Fourth Time Is a Charm

Cal Poly Constructing 'Exuberant' Building

The architect for the university's fourth engineering building, scheduled to open early next year, said it includes a "forward-thinking" design. In addition to being striking and shiny, the facade of the $38-million structure will be built with metal and concrete panels instead of precast concrete, saving the school about $300,000.

By Greg Aragon

When California State Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo's new $38-million "Engineering IV" building opens early next year, science students will have a place that the structure's architect believes will represent the ingenuity of their studies.

The L-shaped Engineering IV building will concentrate much of the university's engineering programs in one area. It will include modern classroom space for aeronautical, mechanical, civil, environmental, industrial and manufacturing engineering programs (photo courtesy of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo).

"The [design] intent of this building is to invoke something that is modern and forward thinking," said Ken Lewis, AIA, president of Los Angeles-based AC Martin Partners, the project's architect and structural engineer. "By using interesting materials, this building is intended to be exuberant and expressive of the exciting work [students] are doing there."

Lewis said that by using a combination of corrugated metal panels and cement fiber panels on the exterior, the 104,000-sq.-ft. facility will yield a modern appearance that will change throughout the day and year as sunlight reflects differently off the silver metallic paint on the metal panels and the soft gray tones of the cement panels. He added that the look will compliment the school's "creative" engineering program.

Rising northwest of Kennedy Library near the Engineering III building and the Advanced Technology Laboratories, and opposite the Bonderson Engineering Projects Center, the three-story Engineering IV structure will concentrate much of the university's engineering programs in one area. It will include modern classroom space for aeronautical, mechanical, civil, environmental, industrial and manufacturing engineering programs.

The project was undertaken to move students and faculty out of a series of 50-year-old metal buildings, which were originally built for the university's agricultural uses. Cal Poly deemed these buildings obsolete because they contain outdated electrical wiring and physical limitations and cannot support the school's technology-intensive engineering programs.

The new edifice will provide both replacement space and additional space for enrollment growth of up to 433 students, which the school anticipates over the next five years.

Besides offering a striking, sparkling facade, the building's skin is also cost effective. The college saved about $300,000 by using about 75,000 sq. -ft. of metal and concrete panels instead of precast concrete, which was originally considered, said Katherine Dunklau, project manager for the school's facilities planning and capital projects department.

advertisement

"These [materials] are durable and low-maintenance and those are CSU requirements," she added.

The L-shaped Engineering IV building is being built by Gilbane Building Co. of Providence, R.I., which is utilizing the construction manager-at-risk delivery method, a process that pleases Dunklau.

"With this type of [delivery], everyone is involved and feels like they are a part of the project from the beginning," she said. "So there is ownership for the entire process from everybody from the very beginning, as opposed to design-bid-build, where everyone is just looking at their piece."

The project, which broke ground in February 2004, is currently about 60-percent finished with crews working on exterior walls and framework and preparing for glass installation. Completion is on schedule for February 2007.

Constructed of steel-brace frames with concrete-filled metal decks, the building is supported on a foundation of rammed aggregate piers instead of traditional drilled caissons.

"[This decision] came out of value-engineering research," said Mark Miller, Gilbane project executive. "Both the time and the cost of doing caissons made everyone wonder about doing alternatives. The schedule of the rammed aggregate piers was significantly better than caissons."

He said the method saved the job between four to six weeks in construction time.

With these types of piers, foundation holes are augured (about 15- to 18-ft. deep on this project) and then class II aggregate is poured into them. This mixture is then pounded with a ram compactor, which forces pressure on the exterior of the soil, making the soil under the building pad denser.

"This creates a higher- bearing capacity [for] the pier and soil surrounding it," Miller said.

Engineering IV was made possible by passage of California Proposition 47 in 2002, which allotted $13 billion for the construction and modernization of elementary, secondary and higher- education facilities throughout the state.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is a predominantly undergraduate, teaching university specializing in applied technical and professional fields.

In addition to university lecture rooms and general engineering spaces, the building will include 22 faculty offices, a 20- by 40-ft. glass lobby, and a sweeping four-story canopy.

"The canopy acts as a slight eye deterrent to looking at the rooftop equipment," Dunklau said. "In a campus, you [can't] have a back of a building because buildings are all around other buildings, so equipment has to go on the roof. You want to make it as attractive as possible."