CARLSBAD, CA -Smith Consulting Architects has design services underway for the new 20,000-square-foot Bressi Ranch Medical Plaza, situated on a 1.94-acre property at the corner of El Camino Real and Town Garden Road within the master-planned business community of Bressi Ranch in Carlsbad, Calif.
Santa Ana-based Urban West is the developer, with project oversight provided by David DiRienzo, president, and Kimberly Hutchings, vice president of development.
Smith Consulting Architects is providing full architectural design services for the proposed two-story structure, the only medical office within Bressi Ranch. The business park is adjacent to Tri-City Medical Center's new Wellness Complex, which also was designed by Smith Consulting Architects and is currently under construction.
Bressi Ranch Medical Plaza will offer for-sale office suites designed to meet the needs of medical professionals that want to take advantage of the equity-building benefits of office ownership versus leasing. The architectural design utilizes a palette of contrasting concrete masonry colors and textures for its walls, sleek silver metal cladding panels for shading canopies, and blue glazing in silver window frames to create bold, clean lines and a sense of formality.
A dominant design feature is the pattern of "wall panels," created by spacing apart ground face/burnished Birdseye block wall areas with columns of split face charcoal block. This modular effect reduces the mass and scale of the exterior walls while providing texture and height variation. The exterior landscape and plaza hardscape treatments and patterns also reflect these modules.
The shade-producing canopies are located above ground floor windows and at the building entries, creating interest and contrast to the masonry walls. The treatment of windows as punched openings with blue glazing in silver frames also reinforces the modular wall effect.
While the structure is sited near El Camino Real for prominence, its location is distant from the sole driveway access off Metropolitan St. Addressing this challenge, a tower is incorporated into the design as a focal point and as a means of defining the main entry. The entrance is also highlighted by an expanse of blue curtainwall glazing that matches the punched windows.
Peter Bussett is serving as vice president-in-charge for Smith Consulting Architects, with Sarada Chidambareswaran as job captain. Aric Starck of Grubb & Ellis | BRE has been retained to market the medical suites. Pacific Building Group is the general contractor, with president Jim Roherty providing project oversight. Miyamoto International is serving as structural engineer, with Pete Carlson as project manager; Fuscoe Engineering is the civil engineer, with Eric Armstrong serving as vice president-in-charge; Michael Wall Engineering is the electrical engineer, with James Cooley providing oversight; McParlane & Associates, with Douglas Isaaks as vice president-in-charge, is the mechanical engineer; and Gilespe Moody Patterson is the landscape architect, with Chris Gustard providing oversight. Robert Trazo with Southern California Geotechnical is the soils consultant and Mike Howes with Howes Weiler & Associates is the planning consultant.
