A key architectural focal point at the building’s entry is a stylized open book feature, accomplished through a glazing structure. DPR’s ability to innovate has been critical as it contends with construction challenges that include a tight downtown site with very little lay down area. The building is surrounded on all four sides: two sides adjacent to existing buildings, and a city street and a utility right of way on the other sides. The system, which utilizes large, 50-ft.-long, 12-inch-diameter pipes to stabilize the below-grade walls, was chosen in lieu of the more common tie-back system in deference to adjacent property owners who did not want tie backs underneath their structures.

The DPR team that recently completed this CCRC was well aware of the personal impact the entire design and construction process would have on its end users. That awareness set the tone from the beginning and increased the team's commitment to delivering a top-quality project, on schedule and budget, that met both the tenants' and the owner's needs.

Representative of DPR's increasing foray into the growing senior housing market, The Covington project for Episcopal Homes is a multi-building retirement community that provides a full continuum of care for seniors. The 460,000-sq.-ft. complex consists of the following, set within a campus-like atmosphere:

• A separate independent-living facility with 131 resident units, two guest suites and numerous amenities, such as pool, dining hall, full-service kitchen, arts room and fitness center;
• A 30-bed, two-story assisted-living facility;
• A one-story, 24-bed Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD)-regulated skilled-nursing facility;
• 24 private cottages; and
• A two-story, below-grade parking structure with 273 stalls.

• Medical office building
• New central plant and IT building
• Surgery center
• Onsite and offsite developments including street improvements

The campus includes a four-story medical office building including a basement level radiation therapy center which houses linear accelerators, a cat scan machine, and a Ximatron. The 131,000-sq.-ft. structural steel building was built to OSHPD 3 standards. The central plant and IT building, also built to OSHPD standards, consists of 11,000 sq. ft. of masonry construction. Also included in the complex is a single-story, 55,000-sq.-ft. steel and stud framing surgery center that will house outpatient care.

Kaiser's Palm Court I & II will provide training to their administrative support (1,195 employees) for members, as well as Fontana Medical Center. Member and administrative services include: Preventative Medicine, Health Education, Patient Business Services, Patient Support Services, Pharmacy Administration, Conference Centers, Extended Care/Geriatric Services, Recruitment Services, Education and Training, Riverside Call Center, Fontana Call Center, Surgical Services Call Center, Psych Call Center, Pharmacy Call Center, and OPAS/HealthConnect Training and Support.

The corporate headquarters tenant improvement project was a result of the consolidation of several other Yard House offices in Southern California. The 23,300-sq.-ft. office space, formerly occupied by Chrysler, encompasses one floor of a nine-story, 209,095-sq.-ft. office building within walking distance of the Yard House's Irvine restaurant located at the Irvine Spectrum outdoor shopping center.

The tenant improvement build-out was a high-end remodel of the entire floor consisting of office suites, conference rooms, administration space and a fully-stocked kitchen/lunch room. Unique design elements from the Yard House restaurants were included in the new office space, including their famous overhead "beer lines."

The new Watson Land Corporate Headquarters building is a two-story corporate office building, approximately 24,800-sq.-ft., with one level of below grade parking, is located in Carson, California.

The exterior of the building is pre-cast concrete and curtain wall window systems. The structural frame is a Special Steel Moment Resisting System with cast-in-place concrete basement walls.

The interior build-out consists of a laboratory/analyzer room, offices, conference rooms, reference libraries, IT room, lunch rooms, locker/shower rooms, and shop area. The shop areas have two 40-inch long (10-ton) and one 40-inch long (5-ton) overhead cranes, plus eleven 1-ton floor-mounted jib cranes (18' high). Additionally, there are eight welding booths with central exhaust system in the shop area.

The electrical system is a 480V 3ph 200A service with a motor control center. The mechanical system consists of a 40-ton and 35-ton air handling unit, hot water boiler, closed system air-cooled cooling tower, Liebert DX coils with variable air volume and constant air volume.

The project included a new ground-up, steel-framed office building for personnel and an expanded parking area for about 171 cars (78,000-sq.-ft.). The project took 130,000 hours of labor and 15 months to complete, with 52% of construction waste diverted from landfills.

Sitework included demolition and renovation of existing paving, light structures, terra-cotta tile, glass and aluminum composite panel exterior and landscaping. The terra cotta tiles and opposing angles of the new media center fit perfectly into the Downtown Riverside skyline.

All of the buildings 34 conference rooms are named after well-known landmarks and communities around Southern California's Inland Empire.

DPR delivered this project on time and with zero defects.

The first floor houses the Blood Bank and Stem Cell Laboratory (approx. 18,000 sq. ft.); the second floor houses the Donor and Therapeutic Aphaeresis, National Donor Program and support areas (approx. 18,000 sq. ft.). The project has achieved LEED®-NC Silver Certification, making this City of Hope's first LEED-Certified structure on their campus.

While the parties ultimately entered into a different form of agreement for the project, they did employ certain processes consistent with principles of IPD.

“DPR has worked on several IPD projects, and we are a huge supporter of lean, integrated project delivery systems, along with the use of BIM,” said Seastrom. “City of Hope, particularly Dick Thompson, wanted to implement processes consistent with IPD on the Gonda project.”

During the design phase, the team brought on design/build MEP subcontractors to participate in the Target Value Design (TVD) process, a lean construction tool that incorporates cost as a factor in design to minimize waste and create greater value. The idea is that once a target cost is set for a project it should never be exceeded.

The new four-story research laboratory facility, targeting LEED-NC Silver certification and connected to an existing structure, will double the space for investigations into diabetes and other serious metabolic diseases.

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In March of 2008, DPR completed a 10,000-sq.-ft. buildout of a research laboratory for emerging nanoscience technologies for the California Institute of Technology Kavli Research Institute. The 8-month project, which took place in a fully occupied, functioning facility, features three classes of cleanrooms: Class 100, Class 1,000 and Class 10,000 - similar to highly technical microelectronic manufacturing facilities. To offer some perspective, according to Wikipedia, the ambient air outside in a typical urban environment might contain as many as 35,000,000 particles per cubic meter. Cleanrooms, which DPR has constructed more than $3 billion worth over the last 18 years, are classified according to the number and size of particles permitted per volume of air (i.e., Class 100 means 100 is the maximum permitted number of particles per cubic foot).

Although well-experienced in cleanroom construction, with its large ductwork and stringent clean-construction protocols, DPR still had to overcome several challenges in the building of the Caltech Kavli research laboratory. The Kavli lab is located in the subbasement of a five-story building, two levels below grade, which means the space in which to locate the mechanical systems that support the laboratory's equipment was limited. Simply put, space was extremely tight. DPR quickly mitigated the problem, however, by working with the HVAC contractor to design/assist the mechanical needs of the project.

In addition, Irvine facility capacity increase plans necessitate a purified water system capable of supporting higher WFI demand. The stills have far outlasted their original life expectancy of 15-20 years and must be replaced by a robust, efficient generation system that complies with current GMP design standards and satisfies future production needs.

The ultimate goal of the Irvine WFI Storage & Generation System Upgrade Project is a robust, flexible, energy-efficient, GMP compliant, cost effective, automated purified water generation system that can quickly respond to changing production needs and future capacity expansion.

Specific scope components include:

• City feedwater booster pump replacement (3 total).
• Three (3) pretreatment trains consisting of carbon filtration, water softening, sanitization skid, and ancillary components.
• Three (3) 6000 gph vapor compression stills.
• Two (2) Storage Tanks (15k gallons each).
• Interconnecting piping, pumps, heat exchangers.
• All necessary instrumentation and controls for a fully automated system.
• Arch/infrastructure/support utility modifications.
• Relocation of existing maintenance support areas and Mens bathroom.
• All required installation, commissioning & qualification activities/costs/permits/fees.
• Upgrade of existing Reverse Osmosis system to ensure reliable sterilizer process supply.
• The new generation & storage system will be interfaced with the existing WFI distribution system – no modifications or enhancements to the current piping system are included in this scope.
• Existing brine pits will be reused.

More than doubling the size of the worldwide market leader's Los Angeles area cabinet capacity, the project required the team to devise solutions to a host of technical challenges posed by the need to convert, or "Equinize," and existing data center unto the very detailed specifications of Equinix's high-performance centers throughout the U.S. and Asia-Pacific.

DPR delivered this complex, fast-tracked renovation two days early, on budget and with zero defects.

The restoration was completed in time for Opening Day 2008.

Key elements of the gallery include a glass loggia that sweeps along the front that communicates with the gardens outside by providing for the viewing of sculpture with the Brown Garden and the San Gabriel Mountains as a backdrop. The building's interior space features four square and three rectangular galleries with an octagonal room at its center. The elegantly outlined, cleanly detailed, and contemplative spaces are lighted with a combination of natural and incandescent light.

While unexpected challenges put the project team to the test, the ability to work through and overcome them made for a highly satisfied client in the end. "This was my first experience with a Zero Defects program, and I found it to be a big contributor to the success of the project," the operations director commented. "We're very pleased with the smooth turn over and the minimal number of issues demanding follow-up."