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Contra Costa County Administrative Building

This design-build project will provide County offices, ground floor parking, and commercial space facing a public plaza.

  • Innovative Design

    While bridging documents specified a steel structural system, during the pursuit phase, Tipping and the design-build team explored a concrete structural system that improved performance and added an additional story within the original budget.

  • Integrated Value

    An early geotechnical report required that all existing footings of the old administration building, including a basement, be removed. Tipping collaborated with A3GEO to identify which footings were critical to remove, and which could remain in place, saving the project time and cost.

  • Sustainable Integration

    This project is targeted to meet the Carbon Leadership Forum's "Acheivable" rating, requiring the sourcing and use of low-carbon materials, as well as a Total Resource & Efficiency (TRUE) Gold certification.

We harness our advanced analytics’ capabilities to predict structural behavior and gain key insights to develop optimized, data-driven design solutions—creating real value for clients and building owners.

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We’re hyper-focused on providing useful insights early in the design process to better inform key decisions, control cost, and minimize disruptive surprises. By internalizing project-level goals, we’re better able to help achieve them.

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As industry leaders, we collaborate and innovate to create low-embodied energy, sustainable design solutions that are efficient, cost-effective, and seek to reduce carbon output to minimize construction’s environmental impact.

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We combine innovative design and a collaborative and responsive workflow to deliver tailored, effective, and unexpected seismic design solutions that help protect our clients’ high value investments and facilitate post-earthquake operations.

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Instead of textbook solutions and conventional approaches, we ask deeper questions to unlock possibilities. Through ingenuity and a thoughtful application of engineering first-principles, we develop more responsive and efficient structural designs.

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The county demolished an old administration building and jail annex, to be replaced with a modern LEED Gold building and Bay-Friendly Rated public plaza. The design-build delivery method gave the team room to pursue alternative ways to meet the project goals.

Architectural vision

An efficient layout allowed us to simplify the overall building design and focus our attention on key architectural elements. In particular, we developed unique details that allow the curved concrete wall at the front of the building and the concrete stair tower walls to slip past other structural elements during a seismic event.

The project is currently in construction.

  • Location

    Martinez, CA

  • Square Footage

    68,000 sf

  • Cost

    $53 million

  • Completion Date

    2023 (est.)

  • Owner

    Contra Costa County

  • Architect

    Perkins&Will

  • Contractor

    Webcor

Foundation optimization

An initial geotechnical report, provided during the pursuit phase, required removal of all the existing footings and basement. Early in the design, by coordinating construction logistics, collaborating with the geotechnical engineer, and questioning initial assumptions, Tipping created a surgical plan for the removal of only those existing foundations that were absolutely necessary, saving considerable time and expense on excavation costs.

Detailed 3D revit model

Coordinating model and digital workspace allows for detailed integration of structure, architecture, and mechanical systems for the use of the entire design-build team.

Tipping Project Team

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