Complex shoring and underpinning helped crews safely renovate the 1939 Art Deco-style University of California printing plant and build a 30,000-sq-ft addition encased in a sweeping metal skin. To form the new theater space and below-grade galleries, the three-story concrete building was suspended in midair on “stilts.” The foundation was cut and removed to construct a new basement level beneath it. Through the entire process, the suspended building moved less than 0.001 ft. Installing new mechanical and electrical systems in tight tolerances required careful coordination and more than 100 structural-beam penetrations to maintain high ceilings in the galleries. The building’s proximity to the nearby Hayward fault required the design of four seismically separated structures that move independently yet meet at common points.

Back to California Best Projects