A new home, for institutional meetings and the Board of Trustees, to define a sense of place, production, and purpose for an academic think tank:
Design Details:
-Existing Mission-style structure undergoes structural stabilization and is restored to period and readapted from faculty housing to offices and meeting rooms
-Scale and proportion of the new Modernist structure honors the scale of the existing structure and other syntax of other adjacent structures
-Hyper-functionality
-Robust natural light and the ability to control it/block it
-Strong visual, spatial, physical connection to campus to a sense of place, to being in the heart of a quintessential Southern California elite campus.
-Generous, strategic storage, and easy indoor/outdoor workability, the place can changeover with ease and speed
-Loggia of the new structure becomes a transitional element uniting the existing structure and outdoor landscape to the new indoor facility with
similar paving stones and appropriate scale
-Garden wall (north side) becomes an additional transitional and compositional element with functional purpose as built-in bench seating
-Floor to ceiling sliding glass doors expand the lobby and workspace into the loggia
-Angled whiteboards are bathed in natural light
Awards
Best of the Best in the Country, Small Projects, Engineering News-Record, 2015
Award for 'exceptional contribution' in Sustainable Real Estate category, Los Angeles Business Council, 2015
Merit Award for Excellence in Design, American Institute of Architects - California Council, 2014
Honor Award for Excellence in Design, American Institute of Architects - Pasadena Foothill Council, 2014
Historic Preservation Award, City of Pasadena, 2014
Honor Award, Southern California Development Forum, 2014
LEED Platinum Certification, United States Green Building Council, 2014
Sustainable Innovation Honor Award, United States Green Building Council - Los Angeles, 2014
Westside Prize Honor Award, Westside Urban Forum, 2014
Location
Pasadena, CA
Client
California Institute for Technology
Cost
$3.5 million
Scope
2.5 Acres of urban renewal
Key Personnel
Landscape Architecture-Mia Lehrer + Associates
Civil Engineering-Barbara Hall & Associates
Structural Engineering– John Labib & Associates
MEP Engineering– Westlake Reed Leskosky
Audio Visual Consultant-Media Systems Design Group
