After starting construction in March of this year, Fresno City College’s new science building is still under construction. So what are the possibilities about the extra space on campus when the new building is built?
Omar Gutierrez, Vice President of Administrative Services said, “Construction has always had its own difficulties, there’s no smooth step one to step 100 or from A through Z construction projects.”
Since there is never a time where construction does not have its problem, so it is considered normal according to Gutierrez.
The new science building consists of classrooms for three of the hard sciences. These include biology, engineering and chemistry.
According to Gutierrez, the soft sciences , which includes geology and geography, along with math will not be in the new science building.
The expansion of the new science building will see improvements to the labs.
“From an improvement perspective, if you are in engineering, biology or a chemistry student, you will see immediate improvement,” Gutierrez said. “Quite a bit of lab space associated with the new science building.”
The building on the first floor will also be housing classes for the Design Science Middle College on the FCC campus.
“We try to accommodate as much as we can. We were trying to better the student experience.” Gutierrez said.
According to the website, as of October 2023 interior work continues with the hanging of the ductwork, sheetrock installation, framing, and intumescent paint at the elevator shaft.
Along with that is the roofing, exterior insulation, Ty-Vek and the lathe and plaster have also commenced.
Gutierrez also gave more of an update on the details of the child development centers.
The child development center will provide child development courses to help prepare students in that specific course, observation rooms, and counseling children, etc.
“We are teaching curriculum as well, not just like a babysitting thing,” Gutierrez said, “You want kids to be excited about education.”
There is a certain amount of units the child development students have to hit to get a specific job, so instead of going off to another place to get hours, there is the possibility of doing hours at the center.
There is no word on what will happen to the old science building till 2035 because of the State Center 2035 permission which explains what the district and facilities are going to look like by the year 2035.
“We would like to have a space for students, like a student center.” Gutierrez said, “Other community colleges have it, we don’t quite have that, it’d be nice to have something like that.”
For places like the West Campus to have a bookstore space, a new and accommodating student service building, a new Student Engagement Center, etc. Also the possibility to expand on the theater art and athletic department are all talked about possibility according to Gutierrez.
On Jan 13. 2022, the State Center Community College District prequalified five general contractors to bid on this project, but Harris Construction Co. was the sole bidder for the project according to the State Center Community College website.
The SCCCD Board of Trustees awarded Harris the contract on Feb 2, 2022 and construction started the next month.
The Child Development Center should be moved into in February or March of next semester and the New Science Building should open in the fall of 2024.
