Sierra College and NTD Stichler Architects Honored by Statewide Organization
The Community College Facilities Coalition (CCFC), a statewide organization, recently presented Sierra College and NTD Stichler Architects with their highest planning/design award for the college’s Facilities Master Plan – A Vision for 2015, adopted in 2003.
PHOTO: Receiving Statewide Award of Merit from The Community College Facilities Coalition (CCFC): Jordan Knighton of NTD Stichler Architects; Tina Ludutsky-Taylor, Interim Associate Vice President, Facilities Development and Construction, Sierra College; and Woodrow Wilson, Sierra College Director of Planning
The CCFC is composed of community college districts and associated design professionals, construction managers and companies actively working to plan, develop and improve California’s community colleges. Sierra College was the only Northern California district to receive the Award of Merit.
The Sierra College Facilities Master Plan is a living document developed to provide the district with an outline of the facility needs required to meet the educational goals of the college through the year 2015. It is designed to be a road map that enables expansion and growth without duplication of facilities or waste of resources. It provides a strategy to respond to changing enrollment with functional solutions that meet the physical needs of the College.
Facilities Master Plan – A Vision for 2015 is the product of a multi-tiered collaborative process used to gather information from faculty, staff, administration, students, consultants and members of the community at large about the future trends, goals and needs of this diverse region. The information and ideas are then filtered through the Board’s goals and the educational goals of the College to identify their trends, goals, and needs. The document represents the collaborative efforts of faculty, administrators, staff, students, and community participants. By achieving consensus, the college assures that the projects in the document meet the needs of their rapidly growing and changing communities.
The Plan proposes a district–wide strategy to develop and modernize existing and future sites: modernization projects to correct the wear that has occurred over forty-two years, and new construction projects that would provide classrooms and laboratories needed for additional students. The plan emphasizes ensuring current safety standards, improving handicapped accessibility, supporting educational instruction, updating technology, and improving the efficiency of College operations.
The jurors cited the comprehensiveness and thoroughness of the Facilities Master Plan – A Vision for 2015, as it laid out a strategy to develop three new campuses to complement the two existing ones. They recognized it as an ambitious plan to move the single-college district from a capacity to serve 20,000 students in 2005 to a capacity for 30,000 students in 2015. The jurors particularly praised the inclusiveness of the planning process, which consulted all stake-holders within the College and actively reached out to members of the broader community . The jurors commented, “This was the strongest example of a plan that integrated multiple sites within the realm of an entire district.”