Showcase Projects
UCSD - Eleanor Roosevelt College
San Diego, CA

"As we enter our second decade, Roosevelt College thrives in the present - and reaches for the future." When the college's provost, Ann Craig, wrote these words recently, she aptly titled her essay Building for the Future.

At Eleanor Roosevelt College, which is the University of California San Diego's fifth and newest undergraduate college, "building for the future" is an understatement. The university has, in fact, embarked on the largest construction project in its history, both in terms of funding and square footage. Founded in 1988, Roosevelt College has grown steadily and today boasts an enrollment of more than 2,300 students. Accommodating that growth is a top priority for UCSD. The university has earmarked a 12-acre site on the northwestern edge of the existing campus that will soon be home to student housing, a dining commons, and a student activity center named International House. All of these new facilities are aimed at enhancing Roosevelt College's unique approach to immersing its students in living-learning communities.

While this construction project may not be unusually complex, it is unusually large. University crews are completing all the plumbing and mechanical work for 20 buildings totaling 466,290 square feet. Among them are 14 residence halls and apartments with 1,238 beds, two full-service laundry facilities, a fully equipped kitchen and dining facility that will seat 300 people, and an administrative and office building.

As Project Manager John Modjeski expresses it, "We're putting in miles and miles of piping." We also are constructing 10 mechanical rooms that will house the full array of boilers, hydronic pumps, domestic hot water heaters, storage tanks, and circulating pumps. Two of the mechanical rooms will contain chillers and air handlers as well.

The UCSD Eleanor Roosevelt College Team:
Mechanical engineer: Ove Arup and Partners
General contractor: Rudolph and Sletten
Mechanical contractor: University Mechanical & Engineering Contractors
University project manager: John Modjeski
General foreman: Ed Norling
Plumbing foreman: Durrell Pons
Sheet metal foreman: Larry Tooker
Project engineer: Billy King

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