Saiful Bouquet is the structural engineer for the new McCarthy Child Development Center on the College of the Desert Campus in Palm Desert, California. The center provides care for children ages 12 months through 5 years, whose parents are students at the Palm Desert campus and often work in the city. The project is a one-story steel structure approximately 10,314 sq. ft. consisting of classrooms, a kitchen and miscellaneous support rooms (data, mechanical, etc.).
Active Learning Classrooms and observation rooms allow for the instruction of toddlers and college students as well as auxiliary programmed spaces. In addition to the commercial kitchen, the facility includes a kitchenette, laundry, and nap rooms. The structures design is a gravity framing system which consists of bare metal deck supported by steel beams, girders and columns.
The lateral force resisting system consists of Eccentrically Braced Frames (EBF’s). The columns are supported on a shallow foundation system. The design provides flexibility in the plan while still meeting the programmatic requirements of the facility and campus.
