Making Room for New Facilities at Chemeketa Community College

SALEM, Ore. — Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Ore., is expanding to provide advanced technology and more space for students at the growing campus.

The college is in the midst of a $24 million multi-phased expansion project for Chemeketa Community College’s Applied Technology Program. The expansion includes two new facilities and several remodels including renovations for automotive, visual communications, welding and drafting/engineering.

The project is expected to begin in summer 2013 and will last two to three years before it is turned over for use.

Each project in the multi-phased expansion will range from $1 million to $16 million. The expansion also includes significant improvements to campus infrastructure and a redevelopment plan for the north portion of campus. Parallel to the building design efforts, the college’s executive leadership will be engaged in a series of workshops to determine the near and far development goals for the campus.

Portland, Ore.-based Yost Grube Hall Architecture (YGH) is working on the design of the project, alongside Carlson Veit. All planning, architecture and interior design was completed by the team.

The project is expected to receive LEED Silver certification, as green building strategies will be implemented throughout the design and construction of the new 60,000-square-foot machining and electronics building, as well as the 14,000-square-foot renovation of the welding building.

The growing population of the school has caused school officials to reexamine building space and facility usage in order to provide for the growing needs of the school and student-body.

A recent program analysis and feasibility study was developed over a one-year period, involving 12 participants from the 12 academic programs at the college, along with industry partners. The academic programs were engaged through workshops and facility tours, while industry partners participated in a series of symposiums on and off campus. To meet the programmatic requirements within the assigned budget, a thorough analysis of building construction types was conducted in conjunction with equipment and material needs assessment by each program.

As technology is becoming more and more a part of daily life, students will soon be learning first-hand the benefits of applied technology in the classroom.