Leo A Daly, Architects

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
And SELECTED SECTIONS of DETAILED REPORT

In February of 2002, the Maricopa Community College District retained the offices of Leo A Daly and 3D/International to develop a Master Plan for the South Mountain Community College.  The following document summarizes the finding of the master plan process.

The primary goal of the master plan is to fulfill a requirement of a bond initiative for all the colleges in the district.  Each college must have an approved master plan that cites key development projects that may be included in the measure.  In addition, the Master Plan must provide a framework for long-term development of the campus, for projects beyond the scope of the measure to allow the campus to grow and respond to its evolving community.

The Master Planning Committee assisted in shaping the direction for future facilities that support college strategic directions.  This committee discussed demographic information, enrollment projections, goals and program information that were used to develop the South Mountain Community College Master Plan.

This six month process, with extensive participation from the students, the community college faculty and administration, sought to deal with the critical issues facing the campus.  Meetings were held every two weeks.  The meetings were started with an overview of the previous meeting followed by a round table discussion over issues of concern.  These workshops helped to develop the campus master plan issues, needs, goals and objectives.

The master plan addresses the campus in context with the surrounding community.  Furthermore, it emphasized the campus’ importance as a community icon by enhancing entry points and creating a place of distinction to be shared by visitors and residents of the area.  In addition to creating an educational resource for the community, the campus is also a link to open space amenities such as the ball fields, tennis courts and the future Western Canal trail system.

The campus is in the center of a thriving community with new housing starts occurring in the general vicinity as well as in Laveen, Ahwatukee and Chandler.  The college and its main campus are facing growth issues.  The plan focuses on future expansion needs of the existing programs, the replacement and rebuilding of older buildings and future improvements to the expansion on the college educational centers.  The resulting master plan evolved through a series of meetings and discussion as how to best achieve this end.

The plan achieves the primary goal of providing the necessary programmatic space in the quickest time possible and with as little disruptions to the existing services as possible.

Master Plan 20-Year Vision

The vision for the main SMCC campus is both simple and memorable.  The plan accommodates the existing built fabric, while striving for a cohesive character of a unique campus.

The master plan’s “X” form anchors the campus, while establishing important connections to the campus corners and neighbors.  The strong clarity of the plan also defines a new central plaza – “heart of the campus.” The gateways invite both local inhabitants and nearby corporate participants.  The engagement of these members will enhance and complete the community college experience.

Large field of parking are a reality of any large development.  Here, the allocation and division of the parking landscape lends the area a much more comfortable feel and sense of scale.  Pockets of paring are created for ease of access to classrooms and to reduce the typical massive size of parking.

Similarly the collaboration between architecture and landscape architecture heightens the campus identity and character.  The campus will provide a sense of pride to the occupants and a sense of comfort for users.

To realize these goals, the master plan allows for a gradual and easy process of phasing.  It is also sensitive to the burden of limited budgets and an ever shifting timeline.  Therefore, the sequence of phasing tries to be as holistic as possible and to minimize disruptions to the daily operations of the community college.

The 20 Year Master Plan

SMCC Main Campus – Campus Assessment

The FCI or Facilities Cost Index summarized the result the survey.  For SMCC, it shows the expected cost per square foot to replace each facility and the estimated cost of repairing the deficiencies found.  For the campus as a whole the cost of repair would be about $7.2 million and the expected cost of replacement would be approximately $24.5 million, so the FCI for the campus as a whole is 29.3%.  The generally accepted rule of thumb in building condition assessment is:

Condition                FCI%                       
Excellent                 0 – 5%
Good                      6 to 10%
Fair                        11 to 20%
Poor                       21% & above

SMCC has eleven buildings which are greater than 40% FCI.  These building will require closure for complete renovation.  This will need to be scheduled within the present decade.

Conclusions

Ten buildings on the SMCC Campus are in serious need of renovation, and one is in need of removal.  Fortunately, this work does not have to be done immediately.  Given the fact that the campus is growing extremely rapidly and because the condition of several facilities is severely deteriorated, such that they will need to be closed for renovation, it is recommended that new facilities be brought on line as quickly as possible so that existing facilities can then be evacuated and remodeled as quickly as possible.

In summary, we recommend the strategy for SMCC be “Build the new, then vacate the old, and replace the old or make it new.”  Aside from affording the best and most timely responses to user needs, this approach would be the most cost effective, as well as the most productive.

Phase One and Proposed 2004 GO Bond Improvements

SMCC Guadalupe Center

The existing SMCC Guadalupe Center is located on the southeast corner of Calle Guadalupe and Avenida Del Yaqui.  It is part of the Town of Guadalupe complex which consists of:

SMCC Guadalupe Center (5000 s.f.)
Town of Guadalupe Multi-purpose Building (17,000 s.f.)
Boys & Girls Club of the East Valley (24,000 s.f.)

The Guadalupe Center currently experiences a desperate lack of space despite being built in late October 2000.  The classrooms have overflowed into the adjacent Boys & Girls Club and other nearby facilities.  When all of these used spaces are added together, barely doubling the existing s.f. would barely satisfy the current need.

SMCC Satellite Campus – Laveen Village

The gross area projection for the Laveen campus of SMCC is assumed to be similar to the Guadalupe Center which is approximately 20,000 g.s.f.  The rough breakdown of that area projection is 15,000 g.s.f. for instructional spaces and 5,000 g.s.f. for administrative support areas.

There are several campus locations opportunities that will need to be explored, as follows:

• A vacant tract of land (80 acres)
• A cooperative development along with the Phoenix Parks Department property to the Laveen Conveyance Channel
• The opportunity exists to be included in the proposed development of the Laveen Village Town Center Plan