On May 31, 2012, Jerry was injured when he was struck by a large pick-up truck while riding his bicycle.  His injuries included a traumatic brain injury and spinal damage.  His office is now closed and he can not practice.  Thank you to everyone for their kind words and deeds, and for the wonderful help given to him.

Completion of the Favero Family Dental Building

I first submitted this building to the Sacramento Planning Department in January 2009 and today I was able to see the finished building. 

It is scheduled to have the final inspection in about a week and Dr. Favero will begin receiving his patients after that time.

Upon entering the building, the visitor is greeted with a duplicate of the Cor-ten steel on the side wall of the stairway.  Lights have been installed that have a programmable color and sequence pattern that is varied throughout the day.

At the top of the stair, looking straight-ahead, is the lobby of Dr Favero’s office.

Prior to entering the office, looking to the Left, the main building lobby looks to the North, over the street.

The reception desk is to the Right.

This detail is just to the Left of the reception desk, after you are admitted into the office.

Turning Left, this hallway leads to the dental operatories.

Each operatory has a full view to the North.


Project: Dental/Medial Office Building

2233 Park Towne Circle, Sacramento, CA  95825

Owner: Favero Family Dental, Sacramento, California
Structural Engineer: Kibler Engineering, Redding California
Contractor: Joe O. Alexander Construction Company, Loomis, California
Cost: Withheld 

31st Walgreens Submitted for Permit

I have been working on this project since this last May and it was submitted to the city for plan check last week.  This is an urban site and there were a number of constraints.  The project consists of a new Walgreens Drug store and a small Pad Building for a tenant.  Normally Walgreens likes their building to be placed back with the parking between them and the street.  At this location however, the city required us to place the buildings directly on the street with large windows to “reinforce the urban fabric”. 

This is the first building that I have submitted under the latest 2010 California Building code, which includes CalGreen energy requirements.

Palmtag Building

This project started a number of years ago, I think around 1998.  The original building was built in 1932 and was originally a store and office.  It is my understanding that the building got its name from the original owner, “Mr. Palmtag”. 

The structure was mostly unreinforced clay-brick masonry and over the years, we tried everything we could to save it.  Much was spent on structural reinforcement and modification, toxic abatement, etc.  In the end, though, it simply was not workable financially.  No one wanted to fund a museum, so the original building was torn down.

This building was designed to look similar to the original two story structure.  Rather than use masonry, the building was framed with wood with cement plaster (stucco) and thin brick veneer.  The cement plaster allowed us to create many details, molding and trim that otherwise would have been too costly.

This picture illustrates the major problem with the project.  In the park, across the street to the North, is the center of the Hayward fault.  This fault is the next most active and dangerous next to the San Andreas which lies about 20 miles to the West.  This building was within 50 feet of the center line, which guarantees that this building will experience a major seismic event within the next 30 years.

Project: Palmtag Commercial Building

880 “B” Street, Hayward, California

Owner-Developer: Browman Development Co., Walnut Creek, California

Structural Engineer: Kibler Engineering, Redding, California

General Contractor: Michael R. Tolladay Corp., Fresno, California

Cold Construction

From the post before last, I received a question about the problems of building in Alaska or other cold climates.  I did a Walgreens project in Wasilla several years ago. And the requirements for it were definitely different from what I was used to.

Due to the extreme cold, insulation needs to be very thick.  In this wall section, you can see the thickness of the roof insulation.  I believe it was an average of R-28.  The Exterior wall construction is 8” concrete masonry with 6” metal framing and R-19 batt insulation.  Plus we had foundation wall insulation, placed on the outside, under the exterior sidewalk..

A good vapor barrier is also necessary.  This vapor barrier is placed on the inside of the wall framing, just under the interior gypsum board.  The roof barrier is placed on top of the roof deck, just under the rigid insulation.  All seams were completely taped closed.

Rather than have normal roof drains or scuppers at the wall, the roof drains were placed in the center of the roof so the drain pipes will flow inside the heated space, preventing icing.

The store also had an additional room added on the exterior which housed a boiler.  This boiler heated water that ran thru pipes that were placed under the front sidewalk, front parking spaces and the drive-thru driveway the keep the snow clear.

When this project was under construction, I remember talking to the contractor and he told me that they were having a good year because they had a entire week where the daytime high temperature was above 70 degrees before the summer ended.

Walgreens

The other day, my wife asked me how many Walgreens drug buildings I have done. 
After thinking for a minute, I had to say that I honestly did not remember.  I have been doing them since 1995.  I went back and counted and including the one that is now in design, I have done 31.  This is a collage of some of my past Walgreens projects. 

Anchorage Alaska Project is about halfway complete.

For the past several years I have had the opportunity of doing some projects in Alaska.  The largest one is a site in Anchorage located at the North-West corner of Glenn Highway and North Muldoon Road.  This picture is looking west.  The large building on far left, in the background, is a Target.  The one on the far right is a Lowes home center.  The large building in the left foreground is a Regal Cinema.  The other buildings are multi-tenant shop buildings and some Junior Anchors.

This picture is looking north.  A short time ago, my client sent me these photos of the site taken from the air.

The original plan was to complete the project in three phases and these pictures show these phases being completed.