October 2, 2018
San Jose City College students looking to explore a career in health and fitness now have a new facility to help support them on their educational journey.
In January 2018, the college officially unveiled its new 39,000-square-foot, two-story gymnasium building. San Jose City College teamed up with Alten Construction, a full-service San Francisco Bay Area construction company, in March 2016, on the $17.5 million project.
The state-of-the-art physical education building features an 832-seat spectator gymnasium with a regulation-size basketball court, fitness center, locker rooms, training rooms, administrative offices, equipment storage and flexible fitness/dance/classroom and exercise lab spaces.
“There are athletic facilities for every aspect of sports,” says Peter Dickinson, project engineer for Alten Construction.
Additionally, Alten Construction transformed the adjoining Wellness Center into a yoga and fitness studio and a multi-purpose physical education and kinesiology lab room.
Eight-foot-tall letters that spell out the school’s team name, the Jaguars, serve as the focal point of the fitness center with the school’s purple and grey colors highlighted throughout the facility.
Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, San Jose City College is home to about 20,000 students. The gymnasium will be used for several sports, including basketball and volleyball, and many of the school’s athletic teams, such as its football team, will use the training rooms in the building.
During construction, Alten Construction used a tilt-up construction process to erect the concrete walls. Each of the 20-foot by 40-foot wide, 12-inch thick walls, weighing between 40 to 67 tons, was poured on the ground. A crane was then used to set the walls upright.
All of the materials in the concrete panels are locally extracted, helping the college achieve its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver goal.
“It’s a pretty interesting process,” says Peter. “In construction, this tilt-up form of building is cost saving.”
The physical education building was constructed on a 1.5-acre site between the football stadium and the track, providing a gateway, entrance plaza and ticketing office for athletic events.
“San Jose City College has been waiting for this for 15 years,” says Noel Stenberg, project manager for Alten Construction. “They’ve been making do with other facilities in different parts of campus, and looked forward to having this state-of-the-art facility.”
