Click here for an artist’s rendering of the proposed classrooms.

Plans for the new West Campus Classroom Building have begun to take shape with a focus on keeping the building environmentally friendly.

Faculty, staff and managers from City College are a part of a user group that was involved with the design process. The group recommended building designs to the architecture firm, Kruger Bensen Ziemer, which has been hired to lead the project.

“At this point we recommended 49 [person classrooms] to save money on construction,” said English Professor Dr. Kimberly Monda. “However, we requested two exits because that seemed like a nice safety feature.”

In a meeting last Tuesday, the user group officially recommended that the building include a total of 23 classrooms, with two 49-person classrooms, three classrooms that can seat 40 students and 18 classrooms will allow occupancy of between 36 and 40 students.

Julie Hendricks, the Director of Facilities and Campus Development, said the classroom building will be constructed to become LEED Silver certified. This guarantees that the new building will have a low impact on ecosystems and water resources, encourage a smarter use of water and promote better indoor air quality and access to daylight.

Kruger Bensen Ziemer is designing floor plans with flexibility on the furniture that will go in the rooms after construction. Decisions to create a workroom with special technology and the use of two person tables or single person desks have been discussed, but because the actual users of the rooms have not been determined the functionality is undecided.

The new building will also have 15 faculty offices to meet the needs of the campus and staff.

The Board of Trustees voted last fall to approve the new classroom building using the remaining $17.6 million from Measure V bond funds to replace the portables on East and West Campus, which were deemed unsafe.

The classrooms and offices will be developed near the West Campus bus roundabout.

According to Hendricks, the construction of the building will have little impact on students and class availability.

City College is still waiting on construction approval from The California Coastal Commission but development is under a fairly compressed schedule.