Clark Construction

Architect:

Carrier Johnson + Culture

Client:

University of California, San Diego

Scope Of Work

The Village East at Torrey Pines community provides on-campus accommodations for 807 transfer students at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). The community’s overall design creates an urban village that fosters social interaction with a focus on sustainability and the natural environment. Clark completed the design-build project nearly three months ahead of schedule and still exceeded sustainability goals without impacting the project's strict budget.

The 238,000 square-foot Village East development includes high-end student housing options, faculty office space, a dining facility, and a student market. The student housing portion of the project is comprised of five buildings: a 13-story concrete residential tower with 82 apartments and four low-rise “eco-flats” with a total of 60 apartment units. The eco-flats are woven together with a series of cantilevered walkways that connect via exterior stairs and elevators.

The community’s remaining two buildings are steel structures consisting of approximately 13,500 square feet of dining, market, and faculty office space. These structures are designed to encourage social interaction between students by utilizing a combination of vibrant architecture, ample day lighting through large storefront windows, and both indoor and outdoor seating areas. All buildings in the community are interconnected by a common pedestrian walkway, called The Strand, which runs diagonally across the entire site and between all the structures.

This fast-track design-build project had a very short design and construction schedule. In order to meet the client's deadlines, the design team maintained five separate BIM models between three project architects in two offices. The design-build team, despite being in disparate locations, consistently met once a week to coordinate throughout the design phase and completed design one month ahead of schedule allowing an early start to construction. 

With more than 512,000 man-hours of work, the Village East project had zero lost time incidents.

Sustainability

Although creating a sustainable housing community was one of the owner’s priorities, the project budget was fixed. Clark and the design team made achieving a LEED Gold rating a top priority, and through the construction phase, earning necessary LEED credits became a project-wide team effort. Village East demonstrates that a project can exceed its sustainable goals and be built efficiently without sacrificing budget, schedule, or quality. 

Innovative sustainable amenities were key to earning LEED Gold. One of the most notable features is a thermal solar system that heats domestic water for the residences' bathrooms and the dining facility. Solar panels are installed on the roof of the tower and, in addition to collecting thermal energy, provide shade for the units on the top floors. Taking advantage of the area’s natural climate and proximity to the Pacific Ocean’s offshore wind, all Village East residences are naturally ventilated, and as a result, there is no mechanical cooling provided for the residential units. Non-potable “recycled” water nourishes native outdoor plants through an efficient drip-irrigation system.

PROJECT AWARDS

Build San Diego Award - Best Sustainable Project