2025 West Best Projects
Award of Merit, Higher Education/Research: University of San Francisco Malloy Pavilion New Practice Gymnasium
University of San Francisco Malloy Pavilion New Practice Gymnasium
San Francisco
Award of Merit
Submitted by ZFA Structural Engineers
Owner University of San Francisco
Lead Design Firm C + A Architects Inc.
General Contractor Cahill Contractors LLC
Civil Engineer Sherwood Design Engineers
Structural Engineer ZFA Structural Engineers
MEP Engineer CB Engineers
With limited space available on campus for this $17-million, 16,800-sq-ft NCAA gymnasium that features basketball and volleyball courts, plus office space, UCSF had to think vertically.
The project sits on top of a below-grade parking garage that was built in 1965 and remains attached to a mid-rise residential hall, while the site is bordered on one side by an existing gym.
The new gymnasium needed to be seismically isolated from the parking structure below to avoid a mandatory seismic upgrade to the parking garage and residence hall, which would have made the project impossible due to cost and downtime.
As a result, the gym floats above the parking garage. Only one steel frame and one stand-alone steel column penetrate through the garage’s three levels below. These penetrations were enlarged to allow for seismic movement of the new structure above.
The new gymnasium extends beyond the footprint of the parking garage, allowing robust perimeter steel frames to occur outside the garage structure.
Having only three columns within the parking structure required large spans and cantilevers, accomplished with the help of full-story-height trusses within the perimeter gymnasium walls.
The trusses were 22 ft deep with spans up to 100 ft and cantilevers up to 18 ft. The project was delivered on time and under budget in May 2024.
