HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.—Orange County-based Sundt Construction recently commemorated the topping out of the new Language Arts Complex at Golden West College in Huntington Beach.

When finished, the new complex will encompass 72,000 square feet of educational space across three stories. The facility will have classrooms, a resource center, offices and laboratories. HMC has handled the design elements of the project.

The facility will be energy efficient by taking advantage of the ample light of Southern California, as well as employ natural ventilation and modern LED installations.

Sundt had to take down two older buildings at the campus in order to make room for the Language Arts Complex.

The Language Arts Complex is Sundt’s third project at the campus and its fourth for the Coast Community College District. It represents the first campus project to be undertaken via the Coast Community College District’s Measure M program, which voters passed in November 2014 to support the district’s science and arts programs.

“This is an exciting milestone for the project,” Bradley Jones, Sundt’s assistant project manager, said in a recent news release. “We are happy to be one step closer to students utilizing the upgraded infrastructure.”

Sundt has worked on more than 200 college and university construction projects throughout the Golden State. In addition to Orange County, the contractor also has offices in Sacramento and San Diego. The firm has been operating for over 130 years, with other offices in Arizona, Texas, Oregon and North Carolina.

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CYPRESS, Calif.—General contractor Sundt Construction Inc. has completed renovating the Veteran Resource Center (VRC) at Cypress College, located in Orange County. In addition to the retrofit, Sundt has also completely rebuilt a science, engineering and math (SEM) building at Cypress.

Expansion at the VRC added 12,000 square feet to the existing building. The new construction entails areas specifically dedicated to student veterans’ services. Furthermore, additions included an outdoor plaza, veterans memorial bridge as well as a “tribute garden.” Inside the same building, the former student activities center was retrofitted to make it more usable for modern instruction.

The $80 million SEM building was constructed because Cypress’s former science building was considered obsolete. Accordingly, the new SEM center is a state-of-the-art facility entailing 23 laboratory classrooms, 21 lecture halls, office space and administration space. For the college’s mortuary science program, the building features a domed “immersive digital classroom and crematorium.”

These two buildings represent the initial projects to be funded by the North Orange County Community College District’s Measure J program, which voters passed in November 2014, partly to upgrade local science educational facilities.

In a recent announcement from Sundt regarding the completion of the Veteran Resource Center and the SEM building, Jim Householder, Sundt project executive for Sundt’s California District Building Group, said that his firm was pleased to be handing over the completed work to Cypress College.

“It gives us great pride to work on such meaningful projects that will assist in our community’s prosperity,” he said.

LPA, Inc. was the architect on the project.

Householder said in a subsequent statement to School Construction News that one of the major challenges of the work was accomplishing the construction in the middle of an active college campus.

“Our team did a good job of providing students with safe access, with their ‘swing-gate’ system [and] with wayfinding signage allowing for a clear, quick, safe passageway,” Householder said.

Employee-owned Sundt Construction, Inc. has been in operation for over 130 years, working in such sectors as transportation and energy. In addition to its California offices in Orange County, San Diego and Sacramento, the firm has locations in Arizona, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas and Utah. The general contractor has been ranked as the country’s 58th largest construction company by ENR.

Sundt has more than 200 higher education projects in California alone to its credit. Its other work in the Golden State includes work at the University of California, Davis Graduate School of Management and at the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District, both in Northern California.

Sundt will next work at Cypress College on a campaign to update the campus’s fine arts building.

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TUCSON, Ariz.—General contractor Sundt Construction Inc., which has offices in Phoenix and Tucson, is performing more renovations for its longtime client, the University of Arizona. For its 59th overall project at the campus in Tucson, Sundt will provide renovations for the U of A’s Chemistry-Physics building. The facility, affectionately known as the Old Chemistry Building, was first constructed in 1936 and is part of the campus’s 18-building historic district, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Old Chemistry building is being envisioned as a 21st century learning node, such that interaction and development will be emphasized and students will be able to acquire the workplace skills they will need to succeed in a competitive and technologically rich environment.

It will bring Sundt’s work at the university’s science building essentially full-circle as it was one of the five buildings the general contractor first constructed at the University of Arizona in the late 1930s as part of a program funded by the Works Progress Administration. Four of those buildings—Old Chemistry, the Nugent Building, the Sonnett Space Science Building and Centennial Hall—are still being used today.

The Old Chemistry building was designed during the Great Depression by Tucson-based architect Roy Place. Its original design was a two-story brick structure featuring two main entrances. The building has had several renovations over the ensuing decades, including adding both the north and south wings, which were fashioned in 1948.

The current design-build aims to renovate 55,000 square feet of the Old Chemistry building to update its facilities. In addition, a three-story, 23,000-square-foot building will connect to the building’s south side. This addition will feature classrooms and administrative office space, as well as be the new home for the nuclear magnetic resonance technology and machine shop.

Renovations include bringing the building up to necessary code, extending its future lifespan and attending to maintenance issues that were long deferred.

Sundt is working on the $42 million project in concert with Shepley Bulfinch, who is serving as the architect on record, and Poster Frost Mirto, a historical preservation consultant.

“We are excited to return to a building that we constructed in the late 1930s,” Dave Ollanik, project director for Sundt, said in a recent statement. “Just as important as it was back then, today being able to provide students with a vibrant hub for learning and collaboration is critical.”

Sundt began its work in May, and the renovation of the Old Chemistry building is projected to be completed by the end of 2022.

Sundt, which opened shop in Tucson in 1929, has worked on other buildings at the University of Arizona including the McKale Center, Centennial Hall and skyboxes for the college’s stadium complex. Sundt recently renovated Old Main, the campus’s initial building, and they are also working on renovating the core district of the campus.

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HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.—Sundt Construction, Inc., recently started work on the new language arts complex for Golden West College near the main entrance of its Huntington Beach campus.

“We are excited to continue working on the Golden West campus,” said John Messick, Sundt’s Project Director for its California District Building Group. “Building infrastructure to support remote, in-person or hybrid learning is critical to the success of today’s students.”

The three-story, 72,251-square-foot building includes new classrooms and a spacious reading, writing and resource center. The project also will add gathering, office and support spaces customized to the growing needs of the school’s language arts programs.  Sundt is currently overseeing the demolition of the existing health sciences and humanities buildings to make way for the new complex.  The project will reduce energy consumption on campus by utilizing natural daylighting, modern LED fixtures, cutting-edge HVAC design components and native landscaping.

HMC, the project architect, designed the complex as two separate wings conjoined by a second-floor and third-floor internal bridge. Three landscape zones are tied together with a series of banded concrete paths that weave their way throughout the complex to represent the six language arts skills.

“Guided by the principle of ‘connection,’ we designed the building to not only connect with the campus aesthetic but also to provide opportunities for students to connect with campus touchpoints and classmates,” said HMC Design Principal Brett Leavitt.

The language arts complex will be Sundt’s third project on the Golden West campus and the fourth project for its district Coast Community Colleges. In 2018, Sundt teamed again with HMC Architects to build Golden West’s mathematics and science building, located southwest of the current project’s location.

Sundt has over 70 years of diverse project work throughout California and is a known leader in higher ed construction with a portfolio of more than 200 college and university projects throughout the state. The company has built a reputation as a sustainable, collaborative builder, especially in community college construction. It has offices in Orange County, San Diego and Sacramento.

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LOS ANGELES—California State Polytechnic University-Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) Student Housing and Dining Commons has won a National Award of Merit in the Educational Facilities category from the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA). As a result of this honor, the project is automatically a nominee for the National Award of Excellence in the Educational Facilities category, the highest honor within each category.

The collaborative design-build team consisted of HMC Architects (executive architect and housing design architect), EYRC Architects (dining commons architect), and Sundt Construction.

The new residential towers and dining commons serve as a highly visible entry point. The two mid-rise student housing buildings interlace shared social spaces, natural light, and open-air connections throughout the entire eight floors of each structure. Every floor has two 35-student households, providing many places to congregate, socialize, and study. A diversity of connections between indoors and outdoors is a defining feature. Ground-floor amenities are connected to outdoor spaces, promoting socialization and wellness. Balconies on the fifth floor connect students living on upper floors to the outdoors, while living rooms and lounges use full-height glass to queue students into the social activities happening inside.

Bedrooms feature abundant natural light while hallways end in views toward the campus and capture amazing views of the San Gabriel Mountains. Nooks and in-between spaces are designed for informal inhabitation where students can interact and make lasting connections. Warm materials, residential lighting and large communal tables aim to provide some of the warmth of home for students in the new 650-seat dining commons located at the campus entrance and gateway to the housing community. As part of a broader campus amenity, private eating areas and conference rooms equip the dining hall and accommodate late night diners.

DBIA’s 2020 award-winning projects were evaluated by a distinguished panel of design-build experts. All winners will be announced at DBIA’s Design-Build Conference and Expo Awards Ceremony on October 29th.

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POMONA, Calif.— In early December, Cal Poly Pomona cut the ribbon in a special ceremony for its brand-new modern-living residence halls and dining commons at its campus in Pomona, spanning 14 acres.

With the spring semester beginning on January 18, first-year students will soon move into two new eight-story residential towers. The towers and dining commons in the approximately 340,000 square-foot project offer first-year student residents smaller communities within larger towers, as well as a variety of communal spaces.

The collaborative design-build team on this $150 million project consisted of HMC Architects and general contractor Sundt Construction. The mid-rise design interlaces shared social spaces, natural light, and open-air connections throughout the entire eight floors of each new student housing building.

“Today’s college students embrace housing facilities that are lively, engaging, state-of-the-art, and sustainable,” said HMC Managing Principal Kristina Singiser.

“We set out to design something that would accommodate nearly 1,000 first-year students, foster social connectivity and bonding, feel like home for their student residents, and ultimately support their academic success.”

The buildings are located along the entry to the campus and adjacent to the historic Stables on Kellogg Hill. Each floor has two 35-student households. The towers have a total of 980 beds. Ground-floor amenities are connected to outdoor spaces, while balconies on the fifth floor provide beautiful views of the San Gabriel Mountains.

The social space is diverse with living rooms, shared bathrooms (one bathroom per seven students), and large communal stairway lounges. Gender and social equity influenced how community and bathroom spaces were designed—such as using full-height bathroom partitions, and equitable access to amenities. Bedrooms feature abundant natural light, while hallways end in views toward the campus and local mountains.

The new 680-seat dining commons is located at the campus entrance and is the gateway to the housing community. Private eating areas and conference rooms can also accommodate late night diners.

Pictured in photo, left to right: Robert Stokes, Vice President – Regional Director LA/OC of  Sundt Construction; Aaron Nielson, CPP Director of Dining Services; Dan Johnson, CPP Interim Associate Vice President of Facilities Planning and Management; Veronica Hernandez, Project Leader for HMC Architects; Mooris L. Taylor, CPP Sr. Project Manager of Facilities Planning, Design and Construction; Megan Stang CPP Executive Director of University Housing Services; President of Cal Poly Pomona Dr. Soraya M. Coley; Eileen Sullivan, CPP Interim Vice President of Student Affairs; Johnathan Wang, Designer of EYRC Architects; and Tom Hunter, Sr. Project Architect of HMC Architects.

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“The approval of the bond issue is a very positive sign of the local communities willingness to invest in educational infrastructure, both on Long Island and nationwide,” said Roger Smith, BBS principal and lead architect in a statement. “In our experience, despite the struggling economy, voters will support and accept the cost of maintaining and improving school facilities as long as districts and architects engage in responsive, honest and respectful communication with the communities.”

BBS Architects and the district worked together with the community stakeholders to revise a previously submitted $122 million proposal that failed in February 2010. The district created a 40-person Community Partnership for Revitalization team to prioritize the facility and educational needs and to determine financial obligations. The CPR is made up of parents, community leaders, voters and district personnel.

With the Riverhead area focusing on a residential community, in conjunction with a housing boom during the early to mid 2000-decade, brought an increase of families with children into the community. Because of the increase, Riverhead Central School District decided to develop an expansion and renovation program to fit the needs of the 7,600 students.

The program is divided into three areas: spatial needs, facility needs and site work.

Spatial needs encompass the necessary additional classrooms and administrative offices. Site work encompasses sports fields, pick-up and drop-off loops, playgrounds, parking areas and driveways. Facility needs include required maintenance and capital improvements to existing infrastructure and facilities.

In order to minimize interruptions, the program is broken down to three phases, with multiple steps in each phase.

Phase I will involve three of the four elementary schools, Aquebogue Elementary, Philips Avenue Elementary and Riley Avenue Elementary School. Phase II is the largest and consists of a $32 million renovation and expansion of Riverhead High School, which is set to start in 2013. Phase III includes main campus improvements and renovations to the remaining schools: Riverhead Middle School, Pulaski Street School and Roanoke Avenue Elementary.

“Although the schools will not undergo LEED certification, we have incorporated a high number of green features into both new buildings and existing structures to be renovated,” said BBS project designer Kevin J. Walsh in a statement. “These include green and insulated roofs, high efficiency lighting and HVAC systems, water saving fixtures, high-performance window glazing, and tight building envelopes.”

All of the work is expected to conclude in 2015.

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