The 65,000-square-foot Mission College Student Engagement Center, phase two of the Main Building replacement project, serves as the Santa Clara, CA institution’s new front door. CENTRIA’s Formawall® and EcoScreen® transform the building into an energy-efficient gateway to the college itself.
A home for Mission College’s approximately 8,000 students to gather, learn, and access specialized services, the Student Engagement Center includes the welcome center, the admissions and records department, financial aid office, health services, student outreach, and the career and transfer center. The Center offers instructional spaces for community education, group study spaces, skills labs, tutorial services, and faculty offices.
“Our vision was to design a unique facility which focused on the student experience while creating a new ‘front door’ for Mission College to the greater community,” said Dennis Guerra, Associate Principal with Lionakis, the firm responsible for the building design. “In addition, CENTRIA products allowed us to work contextually with the evolving campus aesthetic and the greater Silicon Valley community, which Mission College serves.”
The primary building façade and glazed curtainwall is comprised of 24,724 square feet of CENTRIA’s Formawall Dimension Series 3” panels in Pewter with a smooth finish and Sundance Coating, and 2,423 square feet of DS60 panels in the same color, coating, and finish. Formawall’s foam insulation formula contains zero halogens with improved fire safety performance and also provides advanced thermal efficiency and moisture control in a single component. Additionally, EcoScreen perforated screenwall was used on the main public frontage of the building.
“EcoScreen helped to accent the curved façade, provide sun control, and enable a level of transparency between interior and exterior spaces,” said Guerra. “We selected this product and Formawall for their performance, durability, and available finish options. CENTRIA’s metal products also contribute to the building’s thermal performance and LEED® material credits.”
The building is targeted for LEED Platinum® status. The Mission College Student Engagement Center was completed in June 2017. Gilbane was the General Contractor, and the installer was BEST Contracting Services Inc.