Grand Opening of Twin Classroom Buildings at Miramar College

SAN DIEGO — A grand opening ceremony took place recently at San Diego Miramar College to celebrate the school’s new $34.4 million Humanities & Arts and Math & Business buildings.
 

The 45,000 square-foot Humanities & Arts building features a lecture hall, recording studio and studio space for drawing, painting and ceramics, along with office space for faculty and support staff, according to a statement from the school.
 
The new Math & Business Building, totaling about 45,899 square feet, includes a mathematics research center and faculty office space. Both new wings feature “smart” classrooms, equipped with computers, audiovisual and multimedia equipment.
 
The two buildings received Projects of Distinction awards in the 2008 Education Design Showcase, and are in the process of attaining LEED Gold certification.
 
In order to meet the San Diego Community College District’s Green Building Policy, all projects are built to receive LEED certification, with windows that utilize ‘high-performance’ glass that allows sunlight to filter into the building, but reduces the amount of UV light and solar heat entering the building. The buildings’ sloped roofs provide north-facing clerestory windows and south-facing photovoltaic panels, and their design includes efficient thermal “massing,” which delays the transfer of heat throughout the course of a day, and minimizes the impact of a heating or cooling load on a building, according to the school’s statement. Thermal massing can be achieved using heavy materials like concrete, brick and stone.
 
Recycled materials, high efficiency lighting, plumbing and mechanical systems are used throughout the project.
 
The ceremony also included the formal opening of the school’s new Compass Center, a giant circular azimuth compass feature in what officials say will be the new central gathering point on campus.
 
The design celebrates the history of aviation at the Miramar campus, a former military airfield site known as the Hourglass Field, with flagstone runways set within the compass shaped in the form of the original Hourglass Field, and pedestrian pathways to connect new and old buildings.
“The physical compass design evolved from a desire to integrate a practical learning tool for students on a number of educational levels — both aeronautical and mathematical,” the school’s statement said.

 

The project was funded through the San Diego Community College District’s $1.555 billion Propositions S and N construction bond program, passed in 2002, and were the bond program’s first to be fully integrated in a Building Information Modeling system.
 
The project’s partners included: NTD Architecture, Sundt Construction (CMMP project), Wiseman + Rohy Structural Engineers, Michael Wall Engineering, DCE, Inc., Wimmer Yamada & Caughey, Gafcon, Inc.