On Monday, August 13, Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) officials joined with Los Angeles Southwest College (LASC) president, Seher Awan, Ed.D., guests and Harper Construction Co. officials to celebrate the “Topping Out” of the School of Science Building at Los Angeles Southwest College.
“Our contractor is keeping with their schedule to have the School of Science [building] ready by 2019,” said Awan. “This time next year, [we’ll] be back [to celebrate].
“Our School of Science will allow LASC faculty a facility, equipment and resources to be leaders in the teaching of sciences.”
The “topping out” of a building or infrastructure in construction is significant because it is the final piece of steal being placed onto the structure. The last beam was placed on the structure on August 3. A piece of steal was painted white which was later signed by LACCD officials, Awan and partners of the project.
“We are building world-class facilities for tomorrow,” said Mike Fong, president, board of trustees, LACCD. “We really want to make sure that our students have the opportunities to succeed.”
The new building is a $16 million, environmentally friendly, 27,000-square-foot, two-story building funded by 2008’s $3.5 billion Measure J for the modernization, renovation and new construction of LACCD facilities. The School of Science will hold six classrooms, 10 labs, faculty offices and a rooftop observatory. The School of Science will engage students in the fields of physiology, anatomy, biotech, biology, microbiology, geography, geology and chemistry.
“We all recognize an education is the best way forward,” said LACCD chancellor, Francisco Rodriguez, Ph.D. “Today is a affirmation, another step forward, another way to signal excellence at LASC.”
“It’s incredibly exciting,” said Awan. “I’m proud that we’re able to offer such beautiful facilities to support our students, our community and the future students who are going to come here because this going to allow us to grow our science program to really have state-of-the-art facilities, which is what our students, our faculty and the community deserve.
“I’m just so excited overall.”
“Very happy to be here at this juncture because it’s really setting the stage for the completion of the project for building this well-needed and much in demand on campus [building],” said David Salazar, chief facilities executive, LACCD.
Harper Construction Co. and Sillman Wright Architects were awarded the contract to design and construct the School of Science building, which is expected to open in Fall 2019.
