Miller Hull

By Ray Huard

A new East County government building with the seemingly mundane task of storing documents is turning heads with its sleek design and care taken to make it a welcoming place.

“It is the East County front door to our government, so its’ important to be a place that people are proud of,” said Ben Dalton, principal at The Miller Hull Partnership, the firm that designed the project.

Satellite Office

As its name suggests, the $22 million East County Assessor, Recorder, County Clerk and Archive (ARCC) in Santee at 10144 Mission Gorge Road serves as a satellite office for several San Diego County government functions in the 25,000 square-foot building.

Key among them is preserving documents dating back to the earliest days of San Diego County, said Luis Peris, project manager for the county.

To do that, the architectural firm of Miller Hull Partnership designed two separate but connected vaults in the 8,500 square-foot archive wing of the building.

“It’ almost like a bunker,” Peris said.

Each vault has strict controls on temperature and humidity to protect the documents, especially the older and more fragile documents and those that have been damaged.

The larger of the two is 5,300 square feet and has the temperature set at 60 degrees Farenheit with a relative humidity set between 42% and 52 %, Dalton said.

The smaller of the two at 875 square feet has a temperature set at 50 degrees with a relative humidity of 35 %, Dalton said.

“If you’re just standing there for a while, you’re going to need a sweater,” Peris said.

The archive section has its own generator, heating and cooling system and fire suppression sprinklers.

Read the full story at San Diego Business Journal