This five-story, 5,600 m2 campus complex includes a large experimental black box theater and an art gallery, both double-height spaces, surrounded by studios, classrooms and offices. Reinforcing the interdisciplinary approach of the School of the Arts, the architecture stimulates interaction with the surrounding Arts Village with multiple terraces, landscaped courtyards, balconies and a colonnade. A new entrance court plaza has been planted with shade trees and fitted with wooden benches and integrated lighting to make it an inviting public gathering space. Innovative strategies for energy-efficiency and the complex’s benign marine climate yielded bold design ideas. The theater and gallery, the two large spaces requiring highly-mediated environmental control and lighting, are placed at the core of the building. Wrapped around them are smaller, naturally-ventilated rooms and corridors that make up most of the building’s exterior; none of these areas have air-conditioning. The top floor consists entirely of artists’ studios which open onto outdoor terraces. The western façade has metal sunscreens and breezy exterior corridors with windows opening to offices.
Built into a sloping site, the Arts Building is clad in brick veneer, concrete masonry and glass, which reference the materials that make up much of the surrounding campus.
