San Jose City College faced a budget dilemma: its cosmetology program is in high demand and looking for a larger home, but neither a location nor a budget for it has been identified in the master plan. Meanwhile, decision makers are convinced that the old student union building, a 1950’s era pre-cast concrete building, must be demolished due to the difficulty of upgrading it structurally and adapting to other uses.

Coming late into this process, AEDIS immediately suggested to the client that the old student union be saved and converted to house the cosmetology program. AEDIS prepared space planning schemes and commissioned structural studies to show that the idea is not only feasible, but much less expensive than building a new structure. The client approved this approach, and the final program included an additional component, the reprographics department.

Cosmetology facilities occupy the majority of the converted structure, with the public lobby and cosmetology classrooms on the first floor while esthetician labs and faculty offices are on the second story. A connected one-story wing houses the reprographics department. Most of the exterior building shell is retained, except that the 2 walls facing the entrance courtyard are replaced with new window walls to create transparency and showcase the activities inside the building.

Numerous technical challenges are resolved during the design process. The building needs to be lighter to avoid triggering a mandatory seismic upgrade; the floor to floor height is only 10’-2”, making the fitting of HVAC ducts, conduits and lights extremely challenging. A full size mock up of the ceiling-roof assembly is built on-site prior to actual construction.

 

“AEDIS is very good at building their client relationships. They value their clients and are very service-oriented. They don’t nit-pick me on fees. I just negotiated an increase in fee with Thang because I realized we added some scope of work. But many architects nit-pick their fees and since we’re a public agency that doesn’t have a lot of resources, that is crucial. That is one area I like about AEDIS – they are receptive to negotiation. I also feel relaxed and at ease with them. I trust their abilities.”

Rudy Nasol
Project Manager
San Jose Evergreen Community College District