The project I am recommending to the Board of Trustees of
the San Diego Community College District is a scope change to the new Student
Services Building. This building is
scheduled to be complete in Fall 2012.
The outside fascia is 80 percent complete. The proposal is to request a design change to
the south side of the building. The
north side of the building has a modern glass design, but the south side of the
building has metal siding. The use of
this material and color schema doesn’t seem to be in alignment with the rest of
the campus architecture. The
recommendations we make are minimal. We
recommend changing the color palette of the metal sliding or adding glass panes
to the metal sliding so that south side of the building is in sync with the north
side of the building. We understand that
changing the scope of the project could jeopardize the timeline and increase
cost. The recommendations we’re making
can be done after the buildings complete and retrofitted at a later time and
costs should be minimal given the overall scope. If the students and faculty had known the
back would be metal sliding, the design would’ve been rejected. If we do nothing, the building will win the
Grand Onion award given out by the San Diego Architectural Foundation. I am confident you will select my proposal and
help keep bad design out of the community college district. Go take a look yourself and tell me if it’s
not poor design.
Tony Lo
