Completion Date:     4/1/2013

Square Footage:      105085

Building Use:           College Health Sciences Building

Location:                 Lancaster, CA

Project Description:

Antelope Valleys’ two economic drivers are two busy hospitals and the internationally-important hub of the experimental aerospace industry (Space X, NASA’s Space Shuttle program, Boeing’s Skunkworks and Edwards Air Force Base). The new building for Antelope Valley College was programmed to exploit the opportunities in those sectors, combining health services and science instruction in a synergistic, highly flexible way. Students who experience this learning environment will feel themselves traversing through an inspiring portal to the lifeblood of the community.

PROGRAM AND PROCESS: The College community’s “shared governance” process provided the opportunity for broad participation in giving form and shape to the program and the building. From the start, key stakeholders focused on the main principle: to support and facilitate a multitude of student learning styles. This goal, in a unique way, manifested itself in specialized and flexible learning environments and a variety of “student-owned” spaces that encourage casual, anytime interaction inside and around the complex. Special programmatic elements include:
a. An immersive technology theater where students are immersed in 360-degree simulated environments ranging from exploration of the cosmos, travels through the human body, to surveying the beauties of the art world.
b. Health care labs place nursing students in simulated critical care hospital labs to practice on life-like robotic patients.
c. Natural and physical science labs that emphasize project work over traditional lectures.
d. Various-sized study and casual spaces that surround a café, creating an attractive lure for students and faculty to remain on campus and share ideas.
e. Faculty offices arranged to be visually prominent, and thereby highly accessible to students.

CHALLENGES: The design concept was informed by the contextual and climatic pressures of the site, melded with a learning-centric approach to classroom and lab design. The building’s form is a response to the High Desert context consisting of consistently extreme western winds and incessant exposure to the sun. The U-shaped, two-story building pushes to the perimeter of the project site in order to establish a well-shaded and wind-protected outdoor gathering space while allowing maximum daylight in every space. The rectilinear edge enables one structural module to permeate the project plan, providing for long-term adaptability, while creating an economy of means. The void created by the perimeter push of program spaces creates a contrast to curvilinear forms that are inviting, friendly and casual.

The southeast edge of the site is the nexus of pedestrian circulation on the campus. It is defined by a large formal plaza and the iconic ovoid form of the Planetarium, accentuated with indigenous species plantings. The Planetarium stands as a visual beacon for wayfinding on the campus. Heath Services trainees refer to the form as “the egg” referring to the beginning of life, while the scientists refer to it as “the galaxy” a model of our universe.

C.O.T.E. | Committee on the Environment

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