Orange County’s recently opened County Administration North (CAN) building caps an urban center development that constitutes one of California’s largest ever P3 projects. Spanning 17 acres, the Santa Ana property includes 16 county-owned buildings and more than 1.6 million sf of indoor space. An innovative public-private partnership (P3) delivered the $400 million complex on time and under budget, according to LPA Design Studios, which provided architecture and engineering services. The result is a new urban center that promotes outdoor spaces, cuts energy costs, and reworks the way the county interacts with the public.
The six-story, 250,000 sf CAN building includes a state-of-the-art hearing room for the Board of Supervisors designed to increase openness and public accessibility. The new Civic Center complex consolidates and reimagines the workplace for a dozen county departments, and significantly reduces operating costs. The design of CAN and the nearby County Administration South (CAS) building, which opened in 2019, reduced energy use by more than 76% from the AIA 2030 Commitment benchmark, primarily through passive design strategies.
The P3 process began with a Facilities Strategic Plan, co-authored by LPA and Griffin Structures, a multidisciplinary firm that provides innovative project delivery solutions. This plan explored all aspects of the county’s operations and real estate assets. When this evaluation kicked off, the County had not attempted a major capital improvement project since filing for bankruptcy protection in 1994. Many of its buildings were more than 60 years old.
The civic center construction project was structured on tax-exempt financing backed by the county’s long-term lease. When the lease expires, the county will take full ownership of the buildings. The P3 arrangement included a guaranteed maximum price established by the developer and its team. This put pressure on the design and construction teams to meet budget and schedule parameters. The two County Administration buildings were delivered on time and under budget, returning an estimated $8 million in aggregate savings to the county.
The two main buildings were conceived through a resilient design that allowed for higher ceilings and greater infiltration of natural light in workspaces. Interior design elements created more efficient workspaces that responded to the work habits of different departments. Work environments were developed around access to natural light, multi-use conference rooms, and collaborative spaces, creating a workplace expected to help the county compete to attract and retain talent. In the public plaza, landscape architects designed a rich diversity of spaces representing the region’s landscape.
On the Building Team:
Owner and/or developer: County of Orange (California)/Griffin Structures
Design architect: LPA Design Studios
Architect of record: LPA Design Studios
MEP engineer: LPA Design Studios
Structural engineer: LPA Design Studios
General contractor/construction manager: Swinerton
Related Stories
| Jul 27, 2014
Top Data Center Architecture Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Gensler, Corgan, and HDR head Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest data center architecture and architecture/engineering firms in the U.S.
| Jul 25, 2014
Grocery stores choosing Green Globes for building sustainability certification
The Green Building Initiative (GBI) has announced a wave of Green Globes certifications for new grocery stores, including New Seasons Markets, Whole Foods, Price Chopper, Aldi’s, Harris Teeter, Wegmans, and Publix.
| Jul 24, 2014
MIT researchers explore how to make wood composite-like blocks of bamboo
The concept behind the research is to slice the stalk of bamboo grass into smaller pieces to bond together and form sturdy blocks, much like conventional wood composites.
| Jul 23, 2014
Meet Acquario Ceará: The giant crustacean-shaped aquarium that's causing concerns
A new aquarium on Brazil's northeastern coast is designed, engineered, constructed and financed by U.S. firms and institutions.
| Jul 23, 2014
Architecture Billings Index up nearly a point in June
AIA reported the June ABI score was 53.5, up from a mark of 52.6 in May.
| Jul 22, 2014
Herzog & de Meuron unveil curvy concrete condo in Manhattan
Herzog & de Meuron have released renderings of their new $250 million New York building, a 12-story condominium with 88 luxury apartments.
| Jul 21, 2014
Designing the process of leadership transition
Transition planning can be one of the more complex challenges that firms face. Effective plans begin by determining the gap between a firm’s current state and the future it envisions for itself. SPONSORED CONTENT
| Jul 21, 2014
16 utility questions to answer during your building project
We need electricity to power our building projects, along with water and gas and a faultless sanitation system. That’s what we think about when we think about utility requirements for our building project, but are we missing something? SPONSORED CONTENT
| Jul 21, 2014
Commercial real estate development growing at strongest pace since recovery began: NAIOP report
Industrial, warehousing, office, and retail sectors see strong gains; Texas leads the nation in construction-value stats.
| Jul 21, 2014
Economists ponder uneven recovery, weigh benefits of big infrastructure [2014 Giants 300 Report]
According to expert forecasters, multifamily projects, the Panama Canal expansion, and the petroleum industry’s “shale gale” could be saving graces for commercial AEC firms seeking growth opportunities in an economy that’s provided its share of recent disappointments.