Studio Gang has completed an exciting new expansion for the California College of the Arts (CCA) campus in San Francisco, extending the school’s existing main academic building. The new structure fosters a dynamic indoor-outdoor environment that supports both learning and creative practice, enhancing connections among students, ideas, and artistic disciplines.
Founded at the dawn of the 20th century during the Arts and Crafts movement, CCA has grown into a hub for 34 diverse art and design disciplines, ranging from ceramics and textiles to architecture, animation, and metal arts. The new 82,305-square-foot building was designed as a creative ecosystem where disciplines can interact and overlap. It features modern art-making facilities, flexible learning spaces, and green areas that foster collaboration among CCA’s diverse community.
The ground level, built from concrete, serves as a vibrant indoor/outdoor space for hands-on workshops and large-scale fabrication. Organized around shared resources, this open, flexible layout encourages visibility and interaction between different creative practices. Two expansive maker yards, carved into the lower level, provide additional workspace while letting in fresh air and natural light that penetrate deep into the building's interior.
Above this, two striking mass timber pavilions house classrooms, art studios, and the new home of the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. These pavilions open onto a terraced green landscape that connects the upper and lower levels of the building. The pavilions feature deep balconies, creating spaces for informal learning, socializing, and circulation—all while taking advantage of San Francisco's mild climate. Notably, these pavilions are among California's first exposed mass timber structures, showcasing both the natural beauty of timber and the innovative bracing system designed to handle both lateral and gravity loads.
Designed to strengthen CCA's ties with San Francisco's design and innovation districts, the new building also reaches out to the broader Bay Area, supporting its environmental, entrepreneurial, and creative cultures. Its public-facing streetscape and community-centered programs aim to expand the impact of art beyond the campus.
Sustainability was a key focus in the building's design. The hybrid mass timber structure and minimalist finishes significantly reduce the building’s embodied carbon footprint—nearly halving the typical footprint of conventional construction. The ground-level spaces, which house more physically demanding creative practices, concentrate heavy loads and mechanical systems, allowing for adaptability as new needs and technologies emerge.
The building also incorporates passive design strategies, including self-shading façades and night-time ventilation to naturally cool the space and reduce energy demands. Future-ready infrastructure has been built in to support a closed-loop, net-positive building, paving the way for sustainability efforts to continue evolving.
