Welcoming Students

New technology center expected to become gateway to San Diego

By David Silva

San Diego’s Carrier Johnson + CULTURE designed San Diego City College’s Career Technology Center building.

With brightly lit, upper-level corners shining like beacons, San Diego City College’s $72.5-million Career Technology Center should carry the message its designers hoped it would: “Welcome.”

“We recognized that the campus is a gateway to the city,” says Kevin Krumdieck, a principal of project architect Carrier Johnson + CULTURE of San Diego. “We created a glass lantern on the top of the five-story structure, with the whole idea being that as you approach from one of the main streets, it pops up and welcomes people into the building.”

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When completed in April, the 88,900-sq-ft building at 16th Street and Broadway will house the college’s cosmetology, digital arts, photography and nursing programs and will serve as headquarters for campus police. An attached 248,000-sq-ft parking structure, with 10 stories above ground and one below, will provide 695 parking stalls.

Earthwork began on the project in July 2008. Rudolph and Sletten Inc. of San Diego is construction manager.

Armando Sandoval, project manager for Rudolph and Sletten, says work has proceeded smoothly after a month-and-a half delay due to an unanticipated pocket of soil contamination.

“We came across an undocumented floor of petroleum-based contamination,” Sandoval says. “The site had a lot of previous owners, most of which were auto repair-type facilities. Obviously, someone, years ago when the laws weren’t as strict as they are now, disposed oil there. We’ve remediated the soil and are now back on schedule.”

Rudolph and Sletten is the construction manager on the $72.5 million project.

Much thought went into where to locate the various disciplines that will use the building, Krumdieck says. The cosmetology department will feature studios resembling working beauty salons and will be located on the ground floor to convey a sense that the students “are getting out into the real world,” he adds.

The campus police headquarters will be at street level to allow officers to get in and out of the building quickly. The photography department will be on the top floor and will feature a photo gallery surrounded by glass exterior walls.

The San Diego City College Career Technology Center Project Team
Owner: San Diego Community College District
Construction Manager: Rudolph & Sletten Inc., San Diego
Project Architect: Carrier Johnson + CULTURE, San Diego
Mechanical Contractor: Industrial Commercial Systems, Vista
Structural Concrete Contractor: Webcor Concrete, San Diego