Shooting for the Stars

MCC Hopes to Inspire Students with New Physical Science Building

By Scott Blair

Mesa Community College’s new $16 million physical science building packs quite a punch in a small package. The project includes classrooms, labs, office space, rooftop astronomy platforms and even a public planetarium.

The Physical Science Building at Mesa Community College is being built with students in mind.

Tempe-based construction manager-at-risk Barton Malow Co. is putting the finishing touches on the 62,000-sq-ft, two-story project, which will be ready for classes later this month.

Crews put the finishing touches on the main lobby which is brightly illuminated by a skylight that leads students up the stairway to the student services space.

“One of our primary focuses was to make this a facility where learning science and engineering would be fun and accessible to students,” says Mike Sims, Ph.D., the physical science department chair. “Secondly, we wanted to make it a facility where there were a lot more opportunities for impromptu and casual interaction between students and faculty to promote learning.”

An early hurdle for the architect, the Phoenix office of SmithGroup, was programming for the diverse academic department. “If you look at the university level, you’ll have an earth science department and that’s it,” Sims says. “In our case, we’ve got physics, astronomy, geology, physical science, engineering and chemistry. Six disciplines, all with very diverse needs and all with different classroom and lab needs.”

With a final budget of just $16 million, SmithGroup was able to integrate the various disciplines with a mixture of offices, classrooms laboratories, an advisement center, a rooftop astronomy observation platform and even a planetarium.

The building occupies a former parking lot on the west side of the campus, near Southern and Dobson roads. Perimeter load-bearing masonry with an interior steel-column frame comprises the structure sitting atop a spread footing foundation, says Joe Marihart, superintendent with Barton Malow.

During pre-construction, the team had to deal with cost escalations on a weekly basis, says Brad Woodman, AIA, vice president of SmithGroup.

“That’s where the construction manager-at-risk approach really worked,” Sims says. “Having Barton Malow at the table really helped us out because they had recent experience on a physical science building in Yuma, and they had current cost estimates. That way I could go back to our college administration to scare up more funding to do the project right.”

Another tactic to reign in the budget was to arrange the project into two guaranteed maximum pricing packages. “The first GMP was established to get us off the ground and with the long-lead-time items,” Marihart says. Items included underground utilities, foundation, steel and casework, which allowed those components to be procured prior to the completion of the entire design documents.

“Without that first GMP, we wouldn’t have been able to open in time,” Woodman says.

The project went vertical quickly after breaking ground in April 2007, with footings in the ground within two weeks of moving onto the site, Marihart says. “We put ourselves far enough ahead of schedule early on that we had time for any hiccups that inevitably happen throughout a job.”

The building will be the first to be LEED certified for the Maricopa County Community College District, which oversees a network of colleges including MCC.

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“With every dollar being critical, the project was initially not slated for certification, as even the fees for certification were thought to be better spent on bricks and mortar,” says Mark Kranz, AIA, LEED AP, design principal with SmithGroup. “However, since the design was conceived as inherently sustainable, there were no hitches when funds for the application and certification were finally secured.”

The most visible sustainable aspect to the project will be photo-voltaic panels that will top an outdoor plaza designed as a pre-function space and drop-off area for visitors to the planetarium. The panels, which will provide a total of 50kW for the planetarium, were donated and installed by Tempe-based utility Salt River Project.

The building also features many behind-the-scenes green aspects. The labs contain over 40 fume hoods that for safety reasons only use air once before it is exhausted to the outside. “You don’t get the opportunity to re-use that air, but you can re-use the energy that’s in the air,” Woodman says. “We capture the cooling or heating through recoil and other means to re-use the energy.”

The fume hoods, manufactured by Hamilton Laboratory Workstations of Two Rivers, Wis., operate more efficiently with only 60 ft/minute face velocity rather than the standard 100 ft/minute. “You can move less air and still have a safe environment,” Woodman says.

Students can view the inner workings of the building’s engineering systems via plasma displays located at several kiosks throughout the building. “This display system will describe the water and energy consumption of the building and act as a teaching tool for students,” Kranz says.

A 1,000-sq-ft astronomy area with 10 telescope platforms is located on the roof. Because the air handler is located just 30-ft away, each platform has been outfitted with a vibration isolation system to eliminate even the slightest vibrations.

The building’s sizable air handling units, each weighing in at 31,000 lbs, were lifted into place on Feb. 15th using a 240-ton crane. (Photo courtesy Barton Malow)

The planetarium isn’t as large as in some science museums but is suspended just above the seats, which will allow viewers to be almost completely encapsulated by the 30-ft-diameter perforated-metal panel display screen. Because the screen hangs from cables directly below the air handler, it too is isolated from vibrations through the use of suspension dampers.

Salt Lake City-based Evans & Sutherland, specializing in digital planetariums, started with flat sheets of the perforated metal and then curved and cut them on site to form the custom display screen, Marihart says.

While the planetarium will be used in teaching MCC students, it will also be an important tool for the college’s community outreach program. Thousands of local elementary school pupils are brought in throughout the year to participate in various fun activities designed to encourage kids to explore science education, Sims says.

The planetarium is easily accessible through a dedicated entrance on the building’s south side, which features a drop-off area large enough to accommodate school buses.

The building’s exterior design serves to provide better wayfinding for MCC students arriving to the campus, while providing shelter from the sun in plazas on the east and north sides.

“As the primary gateway to the campus from the south, the building not only creates a shaded portal for students, it allows a ‘top-heavy’ building to provide a deep overhang for a variety of shaded outdoor academic spaces for the campus,” Kranz says.

Key Players

Useful Sources

To learn more about MCC’s Physical Science Department, visit www.mc.maricopa.edu/dept/d43.

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