SAN JOSE — San Jose City College formally unveiled a new $112 million learning center to bolster the school’s mission as a “workforce development engine” for Silicon Valley.
At 2100 Moorpark Ave., the Career Education Complex is located at what the school calls the physical and symbolic center of the campus.
San Jose City College Career Education Complex, gathering areas and exterior. (Jason O’Rear Photography, Steinberg Hart)
Interior and study areas of San Jose City College Career Education Complex. (Jason O’Rear Photography, Steinberg Hart)
“The building allows our community to engage in courses for opportunities that actually exist in business and industry,” Dr. Marilyn Flores, president of San Jose City College, said in an interview with this news organization.
The complex includes a new 90,000-square-foot building and renovated 30,000-square-foot building, City College stated.
Interior section, San Jose City College Career Education Complex. (Jason O’Rear Photography, Steinberg Hart)
The learning center consolidates an array of departments in a single interconnected site, college officials said.
“The center reflects what the workplace environment for students would actually be,” Flores said. “We are reengaging in conversations with tech companies, medical, health, manufacturing and other industries to create pipelines that go directly from college to career.”
The Career Education Complex will house 15 departments, including programs for computer science, medical assisting, electrical engineering, air conditioning and refrigeration technology, facilities maintenance, and emergency medical services. Steinberg Hart designed the center, and Flint Builders was the general contractor.
“The idea was to unify these departments to expose people to several career paths,” said Katia McClain, a partner with architecture and design firm Steinberg Hart. “It is enriching for students to see that there is more than one path to a career.”
The new center is four stories and was designed to give students a view of the college and surrounding South Bay landscape.
“The center has these little nooks with comfortable areas for students to sit, study, plug in their laptops,” Flores said. “Students don’t have to leave and go home to study. They can stay at the center. This creates a very personal and powerful learning environment for our students.”