Grimes Engineering Center
In 2025, Magnum completed the painting and wallcovering scope for the Grimes Engineering Center at the University of California, Berkeley. The project transformed and expanded the former Bechtel Engineering Center into a new home for the College of Engineering, encasing the original 1980 structure with a modern glass-and-steel pavilion. The renovation added 35,500 square feet across two new floors and created a central hub for student services, advising, and collaboration on the north side of campus. General contractor XL Construction managed the build, with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill leading architecture and structural design. Magnum’s commercial painting and wallcovering teams handled finish work throughout the building’s interior, including extensive FabriTRAK panel installation across multiple program spaces.
Painting & Wallcoverings for a Building Designed to be Seen
The Grimes Engineering Center was built around a simple idea: expose the engineering instead of hiding it. Structural connections, gussets, braces, and the building’s shape memory alloy tension rods sit out in the open as teaching tools for the students who pass by them every day. That design philosophy raised the bar for every finish trade working inside the building, since paint and wallcovering had to hold up next to architecture meant to be studied up close.
Magnum’s painting scope covered the building’s interior spaces from the ground floor gallery through the upper-floor student areas. The wallcovering scope centered on FabriTRAK, a fabric-wrapped panel system that stretches material over a track-mounted frame instead of adhering it directly to the wall. FabriTRAK gives a clean, monolithic finish with no visible seams, but it depends on precise substrate prep and tight coordination with the trades working around it. On a project with this many distinct program spaces, that meant adapting the install approach room by room.
A Multi-Space Scope Across a Landmark Campus Building
The Grimes Engineering Center houses several distinct spaces under one roof, including the Shyh Wang Forum, the Eugene Jarvis Auditorium, the Raw Thrills Lounge, and the Giancarlo Family Gallery. Each space carries its own finish requirements, and Magnum’s painting and wallcovering crews worked across all of them to deliver a consistent, high-end finish that matched the building’s design intent.
The FabriTRAK scope in particular required careful sequencing. Fabric wall systems need a clean, properly prepped substrate before installation, and any drywall or framing work happening nearby has to wrap up before the panels go up. Magnum’s team coordinated closely with the general contractor’s schedule to make sure wallcovering installation lined up with the rest of the finish trades, keeping the project moving without rework.
CONTRACTOR
XL Construction
ARCHITECT
Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill (SOM)
LOCATION
Berkeley, CA
DIVISIONS
Painting, Wallcovering
YEAR COMPLETED
2025
Project Gallery
Finish Work That Supports a Higher Education Landmark
The Grimes Engineering Center opened in 2025 as one of the most visible new buildings on UC Berkeley’s campus, sitting on the axis between the Campanile and the university’s Classical Core along Memorial Glade. The project has already drawn recognition in the architecture and construction industry, including a 2026 ENR Northern California Award of Merit for Excellence in Sustainability, largely for its adaptive reuse approach and 42 percent reduction in embodied carbon compared to new construction.
Magnum’s painting and wallcovering work supported that broader design goal by delivering finish quality that matched the building’s role as both a functioning student hub and a showcase of resilient engineering. Thousands of engineering students now pass through these spaces every day, and the finish work Magnum installed is part of what they see.
Commercial Painting & Wallcovering Services in Northern California
Magnum provides commercial painting, wallcovering, and FabriTRAK fabric wall panel installation for general contractors and developers across Northern California, including higher education, corporate, retail, and institutional projects. The Grimes Engineering Center reflects the kind of multi-space, design-driven scope Magnum’s painting division regularly delivers on projects where finish quality carries real visibility.