Rudolph and Sletten :

The Anatomy of Building A Museum:
To Construct COPIA, Rudolph and Sletten Reinforces Napa Riverbank, Stabilizes Site, Upgrades A City Sewage Pump Station, Pours 54,000 Square Feet of Concrete, and Manages Multiple Design Demands

FOSTER CITY, CA (April 8, 2003)—Rudolph and Sletten, General Contractors, today announced the completion of its work for COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts in Napa, California. The project was managed by Rudolph and Sletten’s Sacramento regional office, located in Roseville.

In constructing COPIA, Rudolph and Sletten built a unique prototype for the nation’s first multi-use and interactive cultural center/museum/educational forum. In addition to traditional museum exhibits, the Center offers food and wine classes, hands-on presentations of food preparation, visual and performing arts programs, and educational venues.

The project was a construction challenge that required an ensemble cast of project managers, engineers, consultants, and many other interdisciplinary talents to provide a multi-functional facility of the highest standard. Building the museum included solving a number of obstacles, including reinforcing the Napa Riverbank, stabilizing the site, upgrading a city sewage pump station, pouring 54,000 square feet of architectural concrete, and managing multiple design challenges.

Known for its innovative construction of complex and highly technical facilities, Rudolph and Sletten had previously completed construction for the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for the Visual Arts at Stanford University (Stanford Museum), as well as the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

“COPIA is a unique museum with a unique place in American culture,” said Peggy A. Loar, the museum’s Director. “It is a one of a kind world-class cultural and educational resource. The architect had a distinct vision. Rudolph and Sletten’s attention to quality and detail, as well the company's emphasis on engineering and constructability, was a cornerstone in helping us to realize that vision.”

COPIA’s 80,840 square foot center, devoted exclusively to wine, food, and the arts, is a $40 million marvel of engineering and architecture wrapped in fieldstone, concrete, metal and glass with an undulating roof that reflects the surrounding hills. The atrium faces the Napa River, which is viewed through a 28-foot-high crescent of clear glass. The Design Architect is Polshek Partnership Architects, New York.

COPIA is the dream of vintner Robert Mondavi, who worked for years shaping his vision of the center, donated the land on which it stands, and provided $20 million in seed money. The center’s gourmet restaurant is called “Julia’s Kitchen” after Julia Child, a long-time friend of Mondavi’s who advised him on the project and is an Honorary Trustee.

The museum’s multi-use interior includes a lobby and mezzanine gallery, a 260-seat performance theater, an 80-seat Food Forum and cooking demonstration theater, conference center, a five-star restaurant, food preparation area, wine tasting area, deli and gift shop, 8,000 square feet of permanent galleries as well as 5,000 square feet of temporary exhibition gallery space, a computer learning center, and art gallery storage as well as administrative offices. The exterior areas incorporate a 500-seat amphitheater as well as a garden pavilion for cooking and gardening demonstrations and extensive kitchen gardens.

Construction Overview
Rudolph and Sletten’s work included:

Reinforcement of 1,500 linear feet of the Napa Riverbank with one-ton cobble riprap to prevent erosion.
Stabilization of the building site with a vibro-replacement process that involved packing in 58 million pounds of crushed rock into 1,300 rock columns to densify the soil supporting the structure.
Constructing an 18-inch thick mat slab foundation.
Placing and finishing approximately 54,000 square feet of architectural concrete floor topping slabs 2,000 square feet at a time.
Installation of a mile of stainless steel reveals in the concrete topping slabs.
Construction of a 28-ft tall unsupported curtain wall and 120 structural columns spaced at 21 foot intervals.
Upgrading a nearby city sewage pump station to service the facility.
Overseeing the installation of a unique wave-form ceiling in the permanent exhibition gallery that echoes the shape of the exterior façade.
Coordinating a number of design professionals, including a woodworker/case maker, interior designer, exhibition designer, graphic designer, theatre designer, lighting designer, restaurant designer, food service consultant, landscape architect, and various artists including glassmakers and sculptors who contributed to the final design of the interior.
Overseeing the electrical contractor’s installation of multi use wiring, including wiring to accommodate lectures, performances, multi-media presentations, interactive-displays and live video recordings, as well as wiring to service more conventional areas such as administration and galleries. A state-of-the-art museum security system was also installed.
Wrapping the exterior with several kinds of finishes, including fieldstone, flat and corrugated aluminum metal panels, polished limestone, and plaster.

Reinforcement of the Napa River
COPIA’s 13-acre site lies on a plot of land called the Napa Oxbow, which is surrounded on three sides by the flood-prone Napa River. Because of the river’s proximity and the horseshoe-shaped turn in the river, one of Rudolph and Sletten’s first challenges was to reinforce the banks to prevent flooding and erosion.

“It was to prevent scouring of the bank as the water came around the corner,” said Jon Foad, project manager for Rudolph and Sletten.

Rudolph and Sletten excavated 1,500 feet of the river bottom and banks along the turn, to a depth of four feet, and reinforced the excavated space with thousands of cobbles, each weighing at least one ton. The cobbles measured two to four feet in diameter and were physically set into the river one by one using a crane to form a natural erosion barrier.

Because it was important not to reduce the capacity of the river, the cobbles had to be put into the riverbank in such a way that they would not decrease the depth or width of the river.

The reinforcement of the Napa River was coordinated with many other organizations, including the U.S. Corps of Engineers, the City of Napa Public Works Departments, the U.S. Coast Guard, the State Quality Resource Board, and Friends of the River, a community oversight organization. Rudolph and Sletten also restored the riverbank to its natural setting by planting in excess of 5,000 native plants and grasses.

Clearing and Stabilizing the Site
The site, a former landfill, also had to be cleared, and then the soil needed to be stabilized so that it had sufficient bearing capacity. Rudolph and Sletten first cleared the site, excavating more than 75,000 cubic yards of debris and 12,000 cubic yards of concrete. The concrete was crushed and later used as backfill under the structure.

Because of the proximity of the river on two sides of the building, and because the site was formerly used as a dump, there was a potential that the soil would liquefy during an earthquake.

To minimize the effects of liquefaction a process called vibro-replacement was implemented, packing 58 million pounds of crushed rock into subterranean columns to make the soil more dense so it doesn’t liquefy. To begin, Rudolph and Sletten excavated 12 feet down under the building and 40 feet down outside of the building on both the south and west sides, and all the way to the river on the north and east sides. Excavation including processing all the concrete and debris that had been dumped into the site and then recycling the concrete and rebar.

“Once we had the building pad cut down to 12 feet out, we had to come in and stabilize the ground underneath the building, using the vibro-replacement process,” said Foad. “Everything above the elevation of 5 feet had to be removed, and the building is 23 feet in elevation, so we removed as much as 18 feet in some areas.”

During vibro-replacement, Rudolph and Sletten’s subcontractor, Hayward Baker, drove in 1,300 rock columns 24 inches in diameter and 30 feet deep. As a part of the process, the vibrator compressed soil out of the hole, and filled the holes with 58 million pounds of rocks.

Over the top of the backfill and rock columns, Rudolph and Sletten constructed an 18-inch think mat slab foundation. The company’s crews worked through the winter, self-performing the excavation, dewatering, and placement of 4,000 cubic yards of concrete.

Coordinating the Finishes
Finishes for the museum’s interior received special attention. Rudolph and Sletten completed all of the concrete work itself, placing and finishing over 54,000 square feet of architectural concrete floors. After reviewing more than 30 mock-up samples and a dozen topping products and installation methods, Rudolph and Sletten brought in over 600 yards of concrete for topping slabs to create the finished floors. The crews placed the topping slabs 2,000 square feet at a time around a mile of stainless steel reveals, finished walls, balcony rails, and a completed glass curtain wall.

“We’ve gotten a lot of compliments on the quality of the concrete,” said Foad. “It was a very long process to get to the final look, feel, color, and texture.”

The contractor also had to meet and coordinate the needs of multiple designers, including Polshek Architectural Partnership, the Design Architect, and Fong & Chan Architects, the Architect of Record. There were a number of other design consultants, including West Office Exhibition Design, who designed the permanent gallery and exhibitions; Auerbach Pollock Friedlander, the theatre consultant; Auerbach Glasow, the lighting consultant, Interior Designer Cheryl Brantner Design Associates, and landscape architect Peter Walker & Partners.

“It was challenging coordinating all the different designer’s bits and pieces,” said Foad. “All the displays were custom fabricated. It’s a very interactive space. We selected all subcontractors on the quality of their work. They are people we know and trust.”

In the end, Rudolph and Sletten completed the job on time, and under budget, while integrating the highest quality of craftsmanship into a unique, one-of-a-kind facility.

About Rudolph and Sletten
Rudolph and Sletten (www.rsconstruction.com) is one of the leading general contracting firms on the West Coast and maintains offices in Roseville, Irvine, Foster City, and San Diego, California. As a pace setter in the construction industry, Rudolph and Sletten has provided quality-oriented general contracting and construction management services for over four decades. Rudolph and Sletten’s expert professionals manage each job comprehensively, from site selection and preconstruction services through project completion.

Rudolph and Sletten’s building expertise includes virtually all types of projects with an emphasis on those markets where their technical expertise and quality excel: corporate campuses and office buildings, biotechnology and pharmaceutical research and manufacturing, wineries, data centers, health care, electronics, and high-tech research. Other areas of expertise include parking structures, educational institutions, housing, public attraction, and retail facilities. Rudolph and Sletten’s Sacramento area clients include Kaiser, Hewlett-Packard, Agilent Technologies, The Evergreen Company, First Union, Affymetrix, Sutter Health, Catholic Healthcare West, Verizon Communications, EarthLink, and McCuen Properties.

About COPIA
COPIA is a non-profit cultural institution, museum, and educational organization located in downtown Napa, California. COPIA (www.copia.org) is the world’s leading cultural center dedicated to the discovery, understanding and celebration of wine, food and the arts. COPIA’s mission is to explore the distinctively American contribution to the character of wine and food in close association with the arts and humanities, and to celebrate these as a unique expression of the vitality of American life, culture, and heritage.

In 1988, vintner Robert Mondavi, his wife Margrit Biever Mondavi and other leaders in the wine community began to explore the ideas of establishing an institution such as COPIA. In 1996, Robert Mondavi acquired the land for COPIA and shortly thereafter gave a $20-million lead gift. Subsequently key supporters from the Napa Valley and the surrounding Bay Area—the “Founding Seventy”—made substantial donations. COPIA has since received national and international support.

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