Students and faculty gathered in Mesa’s Parking Lot #1 on Wednesday, Sept. 22 for the groundbreaking ceremony of the reconstruction of the Student Services I-400 building.

The ceremony started with a welcome message from Mesa’s Interim President Elizabeth Armstrong and was followed by a number of speakers associated with Mesa and the San Diego Community College district who played key parts in the process of developing the new building. The event also included refreshments and raffle prizes alongside the official groundbreaking.

The new building, roughly 85,000 square feet and four-stories tall, is funded by Proposition S, a bond that voters approved in 2008, and is expected to be completed by March 1, 2012. It will host a number of services including admissions, financial aid, evaluations and testing, counseling, and disabled students services. Associated Student Government offices, classrooms and conference areas, and even a café will also be included in the building.

Jim Gabriel of Hanna Gabriel Wells, the architect behind this project, spoke about the design and purpose of the new building.

“Every project begins with a vision, and we wanted to see campus life intertwined with services,” Gabriel said. “We wanted an accessible environment where the students were the center of the project.”

Dr. Barbara Kavalier, Vice President of Student Services at Mesa College helped Gabriel with designing of the building.

“When I came up with a concept of what I wanted the building to be like, I didn’t want the traditional boxy college building,” Kavalier said. “I wanted it to be all about the students, an engaging place where life could be observed and students and faculty could connect.”

The new student services building will be a very open and easily accessible building with glass paneled stairway cases and elevators. Doors will not separate individual departments and there will even be areas where students can either study or socialize.

There will also be an express elevator outside the building for students to use to take them directly from the parking lot to campus and also stops at all floors so students can visit the various departments within the building. A new staircase will also be constructed that is double the width than the old stairs that used to be in place.

Rich Grosch, the President of the Board of Trustees in the San Diego Community College District, discussed not only the building at Mesa, but addressed the goals of the entire district.

“We have $1.15 billion and are building 26 new buildings in our district,” Grosch said. “This building is an example of how we put students first.”