Cuesta College Campus Center

Coffman is providing civil and structural engineering services for the Cuesta College Campus Center project in San Luis Obispo. The building houses a café, administrative offices, conference rooms, student support spaces, and the office of the college president. The project as a whole fulfills the school’s need for an updated student center, parking, and outdoor gathering space. The $27M, two-story, 35,000 sf building is targeting LEED Silver certification.

The structural system of the building utilizes steel framing with special steel moment frames which allow flexibility for interior space planning and allow for a less obstructed view outside. The site design follows Low Impact Design (LID) principles and incorporates the campus’s emphasis on open space and sustainability. The project presented several unique challenges, including tying into the surrounding existing conditions in multiple locations and providing accessible paths of travel across the site while contending with significant changes in elevation. Careful collaboration with the campus, architect, and landscape architect resulted in a streamlined solution involving amphitheater seating set in a hillside with grass benches and an accessible path weaving through. This project is subject to DSA approval.