Boom. Crash. Shatter.
Those three sounds resonated Wednesday from the site of one of the oldest campus buildings at College of the Canyons in Valencia.
COC is preparing to replace the campus’ Administration and Records building and began demolishing the existing building Wednesday.
“I’ve been in this building almost 25 years,” said Chancellor Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook. “When I moved into this building we had these cement buildings, the stadium, the student center and the gym.”
Van Hook joined the staff as superintendent-president July 11, 1988, when the campus had only a handful of buildings and enrollment had just surpassed 5,000 students.
“To be in this building and watch everything grow around it and to carry out our plans has been really cool,” Van Hook said.
“Most of the people who work here at the college have been hired in my office,” she said. “There’s an awful lot of memories and a lot of history in this building.”
Chancellor Dianne G. Van Hook at the wheel.
“I’ve spent a good portion of my life in this building,” said COC Trustee Bruce Fortine, who joined the original COC board in 1967 – before the college opened on the campus of Hart High. It moved to Valencia in the early 1970s.
In February 1982 the building once known as “A” opened its doors on the Valencia campus. The structure served as the college’s main administrative and student services location, housing administrative offices and the campus’ Child Development Center.
Today, the brick and drywall that sheltered the thousands of students, staff and records that passed through over 30 years came crashing down.
The demolition clears a path for the campus to build a new, two-story, 46,000-square-foot Student Services and Administration building.
The structure will feature new computer labs and kiosks for student use in the Admissions & Records office on the first floor.
The second floor will house additional computer stations, the counseling department as well as the transfer and career centers. Plans also call for a new office to house the financial aid department and an expanded switchboard and mail room area.
“It’ll have a bridge over to the library, and we’ll be able to get almost all of the student services into this building,” Van Hook said.
“We’ll be able to truly make this into a college services center building,” she said.
As the new building goes up in Valencia, COC is preparing to erect its equivalent on the 5-year-old Canyon Country campus.
The bid process has opened for subcontractors interested in performing drafting work, installing a metal deck and erecting the structural steel for a new Administration & Student Services building in Canyon Country. Bids should be submitted no later than Jan. 10 to Columbia Steel Inc., 2175 N. Linden Ave., Rialto CA 92377 (phone 909-874-8840).
COC Admin Building Comes Tumbling Down (Video)
