11th St. Commons .:calvin lu::

Firm:
Dahlin Group

Client:
Pinn Brothers

Project completion:
2009

Site:
Gilroy, CA

Role:
Job Captain

Phases involved:
DD, CD

The site is divided into two separate projects. On the site plan, the northern row of buildings are the Lofts, which were done by the Solana Beach office. The other thirteen buildings are the Commons. Of the thirteen buildings, there are 4, 5, and 6 plexes, some of which are arranged differently. The front entrances of all the units open out onto raised common areas while the garages open to the alleys, a full level below. There were originally three unit plans, but code required several units to be ADA compliant. One of the units was altered so that the lower floor could accommodate code.

Many of the units required extensive design development, particularly the middle plan on the building plans. I found early in the project that there was a full step unaccounted for as previously designed. The head height would not be sufficient if the required stair was inserted, so I had to come up with a solution to remedy the problem. It wasn't easy, since the plans were so small, but eventually I realized that we could lower the building height by a foot to decrease the amount of stairs needed. Problems like this were abound in the project but we were able to smooth them all out without major redesigns, and since the problems were spotted early, the savings were high in construction administration.