Los Angeles Trade Technical College modernized its 400 West Washington campus. This renovation and expansion included a new 2-story 60,000 square-foot culinary arts building with cooking labs, demo classrooms, kitchens, a servery, modular dining hall, offices, and an outdoor herb garden. tk1sc provided mechanical, plumbing, and energy & sustainability design services, which encompassed our energy team contributing to the design of the mechanical solar photovoltaic panel system penthouse rooftop connected to the existing campus solar cell system. The system generates electricity and reduces campus energy costs. In addition to the cool-roof design, this new system reduces campus energy costs and the generated power needed for air conditioning. As a result, this project achieved LEED Gold certification.

Beacon Park is the first in a series of neighborhood parks within a large-scale residential development. It is an iconic destination for homeowners and starting point for visitors. Working with landscape architects Valley Crest Design Group and architects Ware Malcomb, StudioK1 has brought magical energy to the first of multiple parks under design and construction within Orange County’s Great Park for FivePoint Communities. StudioK1 has created a night-time family playground, including the Coolest. Treehouse. Ever. Taking advantage of the multiple heritage trees throughout the park. tk1sc provided Full-service mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and Low Voltage engineering design. Mechanical Solutions: We selected the mechanical systems on the project to achieve the project goal of no rooftop equipment. The Welcome Center utilizes a VRF Heat Recovery system with an outdoor VRF unit located on grade. The fan coils are thoughtfully arranged in a mezzanine to maximize the ceiling height in the Multipurpose Room. The Multipurpose Room also featured two gas fireplaces. We closely coordinated venting solution for the fireplaces to ensure it meets the desired aesthetics from both the interior and exterior of the building. Lighting Solutions: Beacon Park is entirely lit with LED sources, allowing the design team to exceed California’s strict Title-24 regulations. We used the lighting scheme to enhance the geometry of architecture and landscape. Creating an inviting presence with warm white downlights paired with decorative pendants creates an inviting mood in the lounge-style learning space. Two different color temperatures of string lights wrap the mature trees adding to the magic. Integrated downlights within the metal trellis allow for the kitchen space to function into the evening. We lit the giant heritage trees with mid-grades from below, accenting the trunks and branches, while tree-mounted bullets are used within to illuminate the canopy. Contemporary style poles illuminate the pathways. We used asymmetric uplighting to accent the colorful decorative metal shade structures while powerful floodlights evenly light the multi-function court. Incorporating step lights into the guardrails creates a seamless look while providing light for the skywalk to the treehouse. Heritage trees salvaged from the decommissioned Marine base are now major focal points around the entire park, particularly at night with accent lighting and sparkle. The treehouse is the most eye-catching beacon of the park. LEDs create sparkle within three ancient Jacaranda trees as the steel and wood structure is highlighted with color to give it life at night. Recessed ingrade lights with the ability to change color per season or holiday create a fun light source for kids while illuminating the inside of the treehouse, making the space exciting from within and a focal point across the park. The design focused on the significant features within the park to keep the project within budget.

tk1sc provided mechanical and plumbing engineering services for this $9 million, 160,000 square-foot middle school campus renovation and expansion project, adding 70,000 square feet. Scope encompassed improvements to the lower and upper school classrooms facilities in addition to the construction of a new 2-story classroom building that shares a semiprivate courtyard with the adjoining new performing-arts center. The new structure includes 23 instruction spaces, four science labs, and administrative offices.

The two ten-story Trammell Crow next-generation office space, one-million-square-foot LEED Gold high-rise buildings are interconnected with sky bridges, a central park with outdoor workspaces, retail, café, and a9-story parking structure. This project involved full mechanical, electrical, plumbing, low voltage, and audio-visual technology design with a full build-out of tenant improvements for separate clients. After the start of construction in February of 2016, the team archived the goal of substantial completion in September of 2017, on time and under budget.

The latest addition to the sequence of parks and trails throughout Orange County’s Great Park Neighborhoods, this park provides aquatic and playground fun for the whole family. Playful shade structures and palm colonnades are accentuated, while the walkways through the park meet Irvine’s demanding Security Code. Developed by FivePoints, with architecture by LPA, Inc., and landscape architecture by BrightView. Full MEP/Low Voltage/A/V services provided by tk1sc.

This project's sustainable elements highlight the design while also providing an efficient place for students to live, study, and socialize. With smaller than average room sizes, more common areas, study alcoves, kitchens, terraces, a classroom, and café were built with the saved space. To achieve it's LEED Gold status, our design team implemented the following sustainable building systems. Active and passive controls, motion-sensor lights in all spaces, special triggers to disable HVAC use when the operable windows are open, solar fins that shade west-facing windows for additional energy savings, and geopier footings in place of typical cast-in-place concrete, which saved time and money.Constructed on the last available parcel of campus land, the Blackstone Residence Hall was squeezed between a major college entrance, a busy street and two existing structures, with no green space on site. To make the design work, the project team employed the latest building information modeling and document-control technologies to create an angular building design that maximizes the number of units while leaving room for outdoor amenities. The result is an efficient LEED Gold building, highlighted by smaller-than-average, 150 SF dorm rooms. The saved area was allocated for more common space, study alcoves, kitchens, terraces, a classroom and a café. The 61,000 SF structure provides 15% of its area as amenity space for residents. It also created a new secondary campus entrance.