DAVIS, Calif.—SVA Architects recently opened a new office in Davis. Centrally located at 1450 Drew Ave, Suite 150, SVA’s Davis office is only 1.5 miles from UC Davis, and a 15-minute drive to downtown Sacramento. The new office will allow the firm to better serve its current clients in Sacramento and the Central Valley and expand its capabilities throughout Central and Northern California.

Senior Associate Partner Christopher Bradley, AIA, CSI, CCCA and Principal Nathan Herrero, AIA, LEED AP BD+C will continue SVA’s leadership in the Northern California region.

SVA Architects has established itself throughout Northern California as a visionary leader for both community developments and educational projects. The firm designed Mirasol Village, a new mixed-income development that replaces a deteriorated housing complex with a new, sustainable, walkable community with its first phases opening in spring of this year. Also nearing completion for SVA is the reconstruction of Robla Elementary School in Sacramento, transforming the formerly aging facility into a modern, new campus. SVA has designed numerous award-winning projects throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including La Escuelita Educational Center, Albany Middle School Annex, Fruitvale Transit Village Phase IIB, Horner Middle School, and Serramonte Faculty & Staff Housing, among others.

Robert Simons, AIA, President of SVA Architects, stated, “The new Davis office will complement the Oakland office nicely, allowing our team and clients resources most convenient for each. Our office in Davis will provide a new hub to meet current demand and expand our overall capacity in Northern California. We’re excited to welcome new talent and take on new projects in the coming months.”

Founded in 2003, SVA Architects specializes in urban planning, architecture, and interior design of public, private, and mixed-use projects. Among the firm’s portfolio are civic, educational, residential, commercial and mixed-use developments.

The post SVA Architects Expands California Presence with New Davis Offices appeared first on School Construction News.

DAVIS, Calif.—The University of California, Davis (UC Davis) opened the first phase of The Green at West Village student housing project, adding more than 1,000 beds to the University’s West Village neighborhood. Once the entire project is complete, the housing complex will add nearly 3,300 beds to the campus, making it the largest student housing development currently under construction in the U.S. Students officially moved into Phase I on September 15.

The full $575 million in project costs will come from the proceeds of a tax-exempt bond sale, the largest bond sale ever in the US for a student housing project. The Michaels Organization, a national leader in residential real estate, is working with global design, architecture, and engineering firm Stantec, which is providing lead architectural, interiors, buildings engineering, and landscape architecture services for the project. CBG Building Company is the general contractor.

Once completed, the project will be comprised of nine four-story apartment buildings along with indoor and outdoor community space and recreational fields across 34 acres. A 10,000-square-foot community building will house a fitness center, multipurpose room, and support services. With its expansive solar electric arrays, The Green contributes to the overall neighborhood goal of zero net energy, which means the project is designed to generate as much energy as it uses within a year.

In addition to the net zero energy target, the project is targeting LEED Silver and provides attention to various aspects of sustainability including careful material selections, minimizing site impacts, reduction of energy use by using efficient MEP systems, optimal building orientation, and energy efficient envelop development.

During Phase I, the project team delivered the first three residential buildings, a utility building (including workspace for operations and maintenance staff), as well as outdoor courtyards between the residential buildings for students to gather. Each apartment building includes furnished bedroom and living spaces, full kitchen and common space, as well as social and study areas on each floor.

“This student housing community demonstrates what is possible when the public sector and private sector form partnerships, leveraging the strengths of both,” said Joe Coyle, president of Michaels Student Living. “We are thankful for the leadership of our University partners and honored to deliver this first phase of our affordable, sustainable living environment for the students of UC Davis.”

“We’re excited to hit this critical milestone—on schedule,” said Richey Madison, Stantec principal, West Coast Education. “This year has presented unprecedented obstacles with the ongoing impacts of the pandemic, and to see the first wave of students move into The Green is humbling for our entire public-private partnership team. This is a truly transformative project for the UC Davis student body, and one we are proud to help deliver.”

The apartment community will be operated by Michaels Student Living Management. Collegiate Housing Foundation will hold the ground lease with the University of California. UC Davis Student Housing and Dining Services will be responsible for marketing, leasing, and on-site residence life support services.

The post UC Davis Wraps Phase I of Net Zero Housing Venue appeared first on School Construction News.

RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif.—Global integrated design firm Stantec and Northern California based general contractor XL Construction have been selected by UC Davis Health to lead the forward-looking design and construction of new administrative office spaces that will house members from the University’s executive leadership team, as well as employees in the Finance, Human Resources, Revenue and IT sectors.

The project aims to improve collaboration and efficiency for UC Davis Health’s functional support teams by providing a central location that enables these operational groups to better serve the University’s patient network. The project construction manager is McCarthy Building Companies.

Located at 10850 White Rock Road in Rancho Cordova, Calif., the 194,000-square-foot office building was originally constructed in 1998 and will include structural upgrades as well as a modern design on both the first and second floors to foster a collaborative team culture well into the future. The space will comfortably accommodate the University’s current team while providing flexibility for future growth and the ability to adapt the space in alignment with the ever-evolving workplace.

The Stantec-XL design-build team will modernize UC Davis Health’s administrative space. The functional and aesthetic design will include open workstations for flexibility; numerous huddle areas for eventual use and conference rooms for team member collaboration and training; focus rooms and enclosed offices to facilitate concentration and privacy; as well as gathering spaces to support technology, socialization and work-life balance. The design will include ample parking for staff who occupy the facility, and the building will be designed in support of LEED Gold and University of California Carbon Neutrality guidelines.

“We pride ourselves on designing beautiful and thoughtful workplaces where employees can thrive,” said Kristine Townsend, Stantec design manager. “We envision this facility as a modern space with a nod to the future, and look forward to getting underway in partnership with UC Davis Health and XL Construction.”

Stantec’s latest work on the UC Davis Rancho Cordova administrative facility builds on the firm’s longstanding relationship with the UC system. Stantec is currently providing lead architectural, interiors, buildings engineering, and landscape architecture services for the UC Davis West Village project, the largest student housing development in the US. The $575 million project—currently in construction with developer, the Michaels Organization—will add nearly 3,300 beds to the University’s West Village neighborhood.

Renovations for the UC Davis Rancho Cordova administrative building are set to begin in winter of 2020.

The post Design-Build Team to Deliver New UC Davis Office Spaces appeared first on School Construction News.

DAVIS, Calif. — The University of California, Davis (UC Davis), recently broke ground officially on The Green at West Village, a campus apartment project with room for up to 3,300 students.

“I’m thrilled to celebrate with our partners this major step forward in addressing the critical need for affordable student housing,” said Chancellor Gary S. May. “Today’s groundbreaking is part of an ambitious plan to provide access to more housing for our students.”

Work on the site began in December and the first 1,000 beds are expected to be available for fall 2020; the remaining beds will be completed in time for occupancy in fall 2021. The student housing development will be part of the UC Davis West Village, which is the largest student housing construction project in the United States.

The Michaels Organization of New Jersey is the developer, with architectural services by Stantec, a global design company headquartered in Edmonton, Canada. The general contractor is CBG Building Co. of Arlington, Va.

“This student housing community demonstrates what is possible when the public sector and private sector form partnerships that leverage the strengths of both,” said Joe Coyle, president of Michaels Student Living. “An affordable, sustainable living environment for the students of UC Davis is the goal, and this groundbreaking is the first milestone toward that end.”

The Green at West Village will comprise nine four-story apartment buildings along with indoor and outdoor community space and recreational fields. A 10,000-square-foot community building will house a fitness center, multipurpose room and student support services. The project has a goal of 100 percent zero net-energy use on an annual basis.

The new undergraduate housing project is also a public-private partnership development with multiple study rooms and photovoltaic systems to provide power to the facility. The site for the construction is on approximately 34 acres to the north of the existing apartments at West Village and wraps around to the west.

The university’s original request for proposals aimed for 1,875 beds. However, UC Davis, The Michaels Organization and Stantec worked together to develop a plan that cut back on space for student vehicles, allowing more residential units.

The development is part of UC Davis’ new Long Range Development Plan, which projects the university will add 9,050 student beds and house 100 percent of any growth in student enrollment on campus.

The development is a public-private partnership between UC Davis, The Michaels Organization and Collegiate Housing Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

When construction is complete, the apartment complex will be operated by Collegiate Housing Foundation, which will hold the ground lease from the University of California. UC Davis Student Housing and Dining Services will provide on-site program and residence support services and be responsible for leasing and marketing activities.

The first phases of apartments at UC Davis West Village opened from 2011 to 2013, providing space for 2,261 students. The West Village is the largest planned “zero net energy” community in the United States. The West Village Neighborhood includes the existing apartments managed by Greystar, Los Rios Community College, the Energy Hub, and soon, additional undergraduate housing at The Green.

The post Student Housing Development Breaks Ground at UC Davis appeared first on School Construction News.

University of California, Davis (UC Davis) Health will change the way nursing schools operate, with an innovative new education building for the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis that begs students to ask questions, solve problems and simply practice what it’s like to care for people.

Completed this past summer and officially opened in October, the 70,000-square-foot Betty Irene Moore Hall is the ideal home to what is essentially a new school for the university. A $100 million donation from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the nation’s largest grant for nursing education, allowed the school to launch in 2009. And since launching, it has grown to include five different programs, with a student body of about 300 that will soon surpass 400 in the next few years. While borrowing space from the School of Medicine has served the nursing school well for the past decade, it was time for it to build its own space, according to Heather M. Young, founding dean of the nursing school.

San Francisco-based WRNS Studio teamed up with national construction firm McCarthy Building Companies Inc. under a design-build delivery methodology that helped the project stay on schedule and within its $38 million budget. Timothy Albiani, McCarthy’s project director for the project, emphasized that the delivery method was also rewarding in that the design-build team saw the project through from early programming to the final outcome of the top-rate educational building.

The school had a very clear vision for the project from the start. Young said that there were nearly 100 people involved, including several subcommittees to discuss everything from technology needs to facility issues. Together, faculty and staff created an 800-page specification document that guided the project through design and resulted in less than 1 percent change orders throughout the construction process.

“This project is really cutting edge,” Albiani added. “This whole building is about learning and the next wave of graduate students being educated to become better nurses and healthcare leaders. In fact, that’s the school’s entire purpose. Betty Irene Moore experienced treatment challenges during a hospital stay and made a personal commitment to expand nursing education to ensure nurses of the future had the most up-to-date training and skills. We really hit a home run, and we believe the School of Nursing got what they wanted to a tee. I think they asked for something they weren’t sure could be delivered, and with this building, they are able to push the envelope on progressive education further than they thought.”

In fact, Albiani thinks the school could change the approach to health education overall. “They’re changing the way a professional degree should be taught,” he said.

Nursing a New Education Approach

Veering away from the traditional lecture approach to education, the nursing school sought to engage students more actively from the get-go, and this new building only furthers that goal.

Specifically, the school wanted the capacity to do simulation, Young said. This ability to physically practice what it’s like to care for people is brought to life by either high-fidelity mannequins or patients who are live actors hired by the school to act as if they have a certain health condition. Students can get firsthand practice on clinical skills and bedside manner in a variety of simulation environments. They include the inpatient eight-bed “hospital ward,” task and anatomy skills labs, a 15-room primary care clinic and a one-bedroom apartment home health simulation suite that allows students to practice giving care in different residential spaces such as a bedroom, bathroom or kitchen. A lot of the practice is also recorded on video, so students can debrief and learn from what they see.

“It’s very different than lecturing because students get to use classroom time to have in-depth case discussions or practice in simulation,” Young emphasized. “The way [the building] is laid out is very different from a traditional education building.”

“[The building] probably doesn’t compare to many, if any, other nursing facilities,” said Kevin Black, McCarthy’s project manager for the project. “The larger classrooms are set up to be interactive with students engaging and interfacing with each other, while instructors move throughout the space; it doesn’t have the traditional podium up front with auditorium-style seating.”

Another thing that was really important to the university was that they wanted to use the circulation corridors efficiently. Edward Kim, WRNS project manager associate, emphasized the design team’s focus on “the third place.” Since students are no longer just commuting between the classroom and home, they need a “place” to study either individually or collaboratively with a group. Two of the main building program elements consist of active learning classrooms and skill or simulation labs. But equally as important to the university was the learning commons, the space between the classrooms and labs. The “learning commons” was programmed and designed to create a place where students can study and collaborate between classroom sessions.

“When talking about this ‘third place,’ we have conceptually identified it as ‘The Guts’ of the nursing school,” Kim said. “On the first, second and third floors, interconnected learning commons are treated with a bamboo wood wall that curves and bends to create different size alcoves for studying or collaborating. The third-floor learning commons has a window looking directly into the simulation lab, so there are even options to learn as a spectator while other classes are in session.”

The learning commons weaves throughout to continue both classroom and clinical learning. “Propeller tables” are strategically placed throughout these areas designed to encourage engaged learning and create an atmosphere where new ideas are discussed, debated and remembered.

“We wanted a place to invite people to connect, to spark the ability to have interesting conversations,” Young said. “All of our common spaces — corridors and lobbies — we wanted to be learning commons. So, the building was designed with places to sit and plug in a laptop and connect. It invites that kind of engagement; for instance, the walls are writable. We wanted a building that encouraged collaboration because we value that.”

To read the entire article, check out the January/February issue of School Construction News.

The post Facility of the Month: UC Davis Rethinks Health Education appeared first on School Construction News.