by Shane Henson — August 19, 2013—Charles Pankow Builders and HKS Architects recently announced they have been awarded a contract by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works to design and build the San Fernando Valley Family Support Center.
Founded in 1963, Pankow is one of the largest design-build contractors in the United States and provides high-quality construction services to clients in the office, parking structure, retail, hospitality, residential, healthcare, military, education, tenant improvement and mixed-use market sectors. HKS is an architectural design firm that has completed construction projects in more than 1,263 cities located in 80 countries.
The 212,000-square-foot, five-story facility the Pankow/HKS team will be working on will be located in Van Nuys, and will consolidate seven county programs into one location for the San Fernando Valley community. It is scheduled for completion in August 2015.
The 6.8-acre site features a large, landscaped interior campus core with children’s play area, walking paths, bike racks and numerous gathering spaces. The Pankow/HKS team was able to create this desired attribute because of the narrow, yet efficient, parking garage designed by parking structure architect HNA/Pacific. A green buffer of trees and landscaping, designed by AHBE Landscape Architects, will separate the parking structure from Van Nuys Boulevard frontage—one of many expressions engineered to sensitively blend the new center into the existing neighborhood. The interior workspace will be modern and open, with a mix of collaborative, social and focused work spaces for various working modes.
According to the Pankow/HKS Team, the design solution provides an elegant and stylish façade, which is detailed to be factory assembled, enabling rapid installation in the field. Despite the county’s strict overall building height requirements, the design team was able to fit an under-floor air distribution system on the upper floors. Nabih Youssef Associates, the structural engineer, accomplished this by delivering a light and efficient structural steel frame design. These efficient solutions, among others, set the project on track to earn LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Gold certification, a level above the project requirement of LEED Silver, says the Pankow/HKS team.
