Situated at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, two new buildings totaling 52,000 square feet, are keystones in a Chaffey College’s campus master plan to create an “Arts Village” that consolidates its once-scattered arts programs. Designed and built with a budget of $180 per square foot and challenged with a program consisting of many light sensitive “black box” spaces, such as lecture hall, broadcasting, digital media, photography, and multi-media, the design is intended to utilize the topography and views to address programmatic needs and highlight entrance into and out of the campus.
As the literal and symbolic gateway into the Arts Village, the larger Art Center frames views of the mountains to the north while its cascading stairs heighten the sense of entry into the campus to the south. A student gallery, located at the Art Center’s main entrance, is designed as an arts beacon on the northern edge of campus. Its strategic location at the building entrance ensures that students will be exposed to “what’s going on” in campus arts. In addition, the two-story gallery will serve as a small events space, with the mountains and student work as its backdrop.
The Art Center and smaller Music Building to the south reinforce circulation and gathering areas within the precinct’s existing buildings while fostering interdisciplinary interaction among students and faculty. Expansive windows and bi-fold doors within the Art Center, for instance, creates transparency between indoor and outdoor activity, while the building itself strategically sits as a campus grand entry point, providing a visual reference to the new arts village.
The two buildings are the first step of giving built form to a new campus master plan that promotes the college’s goal to create an arts community that fosters contemplation, stimulation, and discussion, as well as inspires students and faculty as individuals who contribute to their cultures and communities. The addition of these two buildings will strengthen the emerging “Arts Village,” enabling the college to meet its strategic goal of promoting arts on campus.
View Original