Home on the Base

RJC Architects designs Camp Pendleton projects

By David Silva

RJC Architects’ $15 million temporary lodging facility at Marine Corp Base Camp Pendleton is nearing completion, while two other base projects designed by the San Diego firm are firmly underway. 

Workers broke ground on the four-story, 69-room Stewart Mesa Lodge in August, and are expected to have it finished in June. A design-build project of RJC and RQ Construction Inc. of Carlsbad, the facility’s studios, single bedrooms and suites will serve as temporary lodging for both visiting family members of marines and enlisted personnel awaiting permanent assignments. The lodge will have a public laundry facility, and is located near a playground and a Non-Commissioned Officers Club with dining services.

“It’s a good deal for service families, for mom and dad coming out to see their son or daughter on base,” says RJC project manager Michael Cather. “The lodge is one of the few places in the region where you can get a nice suite and kitchen amenities for $80.”

The low lodging rate is particularly remarkable, says RQ Construction project manager Pete Pizzo, given that each unit has a western view of the Pacific Ocean (“Like what you’d see in  a picture,” he says). Camp Pendleton is situated along the coast south of San Diego.

Pizzo also notes the lodge’s unique soundproofing design.

“We’re using a unique wall system called Ecolite on this project,” he says. “It’s a light-gauge stud-and-concrete prefab wall panel. Your normal extended-stay hotel is going to be a wood-frame building that takes 12 months to construct. Ecolite really allowed us to condense the timeframe down because a lot of it is pre-constructed. It’s got a sound-transmission class 58, meaning you could have a band playing in the room next door and not hear it.”

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RJC and RQ are also the design-build team for Camp Pendleton’s $53 million Marine Corps Special Operations Command Center West for Marine special-forces personnel. The center will include a 90,000-sq-ft headquarters, a 25,000-sq-ft academic facility, a “para-loft” tower for parachute training, a 60-ft climbing wall, a supply warehouse, a vehicle-maintenance facility, an armory and – because no special-forces facility would be complete without one – a small gas-chamber training facility.

Work crews broke ground on the center in February, and should be finished in April 2010.

Cather says both projects are up for LEED certification – silver for the lodge and the higher gold certification for the command center.

RJC allied with Straub Construction of Bonsall as the design-build team for the $43 million Marine Corps Intelligence Operations Center project, Phase 3. The 135,000-sq-ft project includes a communications headquarters and training facility for the 9th Communications Battalion Alpha Bravo Company, an Intel Academic Instruction Facility, and Intel Battalion Armory addition and a Radio Battalion rappelling tower.

The project began in December and is scheduled for completion in February 2010.

The Stewart Mesa Lodge Project Team:

Owner: Marine Corps Community Services
Design-Build Team: RJC Architects, San Diego, and RQ Construction, Carlsbad
Pre-Made Wall Contractor: Ecolite, Carlsbad
Drywall and Framing Contractor: Best Interiors, San Diego