McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., one of the nation’s top education facility builders and a member of multiple AGC chapters, has completed construction of a new 19,880-sq-ft classroom building, comprising phase two of National City Middle School, located on a two-acre site at 1701 D Avenue in National City, California.

The $11,122,000 project was performed on behalf of the Sweetwater Union High School District, with Trent Carr serving as project manager for the district.  LPA, Inc., served as the architect and interior designer.  Construction began in June of 2013.

The new two-story classroom building uses light gauge metal framing, structural steel and a SureBoard shear wall system. It encompasses 11 classrooms, an Associated Student Body room, teachers’ lounge, storage and copy room, and broadcast studio.  

Sitework included construction of a new courtyard that features radial bands of colored concrete and seat walls.  It also entailed new hardscape, landscape and bioswale servicing across the entire site.

National City Middle School originally was built in the 1930s, so the construction project presented numerous unidentified site utilities and underground structures.  According to McCarthy Project Director Craig Swenson, other challenges included installation of the unique SureBoard shear wall framing system.  BIM and BIM 360 Field technology aided the team with its approach.

"Another difficulty the team overcame was dealing with the school’s year-round class schedule, which meant having students coming and going on three sides of the new building throughout the construction duration," said Swenson.  "The site also provided very limited project access to workers and equipment."

Recognized as one of the nation’s few true builders, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., is the country’s 8th largest domestic general contractor (Engineering News-Record, May 2014), the largest general contractor in California, and the second largest general contractor in San Diego.  The company is committed to the construction of high performance green buildings; progressive job site technology; establishing lean processes; and safer, faster and more cost-effective execution. In addition to San Diego, McCarthy has offices in Newport Beach, Sacramento, San Francisco and San Jose, Calif.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; St. Louis; Dallas; Houston; Atlanta; Albuquerque; Kansas City; and Collinsville, Ill.  McCarthy is 100 percent employee-owned.  More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com.

Photo credit: Stephen Whalen Photography