Sacramento Market Report

Two major healthcare projects offset housing slide

By Robert Carlsen

Though Sacramento’s economy, like practically all other California cities’, will not rebound sufficiently this year to offset the housing construction decline, economists and planners in the city expect a flat year of growth and modest growth in some construction segments.

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Two major healthcare projects are underway and soon to be underway that will mean, of course, construction jobs.

Sutter Medical Center’s massive expansion features 1.08-million sq ft of development that calls for consolidating two major medical facilities – Sutter Medical Center and Sutter General Hospital – into one single campus. This project is expected to be completed in 2010. Turner Construction Co. is the general contractor on most of the project. KMD Architects is the architect of record.

In late November, the Sacramento City Council approved the Mercy General Hospital/Sacred Heart Parish School Mixed-Use project in East Sacramento that has been kicking around since 2001.

The project includes a variety of elements including the Alex G. Spanos Heart Center, a modern hospital building that will house Mercy General’s outstanding cardiac program, a new school campus for the 300 students annually attending Sacred Heart Parish School, 20 new housing units that complement the East Sacramento community architecture, and the removal of the current hospital’s East Wing, which was built in the 1950s. The project is expected to cost $150 million. HDR Architecture is the designer of the Heart Center.

The city is also moving on a couple of revitalization projects that have been on the boards for years. The Redevelopment Agency is forcing the landowner of the grubby 700 and 800 blocks of the K Street mall to live up to the property agreement and begin development or the agency will take over.

And the long-awaited 244-acre infill project, The Railyards, may get the go-ahead soon from the city council after filing the required economic impact and fiscal impact analyses. The project is currently going through the entitlement process.

Cool to be Green

Panattoni’s $180 million CalSTRS building goes for LEED Gold

By David Silva

One of Sacramento’s largest riverfront additions - a $180 million project known as the CalSTRS building -- is halfway toward completion and even closer to becoming one of the most environmentally friendly business developments in the city.

The 14-story project is owned by the California State Teachers Retirement System and will serve as the pension fund administrator’s headquarters when it opens in June 2009. Sacramento-based Panattoni Development Co. is project developer of the building.

Construction started in July 2006.

As designed by project architect HOK of San Francisco, the CalSTRS building is a sail-shaped, 300-ft-tall tower featuring 406,000 sq ft of office space. Wrapped around the podium of the tower is a 1,000-stall parking garage.

Paul Woolford, director of design for HOK, says the firm wanted to create both a “signature statement” for CalSTRS that both salutes the history of the Sacramento riverfront and boasts architectural innovations in energy efficiency.

“One of the things we’re looking to do is save on energy loads by 25% to 30% over traditional buildings,” Woolford adds. “It’s made primarily of sustainable materials. We used high-performance building systems for the envelope. Internally, we’re using an under-floor air system, in which air is distributed from beneath the floor up into the work area, and pulled out through the ceiling. This is the reverse of traditional buildings, which pushes air down.”

Woolford says the purpose of the under-floor system is partly to reduce energy costs, but primarily to create “a far better place to work in terms of indoor air quality.”

“There’s constant replenishing of air in the workspace,” he says. “At your desk, you can actually monitor the speed, direction and amount of airflow. You have more control over your indoor environment.”

Through such innovations, HOK hopes to achieve a LEED gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.

“CalSTRS was willing to think long-term with its headquarters,” Woolford says. “Imagine if you’re saving a third of your energy costs starting in year one.”

Woolford says HOK researched the history of the project’s location at the confluence of the Sacramento and American rivers and found that it was a former shipping site. This knowledge also helped drive the building’s unique shape.

“The design is emblematic of a giant, billowing glass sail,” he says. “There’s a gentle curve and arc in the profiles. It’s paying tribute to the site and heritage of the community in which it’s built.

“We actually rotated the building off the traditional street grid so that it’s on a true north/south orientation. By doing that, we carved out a triangular corner of the site, which we’ve turned it into a public-access garden that connects up to the river walk.”

Tim Spence, senior project manager for general contractor Harbison-Mahony-Higgins Builders of Sacramento, says building with energy efficiency in mind is rapidly becoming the normal course of business.

“Harbison-Mahony-Higgins and (parent company) Swinerton have been, over the past couple of years, promoting a big push for staff to become LEED accredited professionals,” Spence adds. “As we do that, we understand the processes we have to undergo on the job site. Building green is no longer seen as a challenge, but simply an additional task that we have.

“It puts a little more on our plate, but we’re finding that it’s actually cool to be green.”

The Project Team

Owner:
California State Teachers Retirement System, Sacramento

Developer:
Panattoni Development Co., Sacramento

General Contractor:
Harbison-Mahony-Higgins Builders, Sacramento

Project Architect:
 HOK, San Francisco

HVAC/plumbing subcontractor:
Airco Mechanical, Sacramento

Electrical subcontractor:
Schetter Electric Inc., Sacramento

Concrete subcontractor:
Concrete Services, Sacramento

Structural steel subcontractor:
Gayle Manufacturing Co., Sacramento

Pyramid Power

Bank of the West project complements nearby Ziggurat Building

By David Silva

West Sacramento’s iconic Ziggurat Building will soon have a new -- albeit slimmer and taller - cousin across the river: the $115 million Bank of the West tower.

While not quite as visually startling as the Ziggurat, the 25-story Bank of the West in downtown Sacramento will share much in common with the Ziggurat when it opens in April 2009. Like the older structure, the tower has a stepped-pyramid design. And both buildings were designed by Sacramento architect Ed Kado, principal and president of E.M. Kado Associates.

“It’s a very contemporary building," Kado says of the tower, under development by Tsakopoulos Investments of Carmichael, Calif. “Of course, there are the glass curtain walls, but it also has a five-story atrium that opens to a skylight, bringing daylight down into the reception area/lobby core. “There’s a penthouse on the 25th and 26th floor that opens to a pointed skylight. The floors are pointed at 45-degree angles to provide a nice view of Sacramento and the state capitol.”

A consequence of the project’s unique design is a degree of uncertainty over just how many stories the tower comprises. While officially listed as a 25-story building, the Bank of the West tower has no 13th floor -- a nod to the superstitious bias against unlucky No. 13. Adding to the confusion is the fact that the triangular penthouse, while officially listed as the building’s 25th floor, actually is two stories.

“It feels like a two-floor penthouse, but with a floor cut out,” Kado says.

Work on the project began in October 2006 with the demolition of the site’s existing occupant -- the 45-year-old Wells Fargo building. When completed, the Bank of the West tower will feature 400,080 sq ft of rentable and for-lease offices and ground-level retail space. It will also contain a 10-level parking garage -- one level subterranean and nine above grade.

The 400-foot, glass and polished-granite tower will have a decidedly azure look to it. Its exterior, when added to the structural steel frame, will feature blue-tinted primary glass and blue spandrel glass -- a heat-tempered product with ceramic frit fused to the surface for increased strength.

Redwood City-based Rudolph and Sletten is the project’s general contractor. Ann Poppin, project manager for Rudolph and Sletten, says it hasn’t been easy working in the confined space of Sacramento’s bustling downtown.

“Any time you build a project in the downtown area, the tight access is a concern,” Poppin adds. “That’s not unique to this project, but it’s a function of working downtown.”

Kado’s design actually aided in construction because the more the tower “stepped back” from the street, the more breathing room it provided the work crews.

“The way (Kado) designed the project, he integrated the parking structure into the actual structure so that it appears to be one building, which is kind of neat,” Poppin says.

The Project Team

Owner:
Tsakopoulos Investments, Carmichael

General Contractor:
Rudolph and Sletten, Redwood City

Architect:
E.M. Kado Associates, Sacramento

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