A sign outside the construction zone on the south side of San Diego Mesa College’s campus reads, “excitement is building,” in promotion of the opening of the new Center for Business and Technology.
The building is set to open in Spring of 2019, after spending over a year and a half under construction. Location between the G-100 building and the Mesa Commons will house new computer centers for the Mesa School of Business and Technology. As of the time of writing, most of the construction barriers are down, and the building is on the home stretch towards it’s big day in the spring.
According to the Balfour Beatty Construction Company’s website, “the new 57,800-square foot Center for Business & Technology building will serve as home for Mesa’s business, computer, and fashion design programs. The facility will include technology-rich classrooms, a case study-type classroom, computer laboratory classrooms, a fashion design laboratory, and faculty and staff space. The entry to the building will include a large video display wall.”
The website states that, “the project is expected to be awarded a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification for green building and design and include a number of sustainable features.”
The building’s $32 million price tag was funded in part from Propositions S and N; it will be one of the last few construction projects on campus to receive such funding.
Meanwhile, on the north side of campus, excitement is also building. Mesa’s Fine Arts building will be moving into a repurposed I-300 building, immediately adjacent the library. Work on the building is also making substantial progress, to be done by the year’s end. The project is also funded by the aforementioned propositions.
The San Diego Community College District’s website for the propositions gets into more detail: “The four story, 26,500 assignable square feet Fine Arts Building will be constructed within an existing building on campus, the former I-300 Building, and will serve as a highly visible and thriving hub for Fine Arts students, providing modernized facilities and equipment for programs in drawing, painting, sculpting and ceramics.”
The release talks a little more about what the building will have to offer: The first floor will serve as the headquarters and offices for the fine arts program, while the other three floors will have classrooms, studios, art galleries, and other features for the program.
Per a district fact sheet, Proposition N funded a study in 2015 to determine the feasibility of renovating the old I-300 building. The renovation project, carrying a $14.8 million price tag, will be finished by the end of 2018. Both the new Business and Fine Arts buildings are going to be the last district projects to be funded with the $1.5 billion from the propositions.
The new Business building is being built on the site of the old Bookstore building, which was demolished in 2016 and its’ facilities moved into the new Mesa Commons building. Ground for the new building broke in early 2017. The two projects are among the last district projects funded under the two measures, and will be the last planned construction on campus for the foreseeable future.
