Palomar Community College, Operations & Maintenance Complex, San Marcos, CA

Palomar Community College is a public community college with an enrollment of approximately 30,000 students yearly. Palomar has six sites and one main campus in San Marcos, CA. The college anticipates an enrollment growth in the next few years and needs room for expansion. In order to accommodate for future growth, the college’s maintenance and operation facilities and offices needed to expand about 30,000 sf.

The new Maintenance and Operations buildings at Palomar College combines all of the facilities departments, including warehousing, grounds, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, welding, custodial, painting, and maintenance under one roof. The facilities areas are located near the front of the campus, at the southwest corner of the college just north of Mission Road.

Syska Hennessy Group was the consultants for this design-build project. LEED Platinum and net zero were the goals for the maintenance facility building and office building. Energy models were made for energy cost budgets and energy usage performance.

Several energy consideration measures were included in the design such as natural ventilation, daylighting, solar chimneys, and PV arrays on roof among others.