Business & Tech
Contract Awarded for King Gillette Ranch Visitors Center
The $6.8-million contract will pay for the restoration and conversion of the ranch's historic stables.
King Gillette Ranch's historic stables will be converted into a Santa Monica Mountains visitors center thanks to a $6.8-million contract from the National Park Service.
Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SMMNRA) officials announced Tuesday that the work, which is being funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will be performed by Salt Lake City-based Big-D Construction and AJC Architects.
Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring, and the visitors center could open in 2012, said Lauren Newman, policy and external affairs manager at SMMNRA.
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Notable for its Spanish architecture and distinctive tower, the 6,000-square-foot stables building is part of the estate built in the 1920s by King C. Gillette, inventor of the disposable safety razor. It was later owned by film director Clarence Brown and housed a religious order before becoming home to Soka University. A consortium of public agencies purchased the 588-acre property from the school for $35 million in 2005.
The center will house visitor facilities for SMMNRA, California State Parks and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority. SMMNRA's administrative offices will remain in Thousand Oaks but a larger King Gillette Ranch design plan remains in the works, Newman said.
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According to plans, the structure will become the first "net-zero" visitors center in the national park system, meaning that the building will produce enough of its own energy to offset anticipated consumption.
To achieve that goal, the visitors center will employ solar panels and maximize energy efficiency by using passive heating and cooling systems. It will also incorporate skylights to reduce electrical consumption, Newman said. The park service hopes the visitors center can earn Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum certification, the highest rating for sustainable design awarded by the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council.
AJC Architects has designed a number of facilities for the National Park Service around the country, including structures at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada and a whale overlook at Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego.
