Coastline’s new campus coming together

Coastline Community College’s new $48-million campus in Newport Beach is starting to take shape.

The first phase of construction — demolition, grading and installing underground utilities — is complete for the campus at 1515 Monrovia Ave.

Workers have started construction on the three-story building and are expected to start on the first story’s walls Friday, said Dave Cant, director of maintenance and operations.

“It’s actually moving along really well,” he said. “We’re on schedule.”

Coastline broke ground in April on a 3.4-acre site between Monrovia Avenue and Banning Ranch that will replace its existing Costa Mesa campus at Mesa Verde Drive East and Baker Street.

The Fountain Valley-based Coastline has campuses in Costa Mesa, Garden Grove and Westminster.

The new campus will offer general education, paralegal and acquired brain injury coursework, as well as programs for veterans and disabled students.

Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s Early College High School is also slated to move to the Newport campus, along with the Coastline Art Gallery in Huntington Beach.

“The programs currently housed at our rented Costa Mesa site will finally have a permanent home and a proper campus,” said Coastline spokeswoman Michelle Ma. “Plus, students will benefit from a new, technologically advanced, environmentally friendly learning site that overlooks the ocean.”

The campus is slated to open in late 2012. It was designed by the LPA, Inc. — the same architects who worked on Newport’s Environmental Nature Center.

Officials at Newport’s Coastline campus hope to gain either Gold or Platinum Leadership in Energy and Environment (LEED) certification for the building.

The college is still studying the savings from solar panels, which is the difference between qualifying for gold and platinum LEED status.

The campus will utilize green building practices, including irrigating with reclaimed water, using drought-tolerant landscaping and using natural light when possible. The campus will also feature a roof garden.

Green practices were also used in the construction phases, Cant said.

Before the existing building on the lot was demolished, the building was stripped of furniture, windows, doors and electrical components that went to Habitat For Humanity, he said.

The existing concrete and asphalt were grounded up and will be used as a base for the parking lot, Cant said.

“We really stripped the building before we did demolition,” he said. “We’ve recycled 80% of what was in there.”