Business & Foreign Language Building
Diablo Valley College
Pleasant Hill, Calif.
Anshen + Allen

Modular space-making satisfies both a tight budget and a creative design

© John Edward Linden

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This facility hosts state-of-the-art classrooms, computer laboratories, language laboratories, and departmental offices flexibly designed to remain up-to-date in the years to come. To achieve that goal with a highly restricted budget, the architects used an integrated approach to modular space-making, structural and mechanical design, and power and data distribution.

The architects designed a hybrid structural system. Steel was laid in a longitudinal direction based on the module of a faculty office of nine feet. This became the rhythm that the classrooms and laboratories were then built upon. To create a warehouse effect with a clear span of 55 feet, which allows for spatial adaptability, the architects removed all services from the interior partitions to make them "dumb walls." Therefore, the space is easily adaptable to the varying needs of the building.

Power and data distribution is supplied through the floor with an integrated system including the structural decking and carpet tiles. A series of concrete block walls on the perimeter provide the needed lateral support and part of the building envelope. In an effort to make the building yet more economical, the exterior, with its cantilevered roof plane, allows for much of the circulation.

Location:
Pleasant Hill, Calif.

Gross square footage:
25,976 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
$5.4 million

Owner:
Contra Costa Community College District

Architect:
Anshen + Allen
901 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
415.882.9500
415.882.9523
www.anshen.com

Gregory Blackburn, AIA	Jeff Logan, AIA	David Martin