Located some thirty miles east of Los Angeles, the new 140,000-square-foot Student Services Building (SSB) at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona serves as the primary arrival point for students, families, and alumni. Designed by CO Architects, the facility houses essential administrative and student-facing functions including admissions, financial aid, human resources, and university leadership offices. The building is not only a hub of services but also a symbolic gateway that connects the surrounding parking, student union, and library with the academic core of the campus.
The project comprises two wings—one three stories and the other two stories—linked by an open, shaded breezeway that forms a central circulation spine. This outdoor pedestrian corridor acts as an informal street through the complex, lined with gathering spaces, seating, and landscape, offering shelter from the region’s intense sun while guiding users through the site.
A roof that performs
The building’s most distinctive feature is its undulating standing-seam aluminum roof, spanning both wings and designed to perform as an environmental control element. Rather than being a visual flourish, the roof’s form is the outcome of energy, daylight, glare, and solar heat-gain modeling. CO Architects treated the roof as the primary driver of building performance, using its geometry to manage solar exposure and reduce cooling demands in Pomona’s desert-influenced climate.
Covering approximately 90,000 square feet, the roof’s deep overhangs—ranging from five to 28 feet depending on orientation—shade the curtain walls and reduce thermal gain. These overhangs are fabricated with perforated metal to allow for filtered light, improving daylight quality while mitigating glare. The roof also covers the open arcade between the two wings, helping to create a passively cooled transition space that feels like a shaded urban street.
The roof’s shape references local topography, from the San Gabriel Mountains to the foothills around campus, tying the architecture to its context while simultaneously reducing the building’s Energy Use Intensity (EUI) to a remarkably low 31—less than half the U.S. average for comparable building types. Its East-West alignment enables integration of skylights to deliver natural daylight to the upper floors. To achieve its complex curvatures, custom-shaped panels were fabricated onsite using roll-form technology and attached with approximately 19,000 clips. This application of standing-seam technology is notable not only for its aesthetic performance, but also for its integration of digital design and fabrication, with the geometry refined and coordinated using BIM tools to ensure constructability.
Spatial organization and daylighting
The main three-story structure houses most administrative and student service functions. Floorplates are 62 feet wide, enabling daylight to penetrate across the entire width of the building and allowing for open office layouts that benefit from natural illumination. The open lobby and central staircase are designed to promote circulation and encourage spontaneous interaction between students and staff. On the upper level, university leadership offices for the president and provost are located in a loft-like space with clerestory windows, access to terraces, and proximity to shared staff amenities and break areas.
Conference rooms are positioned around the perimeter of the central courtyard, which introduces daylight and air to the building’s interior. This courtyard includes seating areas and plantings of 50-foot-tall trees (at maturity), providing a shaded environment for students awaiting appointments or gathering informally. The careful distribution of daylight and views throughout the building promotes spatial comfort and wellbeing.
Modular interior planning allows departments to be easily reconfigured as needs change. Building core functions—restrooms, shafts, and utility spaces—are strategically grouped to maximize usable space. Interior finishes include color-coded paint and acoustic baffles made from compressed recycled plastic to aid in both wayfinding and sound control.
Passive and active systems integration
The design integrates a range of passive and active systems to reduce energy consumption and enhance comfort. The concrete structure plays a critical role in thermal regulation, using its mass to stabilize internal temperatures and mitigate peak load demand. Horizontal distribution of air ducts and cable trays was carefully zoned and coordinated to avoid conflicts, improve access, and maximize mechanical efficiency.
All lighting systems are LED-based, providing energy savings while supporting a well-lit environment. The building is designed to allow the majority of its workspaces to function with natural daylight during typical working hours, reducing the reliance on artificial lighting and contributing to wellness and productivity.
Achieving LEED Platinum
The Cal Poly Pomona Student Services Building earned LEED Platinum certification, reflecting its ambitious performance-driven design and careful materials integration. The project’s solar-optimized form, efficient building envelope, daylighting strategy, and passive cooling principles are central to this achievement. Additional LEED-aligned features include high-performance glazing, recycled and low-emitting interior materials, water-efficient fixtures, and the use of BIM for precision in construction and material management.
