Diablo Valley College broke ground on the construction of a new Engineering and Technology building earlier this month, breathing new life into the engineering and technology program on campus. 

The project will cost an estimated $56 million and is scheduled to be finished by Spring 2027.

According to Jeffrey Smith, chair of the Industrial Design Department and the program lead of Engineering Technology and Industrial Design at DVC, structural integrity issues and potential asbestos contamination found in the old Engineering Technology building earlier this year weren’t the only factors prompting its demolition and the creation of a replacement. 

“The building had surpassed its ability to effectively adapt to the workplace technologies that required our students to learn robotics, motor controllers, electronics, and advanced manufacturing within our Industrial Automation and Robotics program,” said Smith. 

“The former ET building had been neglected for decades and was slated to be replaced years ago.”

The groundbreaking event, held Oct. 15 at the site of the demolished ET buildings, located between the campus police station and the mathematics building, signaled the start of a building process directed by Clark & Sullivan Construction, based in Sparks, Nev., and the end of the planning phase headed by JK Architecture Engineering, based in Auburn, Calif.

A dozen engineering students, along with faculty and staff, joined the ceremony to celebrate the future of their program at DVC. 

“We are not just breaking ground on a new building, we are breaking ground on our futures,” said John Freytag, the school’s Academic Senate president. 

In late spring of this year, structural support issues within the Engineering and Technology buildings were discovered during routine campus maintenance.

According to DVC engineering student Ethan Valenzuela, students working in the ET buildings at the time were given notice of a temporary relocation to the Advanced Technology Center prior to the Fall 2025 semester. 

A worker with the Clark & Sullivan construction crew said the ET buildings had structural integrity issues with their supports as well as exposed brick walls and roofing, which prevented them from passing California’s strict building code. 

The price of repairing the old building would have been astronomical, said Ted Foor, president of California operations for Clark & Sullivan. 

“It would cost less to build a new building from scratch than to bring the old one back to standards,” said Foor at the building’s groundbreaking.

According to Smith, who also spoke at the ceremony, the new project aims to provide DVC students with “high-quality accessible resources needed to attain high-paying, high-demand jobs” within the engineering and tech fields. 

The building will reportedly have extra square footage, access to 3D printing, a computer-aided design lab and computer numerical control labs, as well as robotics and electrical labs. 

Corporate sponsors for the upcoming project include the contribution of a 5-axis CNC machine from Marathon, as well as over $1 million in Fanuc Robotic arms from Tesla. 

Foor said the construction process started incredibly fast, within just a few months after the closure of the former ET building, mainly due to the architects being contracted in tandem with the construction company, which helped streamline communications about planning.  

“The planners can show us an idea, and sometimes it’s too expensive or would take too long, but this way we can avoid these issues early in the process,” said Foor. 

Engineering students in attendance expressed their thanks for the opportunities they hope the new buildings will afford.

“Thank you for turning your roofs into launchpads for me and my friends,” said Harris Nemati, one student who spoke at the ceremony.