HomeMy WebLinkAboutFRCC HEALTH CARE CAREERS CENTER - SPA180002 - SUBMITTAL DOCUMENTS - ROUND 1 - PROJECT NARRATIVEFront Range Community College
Health Care Careers Center – Project Narrative
Site Plan Advisory Review Submittal
November 27, 2018
This document summarizes the design goals for the new Health Care Careers Center (HCCC) for Front Range
Community College (FRCC). FRCC hired the Haselden Construction | Hord Coplan Macht Design/Build (D/B) team
in August 2018 to verify the HCCC program requirements and to start the design for the project. The HCCC building
will consolidate the Larimer Campus Nursing and Allied Health departments into one health sciences focused building.
The project will not alter any existing zoning or Land Use Codes.
The following are a few of the design priorities identified by the FRCC President as goals for the team:
• High stakeholder involvement (both internal and external)
• Exterior view of the building at the street intersection creates a prominent welcome to the campus.
• Design that is generally compatible with the rest of the campus (but not necessarily mimicry)
The D/B team has kept these goals in mind throughout the past several months for the schematic design phase.
SPAR timeline:
• FRCC and the design/build team met with the city on September 12, 2018 to discuss the goals for the
project and the process for the SPAR review.
• The D/B team then submitted a drawing package for a Preliminary Design Review on September 29, 2018.
• FRCC met with the city forester on September 19, 2018 to review existing site trees and identify trees that
should be protected during the project construction. The city forester provided documents that outline
guidelines for landscaping that we have incorporated into our landscape plan.
• FRCC held the required neighborhood meeting on September 26, 2018. There was not any indicated
opposition to the project during the meeting, and several neighbors expressed an interest in continuing the
campus connection to the neighborhood to the south with the pedestrian pathway.
To meet the project schedule identified by FRCC to complete construction by June 2020, Haselden has determined
that they will need to start construction in April 2019. Therefore, the D/B team created a design schedule that
includes an early bid package for earthwork, site utilities, structural foundations and steel procurement that will be
submitted in February, and a second bid package for the remainder of the project scope of work due in April 2019.
The D/B team worked closely with the User Groups, the project Steering Committee and the Executive Committee
to verify program needs and to assure required adjacencies for each program location to develop a floor plan layout.
The HCCC is to be a 61,000 GSF, 2-story structure located at the vacant lot at the northwest corner of the Larimer
Campus.
The HCCC will be located at the southeast corner of the Shields Street and Harmony Road intersection, just north of
the campus/community library, and west of the existing Sunlight Peak campus building. The site legal description is
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as follows: A portion of land located in the northwest quarter of Section 2, Township 6 North, Range 69 west of the
6th P.M., City of Fort Collins, County of Larimer, State of Colorado.
The corner location for the HCCC building makes for a highly visible project site that provides an opportunity for the
building to create a ‘Gateway’ to campus and provides an opportunity to create a stronger community connection to
campus than the rest of the existing campus buildings currently provide. The two existing campus access points from
Harmony Road and from Shields Street will remain in their current condition and there will not be any additional access
points provided to campus for this development, except for a temporary construction access point at an abandoned
bus stop pull out area on Shields Street, just southwest of the building site. Please see the attached Traffic Impact
Study completed by Delich Associates regarding anticipated traffic impact on the existing intersections that provide
access to campus. The existing parking lots on campus provide 2,072 parking spaces, which is more than 6 times the
zoning requirement of 324 spaces; therefore, no additional parking, or parking lot lighting, is planned to be provided
for this development. The project goal is to avoid losing any existing parking spaces and to add a drop off/pick up
lane along the south edge of the HCCC building.
The exterior design for the HCCC balances the contextual use of building materials and scale found on existing
campus buildings with a prominent vertical translucent atrium that provides a primary entry to the campus core, and a
secondary entry to the street intersection. To relate to campus context the building materials include red and tan brick
with layered, horizontal brick banding, and the building mass incorporates a unified base and parapet top elements
that reference existing campus building forms. The brick masses are ‘eroded’ at corners to create translucent
openings, and a variety of vertical and horizontal shading devices have been incorporated at windows to reduce heat
gain and glare issues, and to also provide a rhythm of horizontal and vertical forms. The building will also include
FRCC branding/signage visible from the intersection. The atrium has a prominent, angled form that slopes up at each
entry, providing glass walls at each entry and at clerestories above the lower roof forms.
The primary entry will be from the southeast corner of the atrium and is designed to align with the existing pedestrian
walkway from the parking lot. A new prominent plaza provides an intersection for the two main pedestrian pathways
on campus and leads students and visitors directly to the main entry. The plaza design incorporates the existing
pollinator garden west of Sunlight Peak, as well as outdoor study areas, benches and landscape areas. Since this
project is partially State funded there will be an art sculpture element in the plaza area, with the final location
determined by a committee. There will be an added handicap accessible connection from the entry plaza to the
existing bus drop off on Harmony Road, just north of Sunlight Peak. A new drop-off lane has been added at the north
edge of the existing parking lot, which is directly south of the project site. There are no natural wetlands on the
proposed building site. A trash enclosure will be located at the southwest corner of the building and will be built into
significant site grades that slope up toward Shields street, which will assist with screening the dumpsters. The
materials for the enclosure will be brick on block structure, with brick colors/pattern that will complement the building.
Gates for the enclosure will be painted steel.
The college is participating in the city of Fort Collins IDAP process and held our kick-off meeting on November 15,
2018, with the goal to be a LEED Gold certified building.
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The existing observatory is currently located on the south edge of the proposed building site and so will be relocated
100 feet to the south during the construction phase. The new location will be half way between the HCCC building
and the Harmony Library.
Attached are the responses to the city review from the Preliminary Design Review submittal for your record.
Please contact us if you have any questions about this SPAR submittal in preparation for our work session with the
city team on December 19, 2018 and the Planning and Zoning Board meeting on January 17, 2018.
Sincerely,
Gwen Gilley, AIA, LEED AP BD+C
Principal
Hord Coplan Macht
ggilley@hcm2.com | 303.222.0228