SAN MARCOS: Palomar launches largest project in vast construction push

110,000-square-foot "multidisciplinary" building will be the latest addition

By TOM PFINGSTEN - Staff Writer | Friday, November 14, 2008 5:47 PM PST ∞

SAN MARCOS ---- Palomar College officials broke ground Friday on what will eventually be the centerpiece of a $1 billion construction campaign over the next decade, turning ceremonial shovels of dirt after a brief ceremony on campus.

The three-story, 110,000-square-foot facility will occupy what is now a wide swath of bare land near the student union at the center of the Mission Road campus. It's scheduled to open for classes in spring 2011.

Four aging buildings were torn down during the summer and early fall to make way for the $38 million "multidisciplinary" building, so named because it will house a variety of educational programs, including business administration, economics, history and computer science.

Speaking to a crowd of about 150 people, Palomar President Bob Deegan called the project "long overdue," and he praised a long list of college employees who helped with the plans.

"Believe me, we are proud to be building this new, state-of-the-art facility ---- certainly, for our students, but also for our faculty," Deegan said.

Vice President of Instruction Berta Cuaron said many of the college's longtime teachers have been hearing rumors of a huge, new multipurpose building for decades.

"Some of them have said recently, 'I'm not going to retire now because I want to teach in that new building,' and I don't blame them," Cuaron said.

Associated student government President Robert Frederick said he and many other students are also looking forward to all the new facilities.

"This is a wonderful day for the students," Frederick said. "I can't wait to see the finished product."

While most of the new construction over the next decade will be paid for by the $694 million ballot measure known as Proposition M, the state is footing most of the bill for the multidisciplinary building, said Kelley Hudson-MacIsaac, the college's manager of facilities planning.

Prop. M was approved by 57.6 percent of voters in November 2006. The bond measure qualified the college for an additional $299 million in matching funds from the state.

The resulting budget of nearly $1 billion will pay for 15 new buildings and renovations to 15 other structures over the next 15 years, as well as two satellite campuses, according to district officials.

Standing in front of the fenced-off parcel where the new building will be erected, Hudson-MacIsaac said different parts of the campus will be in a similar state of transition for virtually a generation, at a school where the average student's stay is two to three years.

"We're trying very hard to condense the projects into 10 years," she said. "(But) a lot of them we can't do until something else gets done ---- kind of a domino effect."

The college has put a priority on "green" building practices, such as recycling 2,500 cubic yards of old concrete foundations and walkways to be used as fill material for the new facility, Hudson-MacIsaac said.

The next phase of construction will focus on a 25,000-square-foot health sciences building, which isn't going out to bid until next month. It's expected to cost around $10 million.

"It's smaller, but it's really critical because our nursing and dental assisting programs will be going into that building," said Hudson-MacIsaac.

Mark Vernoy, the college's dean of behavioral sciences, said during Friday's ceremony that he remembers being told of the new building shortly after he arrived on campus in the 1970s.

"I came in to do an interview for a psychology position, and the interview was in a classroom up the way," Vernoy recalled. "It wasn't until I was offered the job and came back a few days before the semester started that I actually saw the offices, and they were in a trailer.

"The department chair at that time told me, 'Oh, don't worry about it. We're going to get a new building pretty soon,' " he added to a wave of laughter in the crowd gathered at the construction site Friday afternoon. "Here it is."

Contact staff writer Tom Pfingsten at (760) 740-3516 or tpfingsten@nctimes.com.