Swinerton provided general contracting services to reconfigure the student union building, nicknamed the “Lair”, across two buildings. The renovation included a mediation suite, student leadership open space, a food bank, computer lab, and global study abroad offices. Constructive aesthetics included storefront partitions, casework, and custom wallcoverings.

One challenge the team?overcame occurred when vermiculite was found in the CMU fill of the exterior wall. The team?stopped work immediately, notified the agency, and the college provided abatement. Internally, our safety manager and project manager filed near-miss incident reporting. The team was?able to ensure the safety of the workers on the jobsite by stopping work immediately and communicating with the project team when the workers could safely return to work.

The NetZero project is a cluster of three unique academic buildings surrounded by multiple agricultural, garden, and landscape areas to serve various academic and research activities. At the heart of the complex will be a new 15,000-square-foot academic building featuring functional learning environments. The LEED Silver-equivalent building is constructed entirely of locally-produced glulam columns and beams and exposed Mass Plywood Panel (MPP) ceilings. Adjacent to the building will stand a flexible learning and research classroom that utilizes steel columns and locally-built roof trusses. Across the courtyard, a 3,000-square-foot Pavilion building will offer open-air classroom space and a gathering area. This building features a combination of glulam and steel columns, glulam beams, and an exposed butterfly roof with Mass Plywood Panels that channel water to a central gutter and out to a rain garden. Located between the pavilion and main classroom building, 100-person amphitheater will support outdoor group training, presentations, and community outreach activities.

The Fire Technology/EMT Training Facility combines classroom and simulation training for fire-fighters and paramedics, including instructional in service support. The site is located on the north campus gateway adjacent to anew administrative building and transit center, providing an important marker for arrival to the campus. The facility was planned as a campus within the campus, providing a traditional classroom area and a large multi-purpose hall for large group presentations, locker and shower facilities for students and faculty, a ‘dirty classroom’ for field instruction, a turn out room for fire-fighter gear storage and an outdoor training area, called, “The Grinder”, for field simulations and training with apparatus and fire hoses. Connected to the Grinder will be a state-of-the-art command center where digital simulations are used to train for emergency response. In addition, a four story training tower and three-bay apparatus area provides for training operations with fire-fighting equipment. Specific training areas incorporated into the site include a 100’ x 200’ open tarmac for vehicle and apparatus maneuvering practice, crash vehicle site for extraction training, hose practice area with back-splash wall and water collection / recycle system, and a 4-story drill tower with internal stairs and platforms, exterior balcony, climbing wall, and adjacent rooftop training area.

Design of the facility incorporates outdoor places for group training, gathering and events. In addition the multi-purpose hall provides an overlook to the Grinder for observation of apparatus training. The multi-purpose room and student lounge have sliding glass doors allowing the rooms to extend into the exterior patio and landscape areas.