Building a residential tower in the heart of urban Los Angeles required the project team behind Solair Wilshire to become innovative, creative and collaborative.
The team that built the Sony Electronics North American Headquarters used a number of innovative techniques, technologies and styles to create an award-winning project. Related Links: Best of California 2009 The project is an 11-story office building for 1,400 employees and an adjacent six-story parking structure with 1,400 stalls. The project’s 450,000 sq ft of space includes a 600-seat theater-style auditorium, fitness center, top-floor employee dining area and outdoor dining/activity deck. The designer worked closely with Sony to create an innovative design that makes the building look like a jewel box sitting at an oblique angle on a stone base.
On the surface, the Stater Bros. Climate Controlled Building looks simply like a distribution warehouse. But scheduling and planning the inner workings of the facility proved to be some of the most challenging aspects of the job. Related Links: Best of California 2009 The 700,000-sq-ft cold storage distribution center is a 40-ft-high concrete tilt-up building with various climate control areas. The multiple climate areas allows the shipping of all temperature sensitive products from one building. To meet the budget and schedule challenges of the owner, this project was led by the general contractor, which hired the project architect and structural
The $25-million, two-story, 45,000-sq-ft Science and Student Life Center project at Sacred Heart High School is targeting and expected to achieve LEED for Schools platinum certification. The campus is situated on a private high school campus and includes a 700-seat assembly area, 300-seat cafeteria, kitchen and science classrooms. Related Links: Best of California 2009 The scope of the work presented an unusual situation where project engineers were assigned specific subcontractors to work with on procurement and installation when the trades had to work together. For example, in the assembly area, the advanced production equipment had to interface with the electrical,
The Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollenbeck Station is proof that you can still go green and deliver a satisfying civic structure. Related Links: Best of California 2009 The project encompasses two structures – an 8,200-sq-ft senior center and an 8,000-sq-ft community center – and a parking garage. The $15-million project includes several amenities for both adults and children, including a library room, art studio, computer lab, game room and dance and fitness studios. The project team – Swinerton Builders and LPA, Inc. – also included a number of sustainable features that they believe would earn the project LEED silver level
The remnants of a former marine theme park have been transformed into a deluxe megaresort for adults. Related Links: Best of California 2009 Once the home of Marineland, the Terranea Resort and Spa project is a 582- room luxury hotel and conference center. A 50,000-sq-ft spa and residential units were also built on the 102-acre site. Building the resort on bluff s near the Pacific Ocean was challenge. The city’s building permit stipulated that any material moved during grading would have to remain on the project site. To mitigate the impact, the project team crushed 65,000 tons of material and
The Marine Mammal Center is a 24-hour animal rescue and rehabilitation facility located on four acres of Fort Cronkhite in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The project’s design was inspired by environmental responsibility and the adaptive re-use of a decommissioned NIKE Air Missile launch site. Related Links: Best of California 2009 When the center was founded in 1975, it was merely a collection of bathtubs, children’s wading pools and chicken wire that acted as makeshift pens for stranded seals. Today, the facility boasts a modernized water treatment system that nearly quadruples the center’s water-holding and treatment capacity (from 47,000
One of the tallest residential building in the U.S. west of Chicago, the $350-million Millennium Tower consists of a 60-story tower, a 12-story mid-rise portion with apartments, an amenity level, retail space and a public glass atrium that links the two structures together. In total the project includes 419 condominium units, 21,500 sq ft of amenity space, 8,000 sq ft of retail space and a five-level underground parking garage for 340 cars. Related Links: Best of California 2009 At 645 ft, the tower is the fourth-tallest structure on the San Francisco skyline. The tower’s immense height posed many challenges and
This new 4,600-sq-ft, $2-million restaurant occupies two historic waterfront pier buildings in San Francisco, straddling what was once a railroad passage that the architect modified to create a full-service, 112-seat restaurant and a separate, counter-service cafe. Related Links: Best of California 2009 The Plant is one of the only restaurants in the country equipped with a rooftop solar PV system for on-site, electrical energy production. Natural, recycled and simple materials were chosen that would have a long lifespan and not affect indoor air quality. The maximum amount of natural light was maintained and increased with a maximum amount of glass
The Mary Avenue Bicycle Footbridge project included the construction of a 325-ft main span pedestrian and bicycle bridge over 10 lanes of Interstate 280. Including the two 89-ft back spans, the entire bridge length is 503 ft long. The project provides a bicycle and pedestrian connection between Cupertino and Sunnyvale, two cities that were previously divided by the highway, and includes the bridge, gateway paths, extensive landscaping, and public art. Related Links: Best of California 2009 Teamwork and group perseverance in solving technical problems was significant when the project hit a financial, architectural, and schedule snag that almost caused the
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