Construction of a second campus for Laredo Community College is giving the southern part of that Texas border town a chance at renewed vitality.

Choosing to locate its new $50 million south campus in an impoverished neighborhood initially raised some local eyebrows. But since the June 2002 groundbreaking, the burgeoning campus has sparked a rebirth in the surrounding area.

"This is a significant moment in higher education for Laredo, Nuevo Laredo and our surrounding communities," said Francisco Martinez Jr., dean of Second Campus Planning. "As the hometown college for this region, we take a great deal of pride in being able to locate our new campus in the southern portion of our city."

Chris Hamilton, project manager for Houston-based general contractor Satterfield & Pontikes Construction Inc., called it a bold move on the part of the college's board of trustees
"I think part of the intent of bringing this project to the south side of Laredo was because this part of the city is economically depressed as compared to the north side," Hamilton said. "The college wanted to bring something to the south side that would help the socio-economics of this area. So far, it looks like it is having the desired effect."

Even though the project is still several months from completion, new developments have already started to pop up around the area.

"There are restaurants here that weren't here before, a new high school that was recently completed and there are strip centers and multi-family developments in the planning stage around the campus area as well," Martinez said.

Dr. Ramon Dovalina, president of Laredo Community College, said he believes construction of the south campus will not only rejuvenate the neighborhood, but much of the Lower Rio Grande Valley area as well.

"For every dollar invested by our taxpayers in LCC, the Texas Association of Community Colleges estimates that we will return $3.87 in economic value," Dovalina said. "If you apply this formula to the $50 million this campus will invest in the community, our taxpayers can expect a return of $193 million."

In November 2000, Laredo voters approved the issuance of $50 million in bonds to finance the land acquisition and construction of the LCC south campus. The Texas Legislature kicked in an additional $250,000 grant for the master plan. Construction costs are expected to be just over $30 million with the remaining funds earmarked for land acquisition, equipment purchases, furniture and athletic fields.

The new campus will feature seven separate buildings encompassing 230,000 total sq. ft. Each of the buildings in the 60-acre complex has been designated by a letter of the alphabet: Building A - student services and dining facilities; B - library; C - classrooms and laboratories; D - child development; E - industrial technology and the campus' central plant; F - criminal justice and police training; and G - physical education.

Each building boasts its own individual character as well as function.

"One of the most interesting facets of this project is that the construction of all the buildings is very different," Hamilton said. "For example, four of the buildings are slab-on-grade, while the police training facility has a basement, so you have concrete walls and a pan deck there. Building C is a combination slab-on-grade and structural concrete with hollow-core planks, and Building A features elevated concrete, which consists of columns and beams with hollow-core planks.

"Not only that, you have a combination of concrete masonry unit walls on the industrial technology and physical education buildings, while the rest have mainly metal studs and drywall.
The variety of the different types of construction here is really remarkable."

Getting Started

While the project continues on pace for a December completion, construction nearly was derailed before groundbreaking. After several old buildings were demolished and removed from the site, discovery of high-pressure natural gas lines crisscrossing the site threatened the project.

"One of the most complex parts of the early construction phase was relocation of those gas lines," Hamilton said. "There was some question early on whether we could even get that done because of the various easement issues. But with a lot of help from the gas companies, we were able to get those lines moved properly and that problem was alleviated."

The unusual design of some of the buildings has also been an unusual hurdle for construction crews to clear.

"Building A, for example, has many odd angles," Hamilton said. "It makes the steel detailing and fabrication process laborious to say the least. But the design on this project was completed in only 10½ months from start to construction documents. That has created some interesting challenges."

Construction has closely resembled a design/build project, although "I didn't really want to say that," Hamilton said. "We have had a lot of clarifications and minor modifications on this project.
But that's in no way meant to be critical of the design team because they only had about half the amount of time to design it as we have to build it."

Nevertheless, the project has already received an award for preliminary design excellence from the American Institute of Architects. The Houston office of international design giant Gensler & Associates Inc. served as architect of record for the project while the San Antonio office of PBK Architects Inc. was the associate architect.

Part of the reason for such compacted design and construction schedules revolve around the bond package being used to finance the project. As part of the package, the facility must be officially open by next March although school officials expect classes to begin in advance of that date.

Architectural Flair

The main entrance to Building A features a three-story elevator lobby with a generous amount of glass curtainwall. The 40,000-sq.-ft. structure features a mixture of standing-seam roofs, metal wall panels and modified roofs as well as multiple types of masonry veneers.

It stands between the buildings housing library and classroom facilities, each of which has its own architectural flair. "With its multitude of odd angles, Building A is a far cry from a straight-up, rectangular, big-box-type building," Hamilton said. "Building C is similar in that it has a lot of odd angles, but it is much larger at about 80,000 sq. ft."

The flooring in the two buildings will feature different patterns of stained concrete. Crews from San Antonio-based Specialty Concrete will use a combination of processes including Cemtint, a staining method using penetration of the surface rather than chemicals. Cemtint is utilized for a more natural look and smoother texture.

Serving as one of the new campus' focal points will be the 25,000-sq.-ft. library, encased beneath a metal canopy and expansive amounts of glass curtainwall, installed by Twin City Glass of Edcouch.

Also on the north side of the complex is an architectural water feature. Water flows from west to east in a reflecting pool along Building B and empties into a pond at the bottom of the glass curtainwall.

A bell tower is also situated between buildings A and B to provide another distinctive design feature. Charleston, S.C.-based Van Bergen will cast a specially designed bell for the tower, which features a combination of jumbo-sized, red brick with smooth-faced and some split-faced, cream-colored CMUs. Alpha Masonry of Mission is serving as the masonry contractor for the entire project.

By mid-April, crews were averaging 5-10 work schedules with the workforce expected to approach 300 as peak construction occurs later this summer.

"Our finishing sequence will be buildings E, D, G, F, C, B and A," Hamilton said. "Building E contains the central plant, and since our chilled water has to be online before the finish work can begin, we will complete it first. Then, we'll progress from the most important to the smaller buildings and then on to the most complex.

"Since Building A is the most complex of the seven buildings because of its many angles, it will be completed last."

Seventeen separate parking areas are also part of the project, and school officials anticipate a student population of about 3,000 when classes begin next year.