College of Marin approves construction contract for library
After years of planning and millions of dollars in expenditures, the College of Marin is nearing the start of construction on its new library in Kentfield.
The college trustees have approved a $67 million contract for Alten Construction Inc. of Richmond to complete the building phase of the project. The school plans to break ground on the project on Aug. 30.
The building, called the Learning Resources Center, is the final piece of the college’s most recent series of voter-approved Measure B bond projects at the Kentfield campus and at the Indian Valley Campus in Novato. Voters approved Measure B in 2016.
“It’s so thrilling to see how much better both our campuses are looking now than they were 10 years ago,” college trustee Diana Conti said at the board’s meeting last week. “I can’t wait to see what the LRC will look like once it’s built.”
Aside from a library, the three-story, 78,000-square-foot center will include offices, classrooms, laboratories, meeting rooms, lounges and other gathering areas. The college plans to open it in 2026.
The center will also include a cafe for “grab and go” food service, Greg Nelson, a vice president at the college, told the trustees during a presentation at the board meeting. Catering for larger events will be delivered from the campus’ main kitchen at the Student Services Building, Nelson said.
“Part of this Learning Resources Center will be an event space to replace Olney Hall, where we used to have meetings and forums,” Nelson said. “This will be a mid-sized meeting space, somewhere in between our big theater and the small meeting rooms, like where we are now, where our board meetings are held.”
The overall project cost is $116 million. Nelson said the balance outside the construction contract has already been spent on the earlier planning, design, ground preparation and foundation work
Nelson said planning for the building started in 2018. Planners completed the design in 2021, and crews started foundation and ground preparation in December.
The California Division of the State Architect, the agency that oversees public school construction projects, sent the college its approval of the library construction phase this month.
“We’ve come a long way in the last five years,” Nelson told the trustees.
Over the past year, the work has included some excavations that uncovered glass bottles and other artifacts thought to be from a former creamery, possibly from more than a century ago, Nelson said. He said the college is planning to build a special area to display historical items found during construction.
Workers have installed about 400 support columns that are a mixture of concrete and soil to hold the building “pod,” he said.
Starting this fall, traffic flow around campus — particularly off of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard at the intersection of College Avenue — will be heavily affected by the influx of construction vehicles and the vehicles of students, staff and the public, Nelson said.
With Kent Middle School across College Avenue from the construction site, traffic control and safety are of utmost concern, he said.
“Anyone who has to visit the Kentfield campus for any reason over the next year is advised to schedule an extra 20 minutes,” Nelson said. He said workers are expected to be on campus as early at 6:30 a.m.