STC - Heath and Science Facility

The South Texas College Facilities Committee has unanimously voted to recommend the approval of the concept presented by Mata+Garcia Architects for the Allied Health & Science Facility at the STC Starr County Campus in Rio Grande City, Texas. The project now proceeds to the Design Development Phase. The 50,000 square foot facility will be built under a Construction Manager-at-Risk contract with D.Wilson Construction Co. of McAllen, Texas. Broaddus Associates is the Project Management firm for all of the STC 2013 Bond Projects.

The facility will be placed on the south end of the campus, following the campus master plan,  in-line with the General Academic Building (E) and directly in front of the new Library, which will also be designed by Mata+Garcia Architects. An existing inter-campus driveway will be removed to create a pedestrian walkway, with the driveway being relocated to the south perimeter of the campus. Parking will be placed to the west, as it will also serve the new Library and the existing Student Services Building and Expansion G) and the Student Activities Building and Expansion (H).

West Facade: The main entry is placed central to the length of the building, with an adjacent mosaic mural celebrating nursing, biology and chemistry accomplishments.  Secondary access points near each end provide direct access to stairwells and student support spaces. Two full-height projections break the plane of the 285 feet long facility with historical detailing taken from the 1884 Nestor Saens building in Roma, Texas and ties this complex with the existing campus theme of combining historical and ranching elements and placing them in a contemporary setting.  The first floor will be sheathed in a combination of brick and painted fiber cement panels, while much of the second floor will be covered in metal panels. Long bands of horizontal windows have been placed in the science labs and classrooms, complimented by seventy skylights that will provide 100% daylighting to the labs and public spaces on the second floor.

The East facade highlights the central location of the Nursing and Science Administration areas. To either side will be 24' tall catchment tanks for rainwater harvesting. Our calculations, based on rainfall in the RGC area the past five years, indicate that the college can collect 285,000 gallons of rainwater per year. (Condensate from the HVAC system will also drain into the tanks.) The board asked that the tanks be screened/protected, to which we are proposing a gabion wall (metal fencing filled with rocks) to keep with the campus theme set in 2003.

South (left) and North (right) facades.

Detail: Main entry; glazed storefront 12 feet high with an adjacent  mosaic mural that will celebrate local accomplishments in the nursing, chemistry and biology fields. The brick projections are highlighted with detailing found on the 1884 Nestor Saens building located in Roma, Texas. Metal panels, painted fiber cement panels, tinted glazing and metal trellises continue the material and color palettes begun in 2003, combining historical and ranching elements and producing a contemporary facility representative of its place and time.

View of the proposed Health & Science facility as students approach from the new Library and Student Services and Activities centers.

The brick detailing of the two projections on the west facade is taken from the historic Nestor Saens building of 1884 located in Roma, Texas. The spaces between the columns will be in-filled with a metal frame lattice that will allow for vines to climbs its eighteen feet and create a living / blooming contrast to the brick, metal and painted fiber cement panels.

Second Floor (top) and First Floor (bottom).

Circulation: (Second Floor - top, First Floor - bottom) Double-loaded corridors connect the main entrance to the central stairwell and elevator as well as the stairwells on either end of the facility. 

Allied Health - First Floor:  The department contains three Skills Labs, three Computer Labs, five Simulation Labs - with support spaces (Control Room, IV Room, Mannequin Maintenance Room, Clean Linens, Dirty Linens and Storage Areas), two Debriefing Rooms, a Video Room, Department Storage, an Administration Area, six Study Rooms, Student Collaboration Areas and Support Space. Specialized laboratories will focus on simulation training with robotic mannequins that replicate all bodily functions, from having a baby to a heart attack or show incidents of diabetes. The goal is for students to have hands-on experience with sessions recorded on video for classroom critiques.

Science (Chemistry and Biology) - Second Floor: Chemistry (Dark Blue) will have two Labs, a Prep Lab/Storage and two Classrooms. Biology (Blue) will contain two Labs, a Prep Lab/Storage and two Classrooms. Shared spaces (Intermediate Blue) will include a Computer Lab, an Information Lab/Open Commons area.  Central to both departments will be the Administration Area (Light Blue).

Support Services (Teal) will be located at both ends of the circulation spine. Each will contain Student Collaboration areas, Stairwells, Restrooms, and Mechanical / Electrical / IDF / MDF / Storage areas.

Vertical Circulation (Orange) will be located centrally and at the perimeter of the facility.                                                                          

The facility is due to be completed in June of 2017.

The project team consisted of:  Rey Zamora, Architect; Chris Collins, Architect; E.J. Melendez, Intern; Juan Torres, Intern, and Hector Rene Garcia, Architect.

South Texas College Student Activities Expansion

The second project being presented to the South Texas College Facilities Committee is the expansion of the Student Activities Building, which we first designed in 2003. (Original design by Mario Garza, Jr. - Inter Architect; expansion design by Christopher R. Collins, Architect and Hector Rene Garcia, Architect. Renderings by intern E.J. Melendez.)

The expansion (yellow) is sited 30' to the east of the existing facility, leaving a mesquite and sombrilla shaded courtyard that will serve as a secondary entrance and an outdoor gathering area.

As designed, the expansion is 4,137 SF, just under the programmed spaces of 4,186SF.

The expansion (yellow) is just east of the existing Student Activities Building with the Student Services (original and expansion) to the west. Careful siting of the facilities has allowed us to save most of the mesquites on the site.

Entrances into the expansion will be off of the main mall, to the north, and directly from the existing facility (via a courtyard) to the west. The Exercise Area (1,986 SF - yellow) is the primary space, with an expanse of windows looking out to the mesquite shaded courtyard and providing direct access to the Locker Rooms (1,090 SF - teal) and Support Spaces (651 SF - orange).

Existing Student Activities building, main entry (center) and sombrilla shaded courtyard (left). This facility has become a popular hangout for students and the expansion will allow for additional programs to be offered.

 North Elevation: View of the expansion (left), courtyard (center) and existing facility (right).

East Elevation

South Elevation: Existing facility (left), courtyard (center) and expansion (right).

West Elevation: Courtyard view into the Exercise Area.

 Southwest view from the General Academic Building towards the Student Activities Building, expansion (left) and existing facility (right).

View of the Student Activities Expansion as seen from the main campus entry driveway.

Career Day: Alton Elementary School

MG'er Hector Rene Garcia, Architect, was bombarded with questions by the well prepared students at Alton Elementary School. The students had been schooled on the basics of the profession and then were free to ask their own questions.  It never fails, the first and most frequent question: "How much does an architect make?" Best wishes to these eager students. See you next year!

Detail: Edinburg High School

One of four skylight galleries that light-up the student

corridors as students move from one class to another.

Roberts Elementary School - San Benito CISD

Courtyard view of Classroom Porch areas and Library.

We Cherish This Building!

Detail of D'Hannis Brick Patterns at North Elementary Entrance

Article by JULIE SILVA in the Mid-Valley Town Crier Newspaper Regarding a Mata+Garcia Architects Elementary School Project in Mercedes, Texas. 

MERCEDES — Mercedes ISD trustees got a look at construction progress in the expansion of North Elementary at a workshop last week.

"We cherish this building," Mercedes Independent School District Superintendent Daniel Treviño said. "It's our newest building, serving first through fifth grades."  A construction crew is building six additional classrooms and Treviño hopes to turn North Elementary into a middle school that serves sixth through eighth grades in 2014. The gym will be turned into a band hall and a new gym will be constructed, he said.

Also Monday, trustees recognized a plaque mounted at the school four years after it was constructed. The plaque, which lists the names of the school board and superintendent on board during the school's construction, first was commissioned in 2009 when the school opened, but it was lost in changes in staffing over the years and only recently resurfaced.

Former Superintendent Walter Watson, who headed the district at the time, was invited to the event as an honored guest. Retired from the district, Watson said he's found himself working with children again, but he still misses Mercedes ISD

5.5 Ways To Turn Your Classroom "GREEN"

As architects, we often get asked by the teachers of the schools we design for help in taking positive steps to save our planet. We enjoy showing how easy it is to do so! Here’s a simple list of items both teachers and students can use to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

1. Recycle:  Place paper and plastic recycling boxes in your classroom and promote their use. Students take turns being the recycling monitor, taking responsibility for demonstrating and knowing what is recyclable and what is not. Teachers can minimize the amount of paper used in classrooms, without compromising educational objectives, by going paperless. Writing assignments and testing on computers, posting information on the school website and the use of email, all help limit the use of paper.

2. Plant a Tree: Turn your school grounds into a park! On many of our projects, landscaping is usually left out or deleted from the project scope. The client’s point-of-view being that the school PTA will provide the landscaping. This rarely happens! In a school with 750 kids, the classrooms number about thirty-four. A $250 two-inch caliper tree or shrub, when divided by 22 students per classroom, equals a cost of $11.36 per child per semester (63 cents per week). If a school does this twice a year it would amount to sixty-eight trees and shrubs per year. Trees lower the surrounding temperature, filter air, remove carbon dioxide and provide shade and beauty.  What an impact this would make. There will be plenty of trees to hug on Earth Day!

3. Flip the Switch: Every time you leave your classroom empty, turn-off the lights. While we install motion sensors to activate lights when needed in all of our projects, not all schools have them. Turning off classroom lights cuts carbon emissions by reducing electrical use.

4. Edu-Garden: With a school-wide effort, plan and place the "edu-garden" adjacent to the school cafeteria. You can grow vegetables, for use in school meals, or flowers, for display in administration and library areas. The students are able to taste and see what they grow. An additional step is to take classroom and cafeteria water used in assignments or cooking and using it to water the plants.

5. Let the Daylight In: It never fails! During programming sessions, teachers always ask that their classrooms have plenty of windows; once they occupy the space the windows are covered with construction paper, blinds or curtains. We go to great lengths to ensure that only daylight, and not direct sunlight, enters the classrooms. While there will be times when a teacher needs to control the view, there are plenty of teaching moments that can occur by keeping the blinds open – changes in weather, birds building nests, the movement of wind through tree and shrubs, etc. In addition, studies have shown that an aggressive daylighting program can reduce electrical loads by up to 30 percent, increase student performance by 20 % and reduce absenteeism by 50 %.  
5.5 Power Down: Classrooms are empty three periods a day; conference period, lunch period and planning period.  Though teachers my place classroom computers on shut-down mode, they still pull electricity. It is best to completely shut down computers, chargers and printers,   and un-plug them from the walls during these periods and after school hours as well.

Hector Rene Garcia, Architect / Partner - Mata+Garcia Architects LLP

Truan Gym Renovation Update

View of the gym interior - May 2012. The ceiling wrap for the insulation was torn, metal wall panels were missing and daylight visible, windows leaked and the floor was warped.

The renovation work is nearing completion - March 2013. The gym interior includes new wall surfaces, graphics, lighting, a/c system, flooring and bleachers. The general contractor, Foremost Construction, is scheduled to turn the facility over to the Edcouch-Elsa ISD at their April 2013 Board of Trustees meeting.

Crit at University of Texas at Brownsville

MG'ers Christopher R. Collins, AIA and Hector Rene Garcia, Architect/Partner took part in a jury review of an infill project on South 17th in McAllen. The five week project was conducted by instructor Erick Darbo Diaz. Congratualtions to all!

de la Fuente Elementary School

Entry corridor with our interpretation of an "Escher" style floor pattern.

Vanguard Academy - Update

The foundation has been poured for this 32,000 sq. ft. elementary school. The general contractor, OG Construction, now proceeds with the erection of the walls. This is a first for our firm in that it is an all wood-frame school. Completion Date schedule for May 19, 2013.

Truan Gym Update

The wood flooring was intalled this past week as the gym nears completion.

WHS Music Halls: All Lit Up!

Detail: Nighttime View of Music Halls along Panther Drive.

The project is nearing completion with punch-list items being 

worked-on during the Christmas Holidays.