McCarthy Breaks Ground for Miramar College Parking Structure and LEED-Designed Police Substation

July 14, 2010 - PRLog -- McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. (www.mccarthy.com), one of the nation's leading builders, has broken ground for the construction of a new 828-space parking structure and an adjacent 6,000-square-foot police substation at San Diego Miramar College, located in the Mira Mesa/Scripps Ranch area of San Diego. An official groundbreaking ceremony was held July 14.
   The police station building is designed to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, and is on track to be the first LEED Platinum project for a higher education institution in San Diego County.
   The $17.8 million project is part of the San Diego Community College District’s $1.555 billion Propositions S and N construction program, which is providing for new instructional and career training facilities, major renovations, campus-wide infrastructure projects, and parking and public safety enhancements at City, Mesa and Miramar colleges, and six Continuing Education campuses.  A virtual tour of the new Miramar College parking facility and police substation can be viewed at www.sdmiramar.edu/facilities/construction_updates.asp.
   "The McCarthy team brought a cost-effective, aesthetically pleasing, efficient- operating parking structure concept to the table, together with some innovative approaches to our achieving LEED Platinum Certification on the police substation,” said David Umstot, vice chancellor of the San Diego Community College District. “We’re looking forward to again collaborating with them to complete this ambitious endeavor.”
Most recently, McCarthy built the new $28.9 million, 50,000-square-foot Allied Health Education and Training Facility at San Diego Mesa College in the Clairemont area of San Diego. Also funded by the Propositions S and N construction bond program, the Allied Health building is tracking LEED Gold certification.
   The four-story, above-grade parking structure at Miramar College will be constructed with poured-in-place reinforced concrete. The scope of work for McCarthy includes related site work, including drought-tolerant landscaping and high-efficiency irrigation systems that use reclaimed water.
   The adjacent single-story police substation will provide a central hub for campus safety and security, wayfinding and parking permitting. Key to its sustainable design is a green roof grid system, which will cover the majority of the roof deck. The grid system uses modular panels for ease of installation, roof access and maintenance. A green screen will cover the west elevation of the parking structure and achieve the look of a vertical garden. The vegetation to be used will contribute to a microclimate that is central to the facility's passive thermal and natural ventilation design.
   The xeriscape plants to be incorporated into the roof system will significantly reduce the need for stormwater infrastructure conveyance and retention systems. They also will help remove impurities from storm-water runoff, while reducing maintenance costs for filtration systems.
   Additionally, the green roof and wall systems will reduce the heat island effect and complement the benefits of the pervious pavement to be used in the parking area. The green screen on the west elevation of the parking structure will further contribute to lower ambient heat gain, both within the police substation and the new parking structure.
   An array of other sustainable design features factor into the building's LEED Platinum level sustainable design, including terra cotta rain screens that create a vented facade and increase building envelope energy efficiency; curtain walls that have horizontal exterior siding on the south, vertical fins on the east, and a large glazed area facing north; operable windows that provide natural ventilation; Solatube skylights that capture natural light and enhance occupants' work conditions; ceilings in the office and work areas that open to the concrete slab and optimize the radiant properties of the building's thermal mass; and suspended ceiling "clouds" that enhance acoustical performance while serving as reflectors for daylight.
   Still more green features include "cradle to cradle" certified finish materials, renewable and recycled flooring, and low-emitting casework materials.  The reception area of the police substation will showcase a recessed, interactive flat screen panel that informs visitors of the building's sustainable features, and reinforces Miramar College's sustainability goals.
   "Construction execution will require conscientious tracking and monitoring to keep the project on the correct course toward LEED Certification,” said Bob Betz, project director of McCarthy Building Companies. "We’re looking forward to working with the San Diego Community College District to help realize its mission to build the first LEED Platinum community college facility in the region.”
   Harley Ellis Devereaux is the design architect, with International Parking Design as the architect-of-record. Jessen Wright Structural Engineers is the structural engineer, Randall Lamb Associates is the electrical engineer, SC Engineers is the mechanical engineer, and Burkett & Wong Engineers is the civil engineer.  Schmidt Design Group is serving as the landscape architect.  Gafcon, Inc. serves as the program manager for the Propositions S and N construction bond program.
    McCarthy is the nation’s 10th largest domestic general contractor (Engineering News-Record, May 2010) and has been one of the nation's leading parking structure builders since the advent of the modern parking structure in the 1960s.  The company was named the state’s third largest “Green Contractor” (California Construction, May 2010). McCarthy has delivered nearly 400 parking facilities throughout the United States, providing parking spaces for more than 70,000 cars in California alone.   The firm offers general contracting, construction management, program management and design/build services for parking structures; healthcare, educational, mixed-use, laboratory, biotechnical, retail, entertainment, industrial, multifamily and microelectronics facilities; office buildings; tenant interiors; and bridges and highways.  In addition to San Diego, McCarthy has offices in Newport Beach, Sacramento and San Francisco, Calif.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; St. Louis; Dallas and Atlanta. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned.  More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com

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About McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.:
McCarthy is the nation’s 10th largest domestic general contractor (Engineering News-Record, May 2010) and has been one of the nation's leading parking structure builders since the advent of the modern parking structure in the 1960s. The company was named the state’s third largest “Green Contractor” (California Construction, May 2010). The firm offers general contracting, construction management, program management and design/build services for parking structures; healthcare, educational, mixed-use, laboratory, biotechnical, retail, entertainment, industrial, multifamily and microelectronics facilities; office buildings; tenant interiors; and bridges and highways. In addition to San Diego, McCarthy has offices in Newport Beach, Sacramento and San Francisco, Calif.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; St. Louis; Dallas and Atlanta. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned. More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com