CTCNC Pleasanton - Carpenter's Training Center

The custom designed, ground up building in Pleasanton, California for the Carpenter’s Training Trust for Northern California serves as an administrative space for the union and a hands-on classroom that provides job training and continuing education for union apprentices and journeymen who specialize in carpentry, welding, lathing and acoustic and drywall installation. The clean lines of RMW’s modern design are achieved by site-cast concrete panels that are inset with industrial metal paneling. The façade is enhanced by an expansive curtainwall of ribbon glass that required thickened panels with recesses in the concrete to allow for alternating curtainwall assemblies. The recesses were painted so that the glass could remain transparent, avoiding a checkerboard pattern on the elevation by preventing changes between spandrel and vision glass. The creative use of panel thickness variations in combination with panel embeds and structural steel allow for the two-story glazing at the entry to blend nicely across the front elevation of the building. Columns that support the overbuild are used to create a rhythm that helps break up the ribbon glass and provide vertical elements to help eliminate long expanses of horizontal design elements. Soft, earth-tone stone pilasters that support the white steel awnings contrast with the dark metal panel. The soft grey colors on the rest of the building provide a backdrop with restrained use of dark green in a pattern that mimics the rhythm of the glass. One challenge on the project was that the union’s existing training center had to remain operational during the construction of the new facility. The tight project site necessitated the panels to be cast stacked. Buehler Engineering, Inc. used cast-in-place heavy purlin anchors staggered with metal straps to deliver out of plane wall loading into the roof diaphragm, allowing for the installation to be done solely on top of the roof sheathing to facilitate installation. The exposed panelized roof system not only provided for efficient and cost-effective framing installation, it served as a real-world example to the students training inside the building. The structure seamlessly integrates a steel-framed partial second-floor level for classrooms adjacent to the two-story volume space in the shop areas, seismically separated from the exterior walls to decrease lateral loading to the roof and allow for the use of a wood-framed panelized system in the seismically volatile region. The final result is a new, state-of-the art, concrete tilt-up home for the Carpenter’s Training Trust where skilled workers are trained to deliver today’s most in-demand construction services.