San Diego’s near perfect weather year round has inspired many architects and designers to create facilities that utilize the region’s abundant sun for natural lighting and to blend indoor spaces with outdoor areas, thus increasing usable space. The multi-award-winning University of California, San Diego’s Student Academic Services Facility serves as a prime example of this principle, as well as a model for sustainable design of higher education buildings.

The new five-story, 141,000-square-foot Student Academic Services Facility was self-certified by the UCSD using the LEED rating system and embraces myriad sustainable design features.

Designed by renowned San Diego architect Rob Wellington Quigley, FAIA, and built by McCarthy Building Companies, the L-shaped facility houses multiple departments including the Registrar, Financial Aid, Graduate Studies, and Admissions. The facility also includes a 300-seat multipurpose room that features 16-foot rollup windows that open onto the courtyard, an immense drop ceiling with enhanced acoustics, and concrete block wall. Two restaurants and retail stores eventually will serve both visitors and the campus community.

True to Quigley's signature style, the new building exudes a sense of openness, allowing inside spaces to integrate seamlessly with the outdoors. A design schematic that incorporates natural, unfinished materials; open ceilings with exposed mechanical and electrical systems; and residential-quality finishes leaves nothing to hide, requiring that the construction be near flawless.

Sustainable design elements were integrated throughout the project, including site selection that took into account solar orientation; drip irrigation and other high-efficiency irrigation systems; FSC-certified lumber; 20 percent better than current California Title 24 energy efficiency standards; high-performance glazing; daylighting that meets the majority of daytime lighting needs; full spectrum fluorescent lights and high-efficiency electron ballasts; low-emitting adhesives, sealants, carpet and composite wood products; and distinctive recycled plastic lumber sunscreens that provide shading over the south and west facing windows.

"Although the primary purpose of the sunscreen panels was to reduce heat, aesthetics of course were also important," said Quigley. "The construction team's ability to line up every plastic board, and over 750 fasteners on 24 different panels, was remarkable."

Additionally, the lobby millwork is constructed using alternative agrifiber products, restroom tiles are made from recycled glass, restroom partitions and countertops are made from recycled plastic, and waterless urinals and water-efficient lavatory aerators lower water use. No CFCs or HCFCs are used in the HVAC and fire suppression systems. Much of the reusable construction waste was donated by McCarthy to St. Vincent de Paul.

Other distinguishing features of the project include immense floating steel stairways that overlook the central courtyard; use of CMV concrete block on the elevator shafts; a novelty display with coils attached to river rocks that hold in place campus pamphlets; rusted metal elevator doors; a high-performance Pilkington glass system surrounding the upper level cafe; galvanized steel staircase rails and colored concrete flooring within the interior offices; corrugated concrete panels within the interior courtyard; bullet-resistant glazing at the cashier's line; and huge, tilted stucco panels that line the south side of the building.

One particularly challenging aspect of the project was the extensive concrete work, which McCarthy self-performed utilizing Colton Type III concrete cement. The ground floor is covered by a tall arcade structure consisting of 114 42-inch-square, 28-feet-high exposed architectural concrete columns that form a moment frame. A large mezzanine, which required 12,600 square feet of form liner, sits upon these columns. Levels three through five are steel framed with composite metal decking and concrete floors, and steel braced frames provide lateral resistance.

Construction of the entire $30 million concrete and structural steel hybrid building was coordinated through the use of 3D BIM (Building Information Modeling) technology.

"We decided early on to adopt the BIM technology for this project due to its complicated nature," said Ross Malik, project manager for McCarthy. "The 3D program allowed us to detect high clash zones and modify ducts before field installation. This helped keep field revisions, due to conflicts or clashes, to a minimum."

According to Bob Spurling, project superintendent for McCarthy, the base plates for the steel structure above the concrete deck were at the bottom of the beams on the concrete deck at the third level. Therefore, the columns had to be diaphramed before steel erection could take place. Additionally, the third-floor concrete deck was specified as “face as cast” architectural concrete that required the use of HDO plywood, which had to be protected from the steel erection that took place over the top of it. The form liner in the soffit of the deck could not be installed until the steel was erected.

McCarthy met the challenge by landing the rebar on the third level, then hoisting it up to the bottom of the fourth level steel structure once it was erected to allow installation of the form liner. Shoring for the concrete deck had to be set on mud sills due to the polished concrete slabs that would be placed once the shoring was stripped.

"Bob and his crew pulled off a first-rate concrete job — one of the best we've seen," said Quigley.

Because all electrical systems were to be encased within the concrete, the second-level deck was welded in place to embed installed in the concrete columns once the third-level deck was poured and falsework was stripped out. Formwork for the architectural columns were designed so that McCarthy could pour the columns full liquid head to avoid any lift lines. No chamfer was allowed on this project, so all corners were formed square using watertight forms to produce a top quality concrete product in line with The Salk Institute, for which the firm also self performed the concrete work.

"Almost as soon as the building was completed, it received the top Honor Award by the San Diego AIA," said Boone Hellmann, campus architect for UCSD. "This feat could only have been accomplished with the high degree of pride and care for the architectural concrete that McCarthy brought to the project. They truly represent the cream of the crop.”

Soon thereafter, the UCSD Student Academic Services Facility was named a top winner of the AGC "Build San Diego Awards". The project also was honored by California Construction magazine as part of its 2007 "Best of California" awards program.

Ron Hall, executive vice president of McCarthy, served as principal-in-charge for McCarthy Building Companies. UCSD Senior Architect Pnina Goldberg provided project oversight. KPFF was the structural engineer; Bechard & Associates, mechanical and electrical engineer; Boyle Engineering, civil engineer; and Wallace, Roberts & Todd, the landscape architect.