We all need help. Perhaps one meaning we can all find in life is to help to reduce the suffering of others. This small project, technical in nature will have a great impact on the mental health of students at Los Gatos High School. The idea of de-stigmatizing then need for mental health is very important today. Instead of building fences around our schools, we believe in doing what is possible to help students in their struggles and solving pro9jblems before they become catastrophes

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This was truly a 2020 Pandemic project. Although we were very busy, and we were dealing with all of things we were all dealing with during those days, we agreed to take on the project at the request of key board members. This project was done with a very low budget and tight schedule.

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The project was truly surgical, Carving an existing classroom in to a group of five private counselling rooms. The center is on the second floor above an existing science classroom. It was necessary to add steel structure beams and columns below the new center in order to support the new load. The project required careful removal and replacement of existing HVAC  units and ducting. Fire separations had to be carefully preserved.

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Our initial design recommendations were to utilize private "pods" along the lines of "orangebox" pods. THese would hagfe been afordable, fast and elegant. Unfortunately the Division of the State architect determined that such an approach would constitute a "new construction" project which would require a full structural, mechanical, etc... submittal of the manufacturer's pods. The manufacturers we talked to weren't able to meet the high expectations being required by DSA staff at the time. Thus we explored other options.

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