Completion Date:     8/31/2015

Square Footage:      90000

Building Use:           Community College Classroom Building

Location:                 Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, California

Project Description:

Project Scope
Located at the heart of Orange Coast College, the three-story 90,000 sf Orange Coast College Math Business & Computing Building is the first phase of an Interdisciplinary complex that will ultimately accommodate five separate disciplines: Math, Business, Social Sciences, Literature and Languages. The first phase provides space for classrooms, labs, faculty offices, a computing center and specialty lecture classrooms. The project’s location between the athletic area (body) and academic quad (mind) of the campus encourages a strong interdisciplinary connection with social gathering spaces integrated with exterior landscaping.

Physical and Historical Context
Renowned mid-century architect Richard Neutra, along with his then partner Robert Alexander, was responsible for the original master plan at Orange Coast College. They also went on to design many of the original buildings on campus.
Neutra's architectural legacy on campus and his timeless biorealism principles were the foundation for the project’s design philosophy. Neutra’s two archetype buildings on campus were reinterpreted: the linear classroom ‘bars’ were used for the classrooms and labs on the upper levels while the curvilinear assembly structures inspired the specialty spaces such as lecture halls and the computing lab on the ground level.

Design Intent
In the starting stages of the project, the client had conceived the project as a vast 160,000 sf 'mega-building' with five main departments residing under one roof. That assumption presented serious challenges in terms of way-finding, individual department identity and the ability to phase out the project. The natural design evolution was to provide each department with a separate entry and presence on the facade of the large building by arranging the program in five adjacent bars. However, the phasing issues and access to natural light and outdoor spaces remained unresolved. The final step was to completely separate the five bars into distinctive "fingers", allowing exterior space and landscape to flow between them, creating opportunities for outdoor teaching, social spaces and collection of natural breezes. To address the connectivity between the bars and maintain the overall cohesion of the complex, a transversal bridge was envisioned along the second floor.

Spatial Organization
Faculty offices and specialty spaces like large lecture halls, the computing center and student services were located on the ground to promote accessibility to students. Assembly and specialty spaces were materialized in rounded shapes, distinct destination elements engaging the surrounding landscape. Classroom bars were elevated off the ground, bending to form courtyards and overhanging to protect spaces below.

Climate
Leveraging the Southern California climate, the majority of the circulation and social spaces were designed as covered exterior spaces. These areas do not require air conditioning and amount to over 25% of the building floor space. A single loaded-corridor solution enabled the long and narrow bars orientation to capture the prevailing ocean breezes. Operable windows on the outer facade and corridors allow cross-ventilation to mixed-mode conditioned spaces through most of the year.
The project is registered and pursuing LEED Gold Certification.

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

Download