A New Campus

Three projects under way at Livermore’s Las Positas College

By David Silva

The appearance and standing of Las Positas College in Livermore should rise signifi cantly once a trio of projects is completed.

An aerial view of the Las Positas campus.

The largest of the three – the $35-million College Center for the Arts – launched in August 2008 and is scheduled for completion in March. The 54,000-sq-ft center designed by project architect John Sergio Fisher & Associates of San Francisco will feature a 500-seat theater, formal lobby, black-box theater, classrooms, rehearsal rooms, faculty offices and a 1,500-seat outdoor amphitheater.

“We’re right about on schedule,” says Frank Driscoll, project manager for Richmond- based general contractor C. Overaa & Co. “We have the superstructure for the stage and auditorium almost complete. The auditorium has many roof levels, and just the complexity of the geometry of it and making that work with the structural steel wasn’t easy.”

Work started in March on the college’s $13.8-million, 22,246-sq-ft Child Development Center, with Lathrop Construction of Benicia serving as general contractor and San Francisco-based Beverly Prior Architects as project architect.

Plans call for three single-story buildings: a 69,000-sq-ft administration building; 61,000-sq-ft toddler classroom wing; and 94,000-sq-ft preschool classroom wing.

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Steve Parker, project architect for Beverly Prior, says the center, which should be completed by September 2010, will provide day care for children of students and faculty and serve as a training facility. “There are no infant facilities there at the moment, but the faculty is looking into possibly adding that in the future,” Parker says. “This is a LEED silver project. The design is slightly different from the vernacular of the rest of the campus because of the sustainability aspect. For example, it will have a ‘cool’ roof, whereas the other buildings have standard-seam metal roofs.”

The third project, begun in December, is the $5.1-million District wide Information Technology Building. Designed by project architect BFGC Architects Planners of San Jose, the 10,200-sq-ft, single story facility will house the Chabot-Las Posit as Community College District’s data center operations, network infrastructure, servers and IT personnel.

PENCON Inc. of Livermore is general contractor for the project, which should be completed by October.

Parsons 3d/l of San Francisco is serving as overall construction manager through this month, after which Parsons Brinckerhoff of Oakland will take over in September.

The Las Positas College Project Team
Owner: Chabot-Las Positas Community College District
Construction Manager: Parsons 3d/l, San Francisco; Parsons Brinckerhoff, Oakland

College Center for the Arts
General Contractor: C. Overaa & Co., Richmond
Project Architect: John Sergio Fisher & Associates, San Francisco
Structural Steel Contractor: East Bay Erectors, Richmond
Electrical Contractor: Northern States Electric, Livermore

Child Development Center
General Contractor: Lathrop Construction, Benicia
Project Architect: Beverly Prior Architects, San Francisco

Districtwide Information  Technology Building
General Contractor: PENCON Inc., Livermore
Project Architect: BFGC Architects Planners, San Jose