Project Data:

Completion Date:     8/1/2022

Square Footage:      55000

Building Use:           ADMINISTRATION / STUDENT SUPPORT CENTER

Project Description:

Coastline College’s existing, four-story, 55,000 sf Administration and Student Support Center was an inefficient, inward-focused, unwelcoming building surrounded by parking. A history of ad hoc modifications over many years has resulted in a warren of spaces that were difficult to navigate for both students and administrative staff. Originally programmed as a renovation of this existing facility, the project changed materially as it became apparent that necessary seismic upgrades would be too intrusive and too costly to be feasible. The new replacement building, called the Student Services Center at the Fountain Valley Campus, created opportunities for Coastline:


•To streamline its delivery of student services through a “one-stop” model in support of Coastline’s three Orange County campus locations;

•To align the design of administrative support spaces to reflect Coastline’s motto as a “College without walls”, enhancing interdepartmental collaboration, increasing space utilization efficiency, improving institutional effectiveness, and promoting long-term flexibility;

•To establish a new brand identity and more prominent civic presence


The new 55,000 sf, two-story Student Service Center is prominently sited at the parcel’s street-side edge, holding the corner formed by two major arterials in the City of Fountain Valley. Contrasting with the relatively anonymous facility it will replace, the New Student Center clearly announces its significance to Fountain Valley and to the larger Orange County community. Its transparent north façade along Warner Boulevard makes visible the activities of the College, glowing warmly after dark and allowing abundant daylight deep into the building during the day.
With the first floor organized to promote convenient and welcoming student “customer” access to one-stop services and counseling, the second floor is intended as a relatively more secure executive and administrative area. Both floors are designed to encourage departmental interaction, maximizing efficiency by leveraging adjacencies and sharing staff, technology, and amenities. This intentional flexibility further serves to “future proof” the building, providing adaptability to accommodate the ebb and flow of departments as student program needs, workplace strategies, and technology continue to evolve.
Flexibility also derives from the building’s construction type, allowing exposed structure and high-volume spaces modulated by varying ceiling types and heights at enclosed offices, circulation areas, and shared amenity spaces. No required occupancy separations further support open, dynamic and easily changeable relationships throughout the building. Interiors feature integral wayfinding graphics and a color palette that reinforces the Coastline brand identity. The transparent, light-filled interiors flow seamlessly out onto a range of outdoor spaces – protected grade-level courtyards to the north and south and second-floor balcony spaces, all offering an expansion of program possibilities in the benign Southern California climate.

As the existing facility was demolished, it was repurposed as surface parking traversed by a landscaped pathway to effectively link the Student Services Center with the College’s other existing office facility to the south, a new pedestrian armature at the heart of a true, multi-building campus in Fountain Valley.

Firm Name:              Westgroup Designs

Completion Date:     8/1/2022

Square Footage:      55000

Building Use:           ADMINISTRATION / STUDENT SUPPORT CENTER

Location:                 FOUNTAIN VALLEY, CA

Project Description:
The Coastline College Administration and Student Support Center building’s *Design for Integration* is represented in its concept; to streamline its delivery of student services through a “one-stop” model in support of Coastline’s three Orange County campus locations. The public areas were planned to align the design of administrative support spaces to reflect Coastline’s motto as a “College without walls”, enhancing interdepartmental collaboration, increasing space utilization efficiency, improving institutional effectiveness, and promoting long-term flexibility; to establish a new brand identity and more prominent civic presence.

Evident in its configuration and focus on serving various demographics, the Student Services Center focuses on *Design for Equitable Communities* with a building that incorporates the needs of Veterans, current Military and the economically challenged, with inclusive access to services previously unavailable, in an open, welcoming, integrated environment. With the concept of accessibility to all, considering unique schedules of military personnel, students in public housing and part-time students who all previously had limited access to a variety of services at local community colleges, this first floor lobby is organized to promote convenient and welcoming student “customer” access to one-stop services and counseling, while the second floor is largely for executive and administrative staff. Both floors are designed to encourage departmental interaction, maximizing efficiency by leveraging adjacencies and sharing staff, technology, and amenities, enhancing opportunities for student programs to support those whose education is only part of their college experience.

As the architect, contractor and project team approach this project with a goal to *Design for Change*, we took the original building’s concept which was an inefficient, inward-focused, unwelcoming building, that was seismically unfit and too costly to upgrade, surrounded by parking, and reimagined it for the benefit of the students and community. The innovation began in planning the site, which needed to visually and physically connect with the rest of the campus and create this new structure and parking in the same footprint as the current building. The new building, fit within the existing parking lot, with its dynamic form, welcomes the community from all facades. As the existing facility was demolished, it was repurposed as surface parking traversed by a landscaped pathway to effectively link the Student Services Center with the College’s other existing office facility to the south, a new pedestrian armature at the heart of a true, multi-building campus in Fountain Valley. Flexibility also derives from the building’s construction type, allowing exposed structure and high-volume spaces modulated by varying ceiling types and heights at enclosed offices, circulation areas, and shared amenity spaces. No required occupancy separations further support open, dynamic and easily changeable relationships throughout the building. Interiors feature integral wayfinding graphics and a color palette that reinforces the Coastline brand identity. The transparent, light-filled interiors flow seamlessly out onto a range of outdoor spaces – protected grade-level courtyards to the north and south and second-floor balcony spaces, all offering an expansion of program possibilities in the benign Southern California climate. This intentional flexibility further serves to “future proof” the building, providing adaptability to accommodate the ebb and flow of departments as student program needs, workplace strategies, and technology continue to evolve.

Design Architect:
SHAZAD GHANBARI / KEN ONG

Associate Architect or Firm:

Landscape Architect:
Ridge LA - Landscape Architect

Owner / Developer:
COASTLINE COLLEGE

Engineer:
P2S - Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing Engineers

Kimley Horn - Civil Engineers

General Contractor:
CWDriver Project Management with GC as Multi-Prime

Consultant:

Photographer:
WESTGROUP DESIGNS, INC