Monterey Peninsula College to Open New Satellite College
This Fall...More Improvements on the Way!

When the voters of Monterey County passed the $145M Measure I bond measure in 2002, Hohbach-Lewin joined Ken Scates and Phil Korchek of HGHB architects (Monterey), Kitchell Construction Management, Alfa Tech MEP, Steve Morgan and the rest of the MPC facilities staff on a long journey to modernize, improve and expand the Monterey Peninsula College Campus. Much has been accomplished in the intervening years. Besides the entire new campus consisting of five new classroom and administration buildings in Marina scheduled for completion later this fall, the main campus in Monterey has been transformed and is poised to serve the community for another hundred years and beyond. Hohbach-Lewin Senior Associate, Bill Daley, S.E., has led the charge from our end on projects that have run the gamut from the structural design of a new pedestrian bridge spanning 180 feet across the creek which runs through the center of campus, seismic and energy upgrade of the men's gymnasium, the design of the new satellite campus, a retrofit and certification project of two de-commisioned military buildings at Fort Ord that now comprise MPC's new Public Safety Training Facility, a host of ADA improvements, and modernization and seismic upgrade of: the Social Science building, the Business and Computer Science building and the Humanities building, as well as numerous infrastructure upgrade and modernization projects.

Bill marvels at the amount that has been accomplished... "The MPC projects I have worked on these last five years represent a significant part of my professional career as a structural engineer. I really enjoy visiting there and seeing all the positive developments our hard work has wrought... it's hard to pick one, but I think, perhaps the project I am most proud of is the decommissioned military building certification projects at Fort Ord.

We saved a piece of history with this one, it was technically very challenging and it took a real team effort. Everybody on the team had an important role to play to make this happen! I think it was largely Steve Morgan's leadership, and infectious positive "can do - there must be a way" attitude that inspired DSA's Chip Smith to point out to the team a somewhat obscure section in the Ed Code (Ed Code Section 81149) that was written specifically for Community Colleges to use to retrofit and certify decommissioned military buildings for Community College use. I like to think the military men who built these buildings so quickly and so well in times of great national duress would look down and smile to see that we have extended the useful lives of these buildings for long into the future. The fact that these buildings will be used to help train first responders only adds to their luster and legacy."

Downtown Palo Alto Walgreens Rises from the Ashes...

When a July 2007 arsonist's fire destroyed the Walgreens building at 310 University Avenue in downtown Palo Alto all that remained were the existing basement walls. WRNS Studio (San Francisco) working in collaboration with Allied Architecture + Design (San Francisco) retained Hohbach-Lewin to provide the structural design for the new replacement structure.

This new 3-story, steel moment frame office building was built right up to the lot lines by Palo Alto contractor, Vance Brown Builders. Besides constructing this building on a tight urban site the team had the extra challenge of figuring out how best to utilize the existing concrete basement walls. Avoiding demolition of the basement walls, and the attendant temporary excavation shoring and site disruption was critical to the project schedule and budget (where there's a will and a strongly motivated team!) there's always a way.

Now three and half years later, the building has been replaced with a gleaming new contemporary mixed-use retail office building. Walgreens has returned and the offices above are ready to be leased.

The occasion of Palo Alto High School winning Division I State championships in both Boys Football and Girls Volleyball generated a traditional style downtown parade, with the up-to-date twist of utilizing imitation cable cars to carry the team members. We just had to join the fun and get a picture of the new 310 University building when the parade passed by!

Three New California Registered Structural Engineers
Brings Total to 22!

When Thuy Fontelera, Jeremiah Legrue and Michael Resch all passed the California structural engineer's licensing exam, they raised the total number of California registered structural engineers employed by Hohbach-Lewin to 22, making Hohbach-Lewin among the largest employers of registered Structural Engineers throughout the entire state. Since it began doing so in 1940 California has only issued approximately 5,500 structural engineering licenses. Of those 5,500 licenses, only approximately half remain active; approximately half of those 2700 active licenses practice in northern California... that means about 1.5% of the practicing structural engineers in northern California now work at Hohbach-Lewin, Inc.!

We are quite proud of the breath of expertise that all these licenses represent and proud of our ability to offer this expertise on all our projects. We are also proud of our unique business structure that encourages and fosters professional development and career growth... all our registered structural engineers are already company owners or are on the path to achieving ownership (To learn more about our "unique" business structure click here).

Visit Our Hohbach-Lewin Facebook...