Category Archives: Featured Articles

Community College Upgrades

Voter-Approved Bond Supports New Construction

San Bernardino Community College District’s (SBCCD) campuses welcomed new facilities last summer, made possible by funding from the $197 million Measure P Bond Program passed in November 2002.

An $8 million Aquatic Center opens at Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa, while the $12.2 million Media/Communications Building opens nearby at San Bernardino Valley College. Kitchell, together with BRJ & Associates, is providing program management services for the bond program. The Aquatic Center features a 50-meter competition pool heated by solar panels. The LEED®-certified Aquatic Center also includes lockers, showers, offices, storage, a multipurpose room, pool mechanical room and related space and bleachers. Site development includes a parking lot, landscaping and building access.

Shared facilities

The City of Yucaipa purchased the Myrtha pool, a pre-fabricated system manufactured in Italy, and provided it to SBCCD for use in the project. The facility will be shared by Crafton Hills College and the local community. This specific Myrtha pool was previously installed and used for the 2004 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in Long Beach, Calif. Before the Beijing Olympics, it held the title of the World’s Fastest Pool. After trials, the pool was dismantled and shipped to Yucaipa where it sat outside until construction began on the Aquatic Center.

During the design phase, Kitchell/BRJ recommended that SBCCD hire a pool consultant to do a detailed inventory of the pool’s components. Parts that were identified as missing or damaged had to be ordered from Italy. But because this scenario was anticipated before installation began, parts were ordered early enough to keep the project on schedule.

Cost savings

The Myrtha pool was designed for installation in an area with undocumented artificial fill. Due to the drainage details, the allowable settlement of tolerances was only 1/8 inch over the pool’s entire length. To ensure the tolerances were achieved, the original design featured deepened foundations that added more than 200 drilled piers beneath the pool. This design was expensive and could have put the entire project over budget. However, Kitchell/BRJ recommended an alternative design that met settlement tolerances and saved more than $750,000 by eliminating the piers, removing the undocumented fill and replacing it with engineered fill.

Tallest structure

The new 18,253-square-foot Media/Communications Building at Valley College features a 200-foot communications tower for radio and television broadcasts. With more than 260 tons of steel, the tower will be the tallest structure on campus.

Structural improvements

Completed under budget and on schedule, the one-story steel-frame building replaces an older building that was located on an active fault. Structurally safer, the new building is built away from the fault line and houses classrooms, computer labs, offices and features a broadcast teaching component that includes working television and radio studios and production stages. It also features projectors and computers that support teleconference calls and distance learning. The audio-visual studio was designed in a hexagonal shape to maintain acoustical requirements and prevent sound from bouncing. Perhaps the biggest challenge was relocating the radio station while maintaining 24-hour station while maintaining 24-hour service.

Campus Gateway

New Building Unifies Student Services

When the Lawrence and Alma DeRicco Student Services Building at San Joaquin Delta Community College in Stockton, California, opened last fall, the two-story, 50,000-square-foot building consolidated all non-instructional student services into one convenient location.

Pilot Project

Funded by the $250 million Measure L Bond, the $25 million student services building was one of five California Community College projects selected to participate in a design-build pilot project. Thanks to the building’s successful completion, the design-build model is now an option for use on future college construction projects throughout California.

Architectural features


Designed to serve as a “gateway” to the campus, the site was previously a parking lot. It is one of several major campus projects slated for completion over the next year. The unique architectural design maximizes available space, includes a second-story terrace and adds a visually appealing addition to the existing landscape. Architectural features include clerestory windows and a concrete ramp, providing disabled students with access to the second floor. The building ties in to the campus’ traditional architecture through its use of color and finishes, including brick. The Tolerance Garden, conceived to honor the Japanese-Americans sent to internment camps in the Stockton area during World War II, was designed to fit between the building and exterior ramp. Landscaping includes bamboo and Japanese maple trees.

Project challenges

Soil remediation was required due to clay soils and a problem with water retention, a result of the campus’ location in the Central Valley.  Other challenges included working with several major constituencies scattered across campus to ensure their smooth transition into centralized quarters. As the construction manager on the designbuild project, Kitchell represented SJDCC and supported the district in a variety of day-to-day issues, including working with vendors to coordinate furniture delivery, phone and internet hook-up.

Cost savings

A large cost savings proposed early on allowed the team to make a number of changes that enhanced the function and appearance of the facility. By using high-level drywall on the building’s interior, rather than the Venetian plaster called for in the original plan, the exterior plaster colors and finishes could be revised to meet the client’s preferences. The cost savings also provided funds for reconstructing and sealing the parking lot after discovering a moisture problem in the soil. The existing parking lot was removed, the soil stabilized and a new lot constructed. Despite these challenges, the project was completed on budget and schedule.

Additional projects

Other SJDCC projects in the works include renovating the existing library to create a modern, up-to-date facility and constructing a new math and science building.

“Kitchell has brought great value to all of our projects and saved us money. It’s refreshing to work with somebody who’s very client-centered.”

– Maria Baker, Director of Facilities Planning and Management, SJDCC