Project Data: 

Completion Date:     2/15/2024 

Square Footage:      23000 

Building Use:           University Art Museum 

Project Description: 

The adaptive reuse and expansion of the Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University create a new gateway to the University, linking Old Towne Orange and the commuter rail station. The renovated North and South Buildings – a former dance studio and the existing museum, respectively – are unified over a new central courtyard that defines the entry and serves as a canvas for the relocated Millard Sheets mosaic mural, "Pleasures Along the Beach" (1969), once the public frontispiece to the Santa Monica Home Savings Bank. The art experience begins here outside the museum in a civic space that is porous and accessible to all.

The design draws inspiration from the Hilbert Museum collections, including depictions of early 20th century Southern Californian landscapes and emerging cityscapes marked by abstract surfaces, visual graphics, and an industrial aesthetic. These historic settings are relevant to the nature of the site: an industrial corridor alongside the commuter rail line, the campus, and Old Towne Orange. The 3,250 sq ft open-air courtyard accommodates outdoor programming and informal gathering: the museum entrance as a place of passage and destination. The North Building adds 6,640 sq ft of new galleries to display the museum’s permanent collection, as well as a multi-purpose room accessible from the courtyard to study the works. A new café and bookstore in the South Building also open to the courtyard with seating around a mature Coast Live Oak tree as a centerpiece to this outdoor room.

Together with the open courtyard structure, four new volumes form urban markers to unify the low-lying buildings with new identifying graphics. Two markers reflect daylight into exhibition spaces on the west elevation, with one framing a patio garden from the south foyer. Across the four markers, super-graphics fold over the volumes, signaling the museum identity from various scales and vantage points. On the east elevation, a companion piece from the same Home Savings branch, John Svenson’s wall-mounted bronze sculpture, "Child on a Dolphin" (1970), welcomes visitors approaching from campus.

An economy of means in planning and execution drove the adaptive reuse, utilizing the buildings’ tilt-up concrete structures with minimal new construction. The elemental design embraces the blankness of these industrial structures, anticipating future adaptation and projecting the building as a canvas with armatures for sculpture and signage. The urban markers, together with the courtyard structure, offer shade and minimize gain. Native plant gardens replace hardscape and redefine the precinct of the museum, evoking the scale, texture and atmosphere of the collection’s California scene paintings. Local materials define the palette, including clay tiles that clad the courtyard columns. Built over a former parking lot and additionally shaded by its central Oak, the courtyard serves as a landscaped passageway, a typology suited for the climate of Southern California. 

Design for Integration, Design for Ecosystems, Design for Economy, Design for Energy, Design for Resources 

Design for Integration: the Hilbert Museum expansion links Chapman University to historic Old Towne Orange and the neighboring Orange Metro station through an open-air courtyard that provides 3,250 SF of programmable and publicly accessible space, defines the museum’s entry, unites the renovated North (itself an adaptive reuse of an old warehouse) and South (an adjacent industrial building previously used as a dance studio) buildings, and features amenities, such as native plant gardens a café with outdoor seating. Unconditioned and unenclosed, the courtyard eliminates the need for mechanical cooling and allows for passive ventilation, while heat island effects are lessened by shadow play from the open-air shade structure and mature Coast Live Oak.

Design for Ecosystems: the landscape design reduced on-site parking in favor of garden beds and planters, inviting local fauna in the regional ecosystem to pollinate and museum visitors to enjoy the native flora—California succulents, shrubs, ornamentals, and a Coast Live Oak. Low water-use planting of drought-tolerant vegetation in hydrozones and new grading yields an estimated annual water requirement 20% below the MWELO’s water budget. This intentional synergy between regional landscape and artworks in the collection invites contemplation on this local environment and its preservation.

Design for Economy: the adaptive reuse of two industrial, tilt-up concrete buildings minimized new construction, structure, and costs. The courtyard provides shaded, unconditioned, and multipurpose space for the public and a programmable entry for the museum and University. The lighting, MEP, HVAC, and sprinkler systems of the existing museum are reused, as well as 90% of gallery walls. An indoor multipurpose room was created as flexible meeting space for the display and study of the collection, university classes, and community groups.

Design for Energy: we optimized the museum’s interior by adding urban markers to shield direct, western sunlight from the existing glazing and minimize heat gain. To improve daylighting and lessen energy costs from artificial lighting, we also introduced a north window. The museum’s courtyard created a new continuous ground plane without any roof enclosure or mechanical air distribution, allowing instead for passive ventilation, improved grading for drainage, and multifunctional, programmable outdoor space.

Design for Resources: we greatly saved resources and minimized demolition from our adaptive reuse of the existing structures and building systems, as well as the conversion of former parking spaces and maintenance sheds into the central courtyard. The exterior tiles were locally sourced and handmade by ARTO. The hardscape was cast-in-place large format aggregate, also produced locally. The floating structure shading the courtyard from above is light steel gauge (LGS) framed, which is reusable and recyclable. 

Firm Name:              Sharon Johnston, FAIA 

Completion Date:     2/15/2024 

Square Footage:      23000 

Building Use:           University Art Museum 

Location:                 Orange, CA 

Design Architect: 

Johnston Marklee 

Associate Architect or Firm: 

Landscape Architect: 

SWA Group 

Owner / Developer: 

Chapman University 

Engineer: 

Structural: Nous Engineering
MEP: ME Engineers
Civil: KPFF 

General Contractor: 

General Contractor: CDG Builders 

Consultant: 

Lighting: HLB Lighting Design
Code & Accessibility: Jensen Hughes
Specifications: AWC West
Cost Estimating: C.P. O'Halloran
Building Enclosure: WSP
Community Engagement: Commonwealth Projects
Environmental Graphics: InFoCo
Visualizations: Places Studio 

Photographer: 

Photography: Eric Staudenmaier