Completion Date: 3/25/2016
Square Footage: 41000
Building Use: Higher Education Student Center
Location: Valley Glen, California
Project Description:
The 41,000-square-foot Design-Build Student Center is tracking a LEED NC Silver rating and is a hub of activity in the heart of the campus providing a place for students to call home. The project creates a dynamic and exciting new home for the Student Union along with a Health Center, cafeteria, bookstore, convenience store and administrative services.
The building mass forms a U-shaped courtyard that is protected from the rain and harsh summer sun by a large, high roof canopy. The prominent 20,000-square-foot, sloping canopy towers 41 feet above finished grade at its highest point. The “solar umbrella” butterfly roof provides shade in the harsh summer days while sheltering from the rain and collecting rainwater in the winter days. The use of glass throughout the project maximizes the harvesting of natural light and enables students to find their destination easily. The skylights and operable glass walls create a blending of interior and exterior spaces and encourage the use of natural ventilation whenever feasible.
The new building’s plaza creates a focal point to the campus with a “sustainable park” that connects the Plaza to other campus buildings. This sustainable park links the south and north end of campus by winding through and under the new student union, which was “elevated” to a second floor opening the central plaza space to the adjacent campus mall. Unlike the existing campus mall which is primarily turf, the sustainable park is a demonstration of native and drought tolerant landscape and stormwater management. The “butterfly” roof collects rainwater which is received in a drop-bowl and sent downstream where the stormwater is polished and discharged at a controlled rate. Native and drought tolerant landscape along with an efficient drip irrigation system reduces potable water use for the landscape by 55 percent from LEED baseline.
The elevated student union “skybox” creates an unmistakable destination for students while providing acoustical separation, shade, shelter, landscape and unobstructed views underneath. Pedestrian traffic can now flow freely under it drawing students to the activities happening inside. Social gathering spaces were given the same importance as programmatic spaces. The design goal was to provide a wide range and size of spaces maximizing opportunities for student interaction, from small study groups to large-crowd events and everything in between.
The project’s open floor plan concept surrounding a plaza blurs the boundaries between indoors and outdoors, offering access to a wide variety of spaces for students to gather, study, socialize or simply “see and be seen” offering a valuable place on this commuter campus for students where there was none before.
C.O.T.E. | Committee on the Environment
Submitted By: |
LPA, Inc. |
Design Architect: |
|
Associate Architect or Firm: |
|
Landscape Architect: |
LPA, Inc. |
Owner / Developer: |
Los Angeles Community College District |
Engineer: |
Structural - LPA, Inc. Mechanical - LPA, Inc. Civil - KPFF |
General Contractor: |
McCarthy Building Companies Inc. |
Consultant: |
|
Photographer: |
Costea Photography, Inc. |
Los Angeles Valley College, Monarch Center
Category
Commercial
Description
The jury appreciated the purity of the design moves and the intersection of building components. The architectural forms are clearly expressed and they noted a clear concept throughout the structure of the design.
C.O.T.E.
The jury felt the expression of the sustainability strategy and how it is integrated with the architecture creates a seamless quality of design and energy efficiency.
Congratulations LPA, Inc.
Winner Status
- Merit Award
- C.O.T.E. Award