More parking spaces and new futuristic places coming soon to Saddleback College
Saddleback College bridge to LRC. (Credit: Alexia Tufenkjian)
Saddleback College is introducing the Advanced Technology and Applied Science and Gateway buildings and a new parking lot, bringing in a new phase of development for the 52 year-old campus that projects an estimate over a $100 million.
The new parking lot will replace the East Practice Fields, near the baseball stadium, is being converted into 464 new parking spaces, according to Senior Director of College Facilities, James Rogers.
The parking lot will be finished before Spring 2021, possibly done by Winter 2020. And will help ease the struggle of finding a parking spot.
Also four new electric charging stations will be open to students, faculty, staff and public use. The cost to use Saddlebacks’ electric charging stations will be determined in the future.
As of right now “Saddleback College has two Level 2 – 240 watt Charging Stations for the TAS department on campus,” said Rajanpal Dhillon, Senior Technical and Applied Sciences Lab Technician at Saddleback. “We have numerous calls that students want to use our electric charging stations.”
Today, the charging stations on campus are only open to the Technical and Applied Sciences department faculty and students, Dhillon said.
Saddleback’s history with electric charging stations started and paid for in 1999 by motor company’s, GM, Ford and South Coast Air Quality Management District. The 15 amp 120 volt charging station was open to students, faculty and public use. In 2001, there were fewer than 3,000 electric cars on the road in California, according to evWorld.com. By 2006 the charging station was removed, according to EV Charger News.
As of Feb. 2020, there are 700,110 zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) on the road in California, according to Veloz, a non profit organization, combined with diverse board and members from key sector companies, agencies and nonprofits leading the force behind electric cars.
California is the leader in the nation and the U.S. is second in the world having sold over 1.2 million ZEV’s, according to InsideEVs.com and HybridCars.com.
Cal State University-Fullerton, Irvine Valley College, University of California Irvine, Orange Coast College, Fullerton College and Chapman University all have at least one charging station available for faculty and students.
“The new electric charging stations are going to be in ground power generated,” said Rogers. “A solar powered changing station is an option, but is a more expensive unit for the school to purchase.”
After the new parking lot, the next project for Saddleback will be the new ATAS building which is estimated cost of $65.4 million and scheduled to be completed by Fall 2022. It will be located in Lot 5A, by the tennis courts.
“The ATAS building will have modern tech and class rooms,” said Rogers. “There will be two new electric charging stations near the new building.”
“The new Advanced Technology and Applied Science building at Saddleback College is a 52,100 SF facility that supports multiple modalities of learning (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic and Tacticle) in career technical education (CTE) and more traditional disciplines,” according to designers of the building Harley Ellis Devereaux (HED). “ATAS building showcases the diverse curriculum provided by the architectural drafting, computer technologies and maintenance, graphic design and communication, environmental sciences, marine biology studies, advanced manufacturing and Horticulture.”
The ATAS building had changed from its original plan in 2018, “The new ATAS building was too expensive to renovate. So our school decided it’s less expensive to build a new department. It’s a three building department, with two story structures in a u-shaped formation,” said Rogers.
“Exposed building systems and transparent maker(transparent walls) and exhibition spaces invite students to encounter ideas beyond their own curriculum,” said by HED, designers of the building. “The ATAS building achieves Zero Net Energy with an LEED Gold rating using passive strategies integrated into the design of the building, to minimize energy consumption.”
According to the Department of General Services, Zero Net energy for the ATAS building “is an energy-efficient building where, on a source energy basis, the actual annual consumed energy is less than or equal to the on-site renewable generated energy.”
According to the U.S. Green Building Council, “LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is the most widely used green building rating system in the world. Available for virtually all building project types, from new construction to interior fit-outs and operation & maintenance, LEED provides a framework that project teams can apply to create healthy, highly efficient, and cost-saving green buildings. LEED certification is a globally recognized symbol of sustainability achievement.”
The new ATAS building has a certified gold rating of 60-79, below the top platinum rating of 80+, according to the rating system stated on usgbc.com.
The new building will bring a new era of design and replace the old TAS and Applied Science buildings that are in need of an upgrade. Killing two old withered birds with one matte-black 3D printed stone.
The Gateway building will cost $45 million and is scheduled to be completed Fall 2023. This includes construction, design and planning. It will be located in temporary Lot 9A. If the Gateway building will have charging stations is still undecided at this time, Rogers said.
“The Gateway building is going to be three stories. The first and second floor will contain a one-stop student services containing, counseling, matriculation, Transfer Center, Career Center and Student Support Programs. Also it will contain a new ASG and club meeting rooms, with more modern rooms, moving our older buildings into the 21st century. On the third floor it will have highly interactive classrooms, with all the modern tech, much like the new science building on campus. Classrooms that could be transformed and have easily moved appliances to transition between various working environments,” Rogers said.
With the moving of the counseling office, transfer center, matriculation, counseling, career center and the student support programs will cause the SSC building to be empty. After the introduction of the Gateway building, to fill in the empty space left from the former offices of the SSC building there will be renovation so the futuristic classrooms and offices will take there place.
Also the college cafeteria will be moved to the SSC buildings first floor, after the creation of the Gateway building.
More details about the Gateway building will be announced in the near future.
You must be logged in to post a comment.