and EHDD of San Francisco and Leo A. Daly of San Francisco were the architects.

Flintco Project Manager Jon Hendrickson said the most difficult aspect of the project was the laboratory component of the facility.

"Laboratory buildings are notoriously complicated," Hendrickson added. "The building has multiple plumbing units, and the high rate of air exchange in the laboratories makes the ducting oversized, so you end up with space constraints. Because the overhead space is very tight, the coordination required to handle that is very difficult."

By January, two wings of the campus' $58 million, 178,000-sq.-ft. Leo Kolligian Library were opened, as was the primary entry point to the facility.

Swinerton Builders is the general contractor for the project, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill of San Francisco and Fernau and Hartman of Berkley are the architects.

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"In terms of construction challenges, building a library is not much different than building a commercial structure," said Chris Young, Swinerton's senior project manager. "You need a lot more open space for book stacks and have to deal with sound issues. The fact that this is a ground-up building with silver LEED status presents its own set of challenges. There's a lot of eccentricities involved there with building materials."

Young referred to the university's specification that the new buildings be highly energy efficient in order to achieve silver LEED ratings from the U.S. Green Building Council.

"We're a publicly funded building and so have to meet certain energy-efficiency requirements," said Patti Waid Istas, UC Merced's director of communications. "But we're far exceeding what's required by the state. We all know that central California is rapidly growing, and we hope to be a model for future development in the region."

Swinerton was also the general contractor for the university's $33 million, 93,000-sq.-ft. classroom and faculty office building, which consists of a 360-seat auditorium, classrooms, computer labs, lecture halls and faculty offices.

The $11 million, 35,000-sq.-ft. Joseph Edward Gallo Recreation and Wellness Center will be finished by September.

Designed by the San Francisco office of Sasaki Associates, the building includes a gymnasium, "cardio" and weight room, wellness center and multipurpose room. Students previously used a recreation room in the campus' student-housing building and a makeshift field for their exercise needs. The Sacramento office of Howard S. Wright Construction is the general contractor for the project.

Lollini said the university is presently requesting bids from builders and architects on a second on-campus student-housing facility, called Sierra Terraces. The proposed 89,000-sq.-ft., $16.5 million building was recently approved by the university's governing board with a fall 2007 target for completion.

Lollini added that the 400-bed, dormitory-style facility might be scaled down in size given the current building market.