More Change Ahead for GCC
by Andrew Young, Mathematics Division
Although
some folks think we’ve had enough construction on campus, several more
major construction projects are in the planning stage for GCC.
The next project is a substantial expansion of the Garfield
Campus. A second major
building will be constructed, similar in overall design and physical
size to the current main Garfield campus building, but with classrooms
and offices on all three floors instead of having ground-level parking
under the building. The
planned 33,000 square feet of new space will include about 13 new
classrooms, which will allow the college to replace the old, substandard
bungalows that currently house many classes.
It will also allow the college to consolidate some of the course
offerings that are currently spread out in various spaces rented in
non-college-owned buildings in the area surrounding the Garfield Campus.
This will still leave plenty of space to include faculty/staff
office space, a vending machine area, and a large space to support
community gatherings.
Another
important component of the project is that it also will provide
additional parking on college property.
The Garfield Campus has long suffered parking difficulties no
less challenging than those of the main campus.
The 125 additional parking spaces that the new construction
includes will help alleviate, but probably not completely solve, parking
problems there.
To allow
space for both the new building and additional parking, the college
needed to acquire three privately owned properties adjacent to the
existing Garfield Campus.
Two of the three properties are already in escrow and the third is still
under negotiation. The
current preliminary design also proposes permanently closing a portion
of Garfield Avenue adjacent to the Garfield Campus, partially for use as
parking, and the rest for a small “green belt.”
Design-Build could cut costs
The
Garfield expansion is one of only a handful of projects statewide that
have been approved for a pilot program exploring the use of a new style
of construction planning and execution known as Design-Build.
This method is expected to significantly reduce both the total
cost and the duration of the project.
If the process goes as planned, the project will go to bid in
early 2008, with construction beginning in spring 2008 and occupancy
expected in time for fall 2010 classes.
Tight control on costs is particularly important for this project
because the entire cost is to be paid out of Measure G funds.
Twenty million dollars have been allocated for use in this
project, and if there is a cost-overrun, there is no obvious source of
additional funds available.
Virtually all of the rest of the remaining Measure G funds ($19 million)
are allocated to cover the college’s portion (about 25%) of the total
cost of constructing the new Laboratory/College Services building.
This building will be located on the main campus east of (behind)
the cafeteria along the base of the hillside below the new parking
structure. It will stretch
from the new elevator tower at the north end to (and including) the
current location of the Los Robles building.
Only through careful planning for the space allocation within the
building has the college managed to get the state to commit to funding
about 75% of the total cost of construction (probably more than $60
million). The
administration and the college’s architect should be commended for their
efforts in this area, without which this project would surely have been
impossible for the college to finance.
And they paved the parking lot to put up a building The three-story Laboratory/College Services building will provide more than 80,000 square feet of space, including a large open computer lab, instructional labs for speech and writing, the Culinary Arts program, and almost all of Student Services. Though the building was originally specifically intended to offer students “one-stop” access to all the services they need, there is still some question as to whether it will be possible to achieve this goal (despite a substantial increase in total allocated square footage over the current space being used by these same programs).
Design decisions must be finalized soon, because funding for this
project has already been approved and scheduled.
Funds for preliminary drawings have been released, after which
final drawings will have to be completed, and state approvals must be
obtained. Construction is
expected to begin in 2009, leading to occupancy in fall 2012.
There is little room for delay.
Any significant design changes could force an additional cycle of
project approvals, and potentially could lower the project’s funding
priority. Worse yet, any
delay in the start of construction could increase construction costs by
millions of dollars, much like what happened when the Allied
Health/Aviation building had to be redesigned and re-approved.
That delay turned a $16 million project into a $24 million
project.
A bit
further down the pipeline is a major renovation of the Verdugo Gym and a
possible modernization of the Aviation/Art building.
But these will have to be topics for a future update.
I would
like to thank Bill Taylor again for his time and patience explaining the
details of all these projects.
Without his continuing assistance, these updates would be much
more difficult to provide.
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