Regent Development and McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. have completed the Sacramento City Unified School District’s (SCUSD) new campus for the School of Engineering and Sciences, which opened to students in January 2010 for the winter term. The five-building, 39,681-square-foot campus on Havenside/Gloria Drive near Florin Road replaces the temporary campus and will house up to 500 students, grades 7-12. WLC Architects designed the campus.
“This project represented a true collaborative effort, and the end result is an innovative campus, which incorporated cutting edge technology to emphasize the technical science and engineering curriculum offered by the school,” said Mark Radell, McCarthy’s project director. “It is gratifying to be a part of a project that will foster an optimal learning environment for years to come.”
The School of Engineering and Sciences is one of the SCUSD’s small, innovative schools dedicated to providing choices for students and their parents. The school provides access to standards-based teaching and learning in a personalized project-based educational environment, with particular emphasis on the math, engineering and science subjects.
“We are extremely proud to be part of such a successful project,” said Duane Wray, executive director, capital projects of Regent Development. “The quality of the school district-city partnership, coupled with an outstanding team comprised of Regent, McCarthy, WLC and various subcontractors, created a great synergy for making this an exceptional project. Furthermore, by incorporating a number of sustainable elements, we were able to save the taxpayers and district money.”
Regent and McCarthy utilized a number of construction methods and products that resulted in cost efficiencies, less environmental impact and minimal disruption to the surrounding community. For example, the School of Engineering and Sciences is among the first few schools in California to employ an innovative building technique using geopiers. Approved for use by the California Division of Architecture, the process of installing geopiers includes digging 13-foot holes and packing them with recycled crushed concrete or local aggregate. The geopiers anchor the foundation to the earth, as well as other conventional systems such as driven piles. As a benefit to the community, geopiers are installed much more quickly than using traditional methods, minimizing the noise disruption. Additionally, geopiers are environmentally friendly and cost effective, saving taxpayer dollars.
The project team is also constructing the adjacent Robbie Waters Pocket-Greenhaven Library, which is scheduled for completion in summer 2010. The library is the first built through a cooperative agreement between the city and school district. In addition, the project team is also constructing the campus’ athletic fields. Both the library and athletic fields will be open to the School of Engineering and Sciences students and area residents. The entire project is the product of a hybrid partnership between the city of Sacramento and the SCUSD.
About Regent Development
Regent provides first-class development services to public agencies including cities, counties, colleges, universities, K-12 school districts and state and joint-use agencies. It offers design/build/finance services to its public clients and was one of the first to employ the lease/leaseback delivery method in the state of California. The Regent team is comprised of experienced development professionals who have had leadership roles in federal, state and local governments and in private industry. To learn more, visit Regent online at www.regentdevelopment.com.
About McCarthy
Founded in 1864, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest commercial construction companies. The company provides general contracting, construction management, program management and design/build services for resort and entertainment, education, healthcare, parking, entertainment, retail, laboratory, biotechnical, microelectronic, and industrial facilities; green buildings; office buildings; tenant interiors; mixed-use; and bridges and highways. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned. More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com.
