Construction for the Foothill DeAnza Education Center building is underway and we have some fun facts about the project for your enjoyment.

1) Instead of a driven pile foundation system the soil within the building footprint was “surcharged” using an enormous pile of ground-up debris from the recently demolished concrete parking garage on site. Once the measured soil settlement reached optimum, the pile was spread out as compacted fill over the whole site and our new mat-slab foundation was installed.

2) This is a steel structure with Special Concentric Braced Frames (SCBF) which is pretty standard for low-mid rise construction. Our connections, however, are non-standard with inelastic brace rotation provided in-plane vs. out of plane.

3) There are many sustainable features of this building including radiant floors and natural (assisted) ventilation.

4) Students at this building will be able to Google the inter-webs while looking at the Google-tech office building across the street. Stayed tuned for more updates on this exciting project!