The 320,000-square-foot building will replace the 247,000-square-foot Tolman Hall, built in 1965, which currently houses the Graduate School and Department of Psychology in separate wings. Tolman Hall has a poor seismic rating and will be demolished when the new building opens in August 2017. The School of Public Health is currently headquartered in University Hall.

The new complex will be named Berkeley Way West and will include more than 7,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor to fit in with the commercial corridor along downtown Berkeley’s Shattuck Avenue. Classrooms, offices, open workstations and collaborative spaces will be located on the floors above. A courtyard located on the building’s east side will connect to a pedestrian walkway at the adjacent five-story Energy Biosciences Building, completed in 2012, according to . Daily average occupancy of the new building will be about 900 people. Both private and state funding will help finance the approximately $150 million project.

San Francisco-based WRNS Studio is designing the project, which is intended to help transition the more residential areas to the north into the downtown Berkeley core to the south. As such, the design features two interconnecting L-shaped forms that each respond to the two different neighborhoods. The first portion reaches eight stories and provides a more urban feel, while the second portion only reaches five and four stories to address the lower-scale residential area, according to a project description from the UC Berkeley Real Estate Division.

The building is designed to meet LEED Silver standards, with hopes of achieving LEED Gold. It will include cycling-friendly facilities, including showers, dressing rooms and 250 bicycle lockers. The entrance facing east towards campus will also feature a landscaped public area and is rendered almost entirely in glass to allow a connection to the outdoors. The student lounge on the second floor will offer a similar feel overlooking the plaza and garden space from the Energy Biosciences Building. The upper floors will offer an increased amount of glazing to provide maximum daylight for building occupants. However, the amount of openness will vary depending on different solar exposures that will mitigate thermal heat gain.

The project is part of UC Berkeley’s seismic action plan, which was created after a 1997 survey found more than one in three campus buildings needed seismic safety improvements. To date, more than 75 percent of the spaces needing improvement have been retrofitted or replaced, reported Berkeley News.

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The architect was Cannon Design, with offices in Los Angeles, and construction is being handled by Pasadena, Calif.-headquartered C.W. Driver. 91视频 spoke with Brian DeMartino, senior project manager of the project at C.W. Driver, about the construction process and why this project is so significant to UCR.

Q: What was the main goal of the project?

DeMartino: The UCR SRC expansion project includes the addition of an 80,000-square-foot, two-level addition; the renovation of 10,000 square feet of the existing facility; and a bridge connecting the two. The new facility houses all of the recreation center’s cardio and weight training equipment, the new multi-use Athletic Court Gym, a running track, classroom and cooking demonstration space, locker rooms and showers, massage spaces, and a new competition swimming pool, vortex pool, a 20-person capacity spa and eight new tennis courts.

The existing building will be upgraded with new multipurpose class and activity rooms, a new entry lobby, conference space, new offices for the Recreation Department staff, and offices and storage for the department’s Outdoor Excursions program. The new areas will have flat-screen TV information systems to reach users with facility and program information. Upgraded fire alarm systems will provide enhanced protection for all staff and users. The modern, fluid design presents all of the new features and programs to the campus in an inviting and exciting building.

Q: What are some of the key design elements involved?

DeMartino: The exterior design includes undulating perforated curved aluminum panels that create both an attractive façade and a functional sunscreen suspended from the second floor. The screen, along with insulated metal panels and a glass and aluminum curtainwall system, make up the modern elements of the exterior. A brown brick, called the UCR Blend, common on campus and used in its most historic buildings, rings the first floor and ties the modern building to the older roots of its campus. The interior materials include special rubber flooring for athletic spaces, a high-end wood court flooring for the multipurpose and gym rooms, and an open ceiling that leaves the structure and utilities exposed above. Maple wood paneling and backlit acrylic sheets provide soft accents to the polished concrete floors and high open glazed spaces.

Q: What are some of the key green building elements involved?

DeMartino: The key elements of its sustainable design include efficient HVAC systems, large amounts of glass areas in occupied spaces affording users generous amounts of daylight and careful attention to material selection to ensure all materials comply with indoor environmental standards and sustainable sourcing processes. With the combined design effort and the construction measures taken towards the attempted LEED credits, the project anticipates reaching LEED Gold certification.

Q: What were some of the greatest challenges on the project?

DeMartino: The expansion posed some interesting challenges for the construction team. The main exterior element, the suspended perforated curved aluminum panel system, was attached to the building structural steel system. Without careful coordination between the trades people erecting and welding the steel and those fabricating and installing the aluminum screens and their attachments, the tolerances for the two systems would not have been equal and the screens would not have fit. A precise fit was necessary because the panel joints align with the steel supporting them and the lines of the window systems behind them. Through careful planning in the shop planning process, enhanced quality control during fabrication of the panels and efforts by the trades people on the work in the field, the panels look as intended, enhancing the beauty and drawing attention to the undulating building surface.

The tie in of the expansion to the existing building took detailed review and careful analysis during construction. Although the older building was built in 1992, there was uncertainty of the placement of its foundations and underground utilities in the area of the new bridge between the existing and new buildings. The existing footings were excavated and exposed so that reinforcements and additional foundations could be installed. Upon excavation of the footings, the construction team had to verify the footings were as they were supposed to be and remove and work around elements that were not. The team resolved these issues and installation of the new structural steel system in the renovation portion of the old building proceeded, allowing it to be joined to the new expansion building.

Q: How is the project different from ones you’ve completed in the past?

DeMartino: This project was somewhat atypical in that the university hard-bid the work, but the entire team joined from the beginning with a commitment to collaboration that is less common in design-bid-build projects. RFI and submittal turnaround times were consistently very short. Coordination with other departments and staff was always very prompt. The design team was very engaged and provided feedback and input during construction very quickly and consistently. C.W. Driver approached the project more as a partnership and was successful in meeting the schedule and exceeding expectations because of the collaborative approach practiced by all team participants.

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