New Facilities at Wilsonville, OR College Campus

DPR’s Portland office recently wrapped up construction on an aggressive six-month project for Clackamas Community College’s Wilsonville campus. DPR coordinated with the teaching staff, as well as the college’s associate owners, Pacificorp and Portland General Electric, to work while the school was in session. Completed with zero defects, DPR remodeled 5,000 sq. ft. of existing training facilities and classrooms, plus built an 8,600-sq.-ft. industrial training workshop. In addition, DPR constructed a two-story, 23,000-sq.-ft. space for classrooms equipped with audiovisual cabinets and fiber optics, administrative offices, telecom/data rooms, and a student dining area.

Just One Year After Opening Office, DPR Takes Top Honors in East Bay

DPR recently received “Contractor of the Year” honors from the East Bay Business Times, during its inaugural annual Structures awards. Nominated by the publication’s readers and staff, DPR, which is already ranked as the top commercial contractor in San Francisco’s East Bay region after opening an office in Pleasanton a little more than a year ago, stood out from other finalists for its recognizable projects. In addition to the Bay Street project (see page six), DPR has constructed such notable East Bay buildings as the IKEA store, Pixar Animation Studios (which won Interior Design of the Year), Roche Molecular Systems’ campus and the Sybase corporate campus. The East Bay Business Times also noted DPR’s recycling program as another reason for the award. At the 420,000-sq.-ft. Sybase project in Dublin, CA, which was finished in December 2001, DPR recycled 193 tons of concrete, 147 tons of wood, 42 tons of drywall, 77 tons of metal and 31 tons of cardboard. The more than 490 tons of recycled materials far exceeded the city’s requirement that 50 percent of construction debris be recycled and was enough to fill a one-acre field a foot high.

DPR Goes Back to School

DPR recently gave a six-day seminar on construction techniques to a group of students at Gateway High School in San Francisco. As part of its five-year “Base Camp,” the San Francisco office “adopted” Gateway last year, taking on small construction projects at the growing school and tutoring students in the evenings. The construction course took students from project planning, design and cost estimating through the finished construction of a stage that will be used for school performances and presentations. The class also included a visit to the project site of the Asian Art Museum, currently under construction.

“I couldn’t be happier with the planning, organization, follow through, and educational approach of DPR. This program will serve as a model for the future,” said Peter Thorp, the principal of Gateway.

DPR Finishes Biotech Campus in San Diego

DPR is finishing construction of a six-building, 467,000-sq.-ft. campus for the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF). Located on “Biotech Hill” north of San Diego, the first two buildings were turned over to the owner shortly after the New Year with the remaining structures scheduled to be completed in February 2002.

According to DPR’s Steve Mills, the biggest challenge on the project has been the constantly evolving technology associated with the biotech industry. “As science progresses, the labs we are building need to be able to accommodate those advancements.”

Flexibility has been the overriding principle in the programming and construction of GNF’s research space. As a result, the new campus is well equipped to house the most recent developments in micro processing and robotic technologies.