IA Building

Client: LPA Sacramento (Butte College)
Timing: 2006 to 2009
Const-cost: $18 Million
Team: NorthStar Engineering (Civil)
LPA Sacramento (Architect)
Buhler & Buhler (Structural)
Engineering Enterprise (Electrical)
Turley Mechanical (Mech & Plumb)
Angus Hammer (Tele Com)
Reference: Mike Miller - Dir. Butte College Facilities
(530) 895-2381
3536 Butte Campus Dr. Oroville, CA 95965
   
Description: Recent State and Local bond monies have allowed the Butte Campus to construct permanent buildings to replace the many on-campus portables.  The Instructional Arts building (IA) is the 6th building in this spree of construction.  The SGS building is a new 74,000 sf building adjacent to the existing arts buildings.  The building site (generally flat by Butte College Standards) features broad ADA pedestrian routes conforming to gently raising 4’ retaining walls, an outdoor plaza area ringed with low seatwalls, vehicle access to the open arts area, native LEED initiated landscaping.  This project is currently in the final phases of construction and will be owned occupied by fall 2009.

This project began with a complete site topographic survey including tying existing underground utilities and all surrounding facilities.  After the completion of the DD plan documents the College preformed a study and determined that several million dollars could be saved by moving the building 1000’ to the west to avoid some existing classrooms.  NorthStar Engineering had to re-do all of the work up to date including new topographic surveying and complete site re-design in a compressed 2 month time frame to stay on target with the rest of the design team.  Not only did we do it but re-submitted prior to the next scheduled CD submittal to make sure that the team had the correct CAD backgrounds.  NorthStar Engineering’s services included both bid and construction support keeping consistency and ensuring the contractor met district construction standards and conformed to the specifications.

In addition to the typical site improvement plans & specifications, NorthStar Engineering also prepared a campus wide storm drainage analysis to determine what infrastructure changes would be required for the new construction to achieve the LEED storm water credits.  The final report included design recommendations to modify an existing storm water detention basin and allow the college to meet the LEED storm water requirements.