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Delivered through one of the first Public-Private Partnership (P3) agreements in San Diego, the revolutionary 198,000-square-foot La Jolla Innovation Center spans seven stories. Five levels are dedicated to office and educational spaces, and are supported by a ground-floor café, extensive landscape and hardscape improvements, and four levels of above- and below-grade parking.

Strong Commitment to Design and Functionality

The conventional cast-in-place concrete structure prominently features Type IL concrete to achieve its modern architectural concrete aesthetic with fair-faced and board formed finishes throughout. The owner, , sought a “high-quality façade” that could also achieve LEED Silver™ certification, prompting architect Gensler to express the concrete frame as an architectural feature of the project. Combined with strategically located sunshade systems, the concrete’s inherent thermal mass reduces day-time cooling needs, contributing to the building’s overall energy efficiency. The use of concrete as a building finish also translates to reduced maintenance and lifecycle costs for the owner as compared to other finish systems.

However, achieving the design intent was no easy feat. ���ϳԹ��� served as the general contractor on the project, and also self-performed the extensive concrete scope of work. The requirement for exposed concrete and Type IL cement presented ���ϳԹ��� with a host of challenges, as the various structural design elements called for mixes with 4,000, 5,000, 6,000, and 7,000 PSI—which increased the chances for variation in color due to the variation in cement and water content from one mix to the next. This would have undercut the building’s clean, modern, and sophisticated design.

To achieve the required as-cast, Class A architectural concrete finishes, ���ϳԹ���’s team developed a series of on-site, full-scale mockups. The goal was to maintain consistent color with minimal mottling or paste loss. Multiple specialized concrete mixes, including a self-consolidating concrete (SCC) and an unprecedented 7,000 PSI Type IL deck mix, were developed to achieve the ambitious design goals and maximize the albedo, or light reflectance, of the exposed concrete surfaces of the structure.

The project design also called for both fair-faced and board formed finishes throughout. ���ϳԹ��� opted to utilize location-specific gang wall forms dedicated to each core or shear wall within the project. Forms were double-sheeted and back-screwed to reduce the appearance of any hardware in the finish and to maximize watertightness of the forms. Furthermore, to negate the appearance of color changes, the team modeled and sequenced construction to avoid introducing construction joints in exterior exposed conditions and gave preference to hidden keyed joints instead, which help to hide variations in mixes from one assembly to the next.

Leading the Industry with Seamless Concrete Expertise

In addition to the architectural concrete façade, the building’s foundation posed challenges for ���ϳԹ���’s concrete team. The structure’s proximity to city easements, utilities, and low soil bearing values had pushed the design team toward a 54” thick mat foundation system as opposed to a traditional localized foundation system with over-excavation and slurry infill at the unsuitable soil interface. This allowed the parking to extend an additional level below ground, and reduced potentially higher construction cost premiums and avoiding interference with the easements. To assist in the project’s sustainability goals, ���ϳԹ��� worked with concrete material supplier Cemex on a high cement replacement mix utilizing 60% slag for the project’s over 4,000-cubic-yard mat foundation.

The final building boasts more than 110,000-square-feet of leasable square feet with soaring 13-foot ceilings. The convenient location and cutting-edge design maximize versatility for tenant needs, with University of California San Diego already planning on housing several programs for its Health Sciences and Division of Extended Studies. ���ϳԹ���’s innovative concrete approach achieved the design team’s intent of a flexible and versatile concrete superstructure that maximizes natural daylighting, provides an aesthetic, high-quality façade, and also met tight budget and sustainability requirements.

La Jolla Innovation Center stands as a hallmark of innovation and a testament to the power of leveraging self-perform concrete expertise on a highly technical, yet highly impactful project. The project went on to win an outstanding concrete project award from the American Concrete Institute (ACI), San Diego chapter.