VA Clinic Oceanside Standing Tall

Raising the panels at the VA Clinic on Thursday, June 18th. Watch the VA Clinic project team in action by viewing the LIVE project webcam!

The exterior walls of the Veteran’s Administration Outpatient clinic, located in Oceanside, were raised on June 18th. The project team celebrated by having a “lift party” and lunch. Attendees included representatives from the VA, The Rockefeller Group, Smith Consulting Architects and the Oceanside Building Inspection Department. Even with the mandatory construction start time of 7 a.m. (City of Oceanside ordinance), H&K Construction managed to get all the building panels up in one day.

The steel infrastructure will commence within a couple of weeks, giving Reno time to get the precast exterior walls secured structurally and the column locations prepared, surveyed and ready for placement.

The underground site utilities are now complete with the exception of the SDG&E service, which is designed and approved and will commence in the next 30 days.. The overflow parking lot adjacent to the main building on the South side of Sea Gate is paved and landscape irrigation is also underway. This area will primarily be used for parking and staging of materials and labor for the medical build-out portion of the project.

The project is currently scheduled to be completed in March of 2010, with the facility ready to open for care in August 2010. The 65,465-square-foot, two-story clinic will offer veterans primary care, mental health, dental, optometry, and orthopedics, as well as compensation and pension evaluation services, among others.

Reno Contracting is particularly proud to build this facility which will provide the latest technologies and services to the men and women who have served our country in the armed forces.

Watch the VA Clinic project team in action by viewing the LIVE project webcam!

Architect’s Eye on ResMed

Completed in May 2009, ResMed Corporate Headquarters, consists of a 6-story mid-rise complex, attached to a 2-story low-rise structure and a 6-level parking garage, and incorporates 230,238-sf of total office space. Reno was the general contractor for the project, Kip Howard of Allegis Development was the client‘s development representative and the ResMed design team consisted of three separate local firms, each specializing in a specific discipline and possessing their own vision. KMA Architects were the executive architects, while Davis Davis Architects were the Design Architects for the building shell and public spaces, and ID Studios planned and designed the interior space. The project went through an evolution of design throughout the construction process to ensure the client’s needs were fully met and the community around it was enhanced.

Since this project had so many unique and high-end architectural elements, Laurie Davis, AIA of Davis Davis Architects shared with us the ResMed story from the architects’ perspective.

During the design stage of the project, we quickly noticed that the existing site was industrial and lacked natural vegetation. Fortunately, our client saw its potential and decided to turn it into something that would enhance the environment. The site design challenges also included allowing for a maximum build-out in 2020 of 500,000-sf, as well as providing gallery & event space for the founder’s artworks and occasional cultural events.

Located in downtown San Diego, Davis Davis Architects is an architecture and design practice firm founded on the belief that good design addresses multiple agendas; meeting functional requirements and responding aesthetically to the context and environment, while minding budgetary concerns of the client.

Our intentions were to create a building grounded in health and breathing, surrounded by a restorative landscape, for a corporate client that values innovation, team work and fine art. Quickly identifying the client’s needs, the design team collaborated with California environmental artist Ned Kahn to create a 26’H x 130’W outdoor-to-indoor wall that defines the sculpture court and lobby with a kinetic, “breathing wall.”

One challenge was that the client desired three distinct areas: a stacking office building, where departments are arranged by floor; a product service wing; and a place for people to congregate and share ideas. We chose to seam together the first two elements with an indoor/outdoor café and gallery space raised above a varied and rolling landscape.

Creating an open, airy, healthy office building filled with sunlight presented itself as another challenge. The two-phase masterplan indicated that this building needed to be placed at the northern edge of the site, creating an entry on the north side of the building and a garden on the south that would be shared with the second building phase.

While a garden on the south and ample light along the long axis of the building was desired, the north entry where we planned to have a sculpture court presented a problem for us. To boost sun presence, we skewed the long axis 9.5 degrees south west to allow light to penetrate the sculpture court six months out of the year. To continue this light manipulation for our northern entry, we cut a sky hole between the cafeteria gallery wing and the tower, to allow sun to flood the lobby space. Along with the skewing of the plan, we also shaved the floor plate back on the upper four floors so we could get daylight to reach the central spine, facilitated by sunshades, light shelves and a light diffusing glass, Solara.

Exterior material choices were driven by the desire to clad the building in a protective, breathable rainscreen and to allow as much controlled light in as possible; Trespa, Alucobond and lightweight stone panels. Many interior material choices were driven by the client being a native Australian (also where the manufacturing facility for ResMed is located). Woods are Australian Jarrah and Eucalyptus.

We set out with the intention of achieving a LEED Platinum building. However, the client didn't want to pursue the LEED rating, but saw merit in having a building that was high performing, energy efficient, environmentally and people friendly, so we incorporated several sustainable features. Ultimately, Savings by Design Incentives were awarded due to the green approach.

Rainscreen technology was utilized throughout the building to allow the wall to breathe, reduce thermal stresses, and minimize heat transfer to the interior. In addition, a rainscreen reduces the amount of environmentally detrimental caulking compounds. Energy efficient measures included use of LED’s, programmable light sources which work in unison with the level of daylight entering building, occupancy sensors and compact fluorescent fixtures.

Some of the additional sustainable features include structural steel framing using 75% recycled content. The project incorporated the use of DIRTT System’s Modular Demountable Wall Partitions which utilizes high post-consumer recycled content to ensure flexibility and ease of future office reconfigurations without creating construction debris.

Looking back on this successful project, I find it's not enough to imagine, draw, and engineer, a fine building. Architecture happens in both the ideal and the real. The reason that this building is exceptional is because Kip Howard managed it precisely and beautifully, with just the right amount of control, and the job superintendent, Bob Canuso performed his job brilliantly and with the utmost professionalism.