The newly opened Wellness and Aquatics Complex at Southwestern College has won the Program Management Buildings Award from the Construction Management Association of America’s (CMAA) San Diego Chapter—making it the third such win for a Southwestern College project.
The 75,000-square-foot facility opened to students in January, 2018. Built on the corner of East H Street and Otay Lakes Road, the Wellness and Aquatics Complex contains a gymnasium, fitness labs, cardio workout rooms, multiple team locker rooms and classrooms. It’s also home to two Olympic-sized swimming pools and a 25-meter therapy pool.
In an awards ceremony held recently, the project management team from Balfour Beatty Construction earned the recognition for its attention to quality management, customer satisfaction, cost management, schedule management, safety management and innovation and creativity.
“It is rare that you find a construction management team that exceeds expectations in design assist, field engineering, construction trade management and coordination, and meets our project budget,” said Mark Claussen, Southwestern College’s Proposition R program manager. “The Balfour Beatty team highly represents the construction management professional sector and the owner in their role as a team leader and partner in complex facility delivery.”
The $57-million Wellness and Aquatics Complex is one of two Proposition R-funded projects completed in January. The other is the Plaza Building project—which includes science labs, classrooms and a medical clinic—at the Higher Education Center at National City.
In 2015, the Fieldhouse project, which neighbors the new Wellness and Aquatics Complex on the Chula Vista campus, received two awards from two local groups – one an engineering society, the other, a construction management association. Fieldhouse construction, also overseen by Balfour Beatty, was named the Project of the Year by the CMAA and the Outstanding Project in the Sustainable Engineering Project category by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), San Diego Section.
“Projects of this magnitude don’t attain this kind of status without close teamwork between the construction company and the client,” said Southwestern College Superintendent/President Dr. Kindred Murillo. “This complex is a world-class facility that will serve the needs of our students and our community for many years to come.”
