Los Angeles Southwest College

Child Development Center

Delivered for the Los Angeles Community College District, The Southwest College Child Development Center and Consumer Studies Complex progressed from design approval to DSA submittal in under four months.

Some of the challenges of designing this 32,000 square foot building included:

• Integrating a campus-wide upgrade of utilities and infrastructure throughout the site.
• Providing adequate strength for a structure adjacent to an active earthquake fault.

With most of the current and potential issues anticipated, the change order status of the building is under 3.5%, and maintained the original 17-month design and construction schedule.

The Child Development Center at Southwest College generates 287 DC KWH of power daily using two separate solar arrays. This represents 12-14% of the power demand of the building. One solar array acts as a shade structure over the play yard and a second rooftop array serves double duty by shading the central cooling plant.