McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. Continues their Building Excellence on Franklin Antonio Hall Project at University of California, San Diego

By Brian Hoover, Senior Editor / Photos provided by McCarthy Building Companies

Above: Artist rendering of Franklin Antonio Hall, UC San Diego.

Franklin Antonio graduated from UC San Diego with a bachelor’s degree in Applied Physics and Information Science in 1974. Antonio went on to become co-founder of Qualcomm, where he serves as chief scientist. Among many other achievements, Antonio has provided strategic technical guidance and engineering mentoring across Qualcomm’s engineering programs. Antonio supports the Jacobs School of Engineering’s growth at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), including his recent donation of $30 million for programmatic expansion.

UC San Diego (UCSD) has named their newest building after Franklin Antonio in recognition of his generous gift. Franklin Antonio Hall is an approximately 186,000-square foot structure designed from the ground up and is currently under construction and scheduled for completion in spring 2022. This new $135 million structure will support both undergraduate and graduate student learning with six separate engineering departments, including computer science and engineering, electrical and computer engineering, mechanical and aerospace engineering, nanoengineering, and structural engineering. Franklin Antonio Hall will provide students and faculty with a 250-seat auditorium and two 100-seat classrooms, along with collaborative laboratory spaces, and executive outreach classroom, a space for students’ extracurricular projects, shared meeting spaces, and a café, among many other rooms and amenities.

Above & Below: Mass excavation and site preparation on four-acre site for Franklin Antonio Hall at UC San Diego.

UCSD chose McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. (McCarthy) as the general contractor overseeing Franklin Antonio Hall’s construction. The job began in December 2019 with mass grading and infrastructure utility construction taking around three months to complete. McCarthy awarded the mass grading and finish grading contract to Sierra Pacific West, Inc., while choosing Paul Hansen Equipment, Inc. to perform the underground site utility and excavation duties. Sierra Pacific West exported approximately 20,000 cubic yards of soil on the four-acre construction site while excavating the lower level of the structure. Additionally, site utilities were installed to include sewer and storm drain, gas, electric, fiber optics, along with reclaimed, chilled, potable and fire water connections.

Project site structural concrete progress through Level 3.

The 186,000 square foot Franklin Antonio Hall concrete structure was completely self-performed by McCarthy and CMC Rebar. This included all of the structural concrete tasks from the foundation to the cast-in-place architectural concrete pours. Approximately 16,000 cubic yards of concrete will be poured to complete all levels from the basement on up four stories to the roof level. Nathan Long is the senior project manager overseeing operations on the Franklin Antonio Hall project, and he points out a few of the challenges on the project. “We are getting ready to top out the structural concrete in just a few weeks. From a self-perform concrete standpoint, this has been a challenging project,” says Long. “We have installed a lot of unique components in support of the structural concrete to include 97 post-tension structural steel beams over the learning and innovation center,” Long says that these hefty beams support four stories above that also include dozens of columns used to transfer the load. “The span of the 250-seat auditorium or learning and innovation center is great, and these beams, along with 97 post-tension cables are needed to support the structure,” says Long. “This is a great project, and we hope to achieve LEED Platinum Certification on this energy-efficient building that will include around 461 PV solar panels with a 189.2-kilowatt system.”

Central Spiral Staircase in Atrium Area from Level 1 through Level 4 is a main architectural feature of the building.

McCarthy has faced several other challenges on this project, not the least of which is site logistics complicated by the defined and constrained working area located within an active college campus. Long also points out that they are working with type 1L cement concrete mixes which cure extremely fast making it a challenge for larger pours as well as wall pours . “Most of the structural concrete on the job also serves as architectural and is exposed,” says Long. “It is important that we get the form work right, with clean edges so that it has the look of an architectural finish.” Long says that other current and future challenges include the erection of a complicated skylight system over the atrium and storefront areas and the remaining intricate detailed installations for lab space and research spaces.

David Evans is the project superintendent for McCarthy on the UCSD Franklin Antonio Hall project. “We have been running a crew that averages around 65 carpenters, laborers, and cement masons on the job at any given time,” says Evans. “The heavy lifting on the job has been accomplished primarily through the use of a tower crane. All other lifts and support material handling is being done with smaller mobile hydraulic cranes.” Evans points out that his crews did not miss a single day of work in 2020, logging an impressive 57,000 working hours without incident. “Maintaining a safe work environment is always our number one concern here at McCarthy and doing that while maintaining all COVID-19 restrictions, CDC, and county guidelines has made that all the more challenging,” continues Evans. “We are very proud of our total project incident rate numbers and the men and women that work here that care so much about their fellow team member’s welfare.”

Structural concrete placement at Level 2 Deck.

Allen Lynn is the project executive for McCarthy, and he has been instrumental in bringing the various design and construction elements together on the UCSD Franklin Antonio Hall project. “We were fortunate to have a handful of subcontractors that participated in the design development phase of this project. I think it is important to recognize their efforts in making this such a successful project thus far. This included University Mechanical Contractors, Inc., Dynalectric, Inc., Cosco Fire Protection and Architectural Glass and Aluminum,” says Lynn. “I also want to thank our architect and owner clients, Perkins & Will and the University of California, San Diego, who are always so helpful and professional. I specifically would like to recognize UCSD project managers Mark Rowland and Abigail Grass and Perkins & Will architects Kay Kornovich and Ryan Bussard who have been there with us every step of the way.”

McCarthy has consistently been working on one project or another at the UC San Diego campus for the last 25 years. “We have been fortunate to have been a part of some very unique projects at UCSD, primarily in the building of their life science and higher education structures,” says Lynn. We focus on large higher education projects here at McCarthy, in addition to many K-12 jobs.” In Southern California, McCarthy is currently working on CSU Los Angeles’s campus to construct their Student Housing East Project. They are also working at CSU Long Beach, Santa Ana College, Saddleback College, Long Beach City College and San Diego State University. Along with their extensive work in the education sector, McCarthy also excels in the construction of healthcare and commercial facilities, as well as parking structures throughout California and beyond. McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. was established in 1864 and has a long history of building facilities that drive greater value. For more information on McCarthy, please visit mccarthy.com or call their national headquarters at (314) 968-3300. Cc