The Plan for the New Building
Preliminary Floor Plans of Renovated Building
Basement, First Floor, Second Floor, Third Floor
The Darwin Hall project addresses capital renewal needs for a building that is 35 years old.
The building houses the School of Science and Technology and requires modernizing of the laboratories to redistribute the level of instruction and provide laboratories for new programs.
This modernization of its instructional and research space will serve the University's science curricula for present and future generations of students.
This project will renovate seriously outdated classrooms and laboratories, correct health and safety deficiencies, ensure compliance with ADA and building codes, and optimize the energy efficiency of the building systems.
The space layout will be reconfigured to improve space efficiencies by increasing square footage by 1,800 ASF and itscapacity by 266 FTE in lecture space and 10 new faculty offices. It will also redistribute the teaching lab space to reflect enrollment trends resulting in +72 FTE in LD laboratory space and -50 FTE in UD laboratory space, for a net total increase of 22 FTE in laboratory space.
Monies
from passage of Proposition 47 amounts to $26,012,000 for the actual
renovation. The future cost for equipment is $3,414,000 which is funded
by the passage of Proposition 55.
Charles Darwin Hall Science Building Renovation
Chong Partners Architecture
Brief Description of Project
Charles Darwin Hall was built in 1968 as one of the original buildings at Sonoma State University.
Top to bottom total renovation was authorized from a portion of a State of California Bond Issue.
Chong Partners Architecture was hired by Sonoma State University and began design work in August 2003. The design team included Research Facilities Design as consultant for laboratory planning, Rutherford & Chekene as Structural Engineer; Flack + Kurtz as Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing Engineers, Brelje & Race as Civil Engineers, and Shen, Milsom, & Wilke as Acoustics and Vibration consultants.
The design team worked with the School of Science and Technology and with Facilities Services in a series of workshop meetings to plan the layout of the renovated building. Rudolph & Sletten joined the team during the planning process and provided cost and constructability reviews. Construction Documents were completed and Construction began in January 2005 with Rudolph & Sletten continuing as Construction Manager.
A key goal that was achieved by the entire team, including Sonoma State University, Chong Partners Architecture and Rudolph & Sletten as Construction Manager was that the renovation of Charles Darwin Hall be completed prior to the Fall Semester, 2006.
Features include:
- Accommodations for all six of the academic departments that comprise the School of Science and Technology:
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Computer Science
- Geology
- Mathematics
- Physics and Astronomy
- Each department is grouped together and will retain an individual identity within the School of Science and Technology. Within departments teaching spaces have been located near stairs and corridors have been widened to allow for these higher traffic areas.
- Replacement of the existing two lecture halls with three new lecture halls that are all accessible to persons with disabilities and are all wired for student computers. Lecture halls are all on the First Floor for easy access for students from within and outside the School of Science and Technology.
- Entirely new Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning to meet modern laboratory requirements.
- Use of Direct-Indirect Evaporative cooling for a portion of the year to conserve energy and take advantage of local climatic conditions.
- Project participated in the Pacific Gas & Electric Company “Savings By Design” program to maximize energy saving opportunities. Laboratory design was also reviewed for energy savings as part of the Labs 21 Program of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.
- Creation of new office suites for each academic department that are conveniently located with respect to classrooms and laboratories but which provide internal office corridors (instead of the old situation where faculty offices opened directly off of the main corridors)
- Faculty offices throughout the building have been designed to be a universal size and configuration to allow for future flexibility. Similarly, laboratory spaces have been planned in a modular fashion to accommodate future changes.
- Major renovation of the building lobby to create a student lounge that looks out onto the garden and provides a place for students to study between classes.
- Creation of conference rooms for use by the School of Science and Technology for interdepartmental and community group meetings.
- New facilities for the various departments including provisions for preparing and storing specimens, preparation of rock samples, chemical storage, cold storage and other specialized rooms and equipment.
- New classrooms, wet and dry laboratories and upper division support spaces.
- Entirely new exterior windows with dual pane insulated glazing for improved thermal performance. New building entrance doors and storefront glazing. New roof. Painting of the building exterior for a new bright, fresh look.