Epacenter Arts

Project Details

Project Description

FROM THE ARCHITECTS:

At the core of East Palo Alto, wHY’s newest Bay Area project, EPACENTER – a multidisciplinary art, design and music facility – is a space to gather, grow and thrive. Greater than the sum of its parts, the project reflects the desires, needs and goals of the community as architecture—where form, structure and program become the result of an intensive and unique process that engaged the community as equal partners in design. EPACENTER is an act of architectural agency on behalf of the community, where the locals, rather than the funding body, are the clients and the architects act as guides through the space-making process.

wHY began by embedding designers within the community. Building trust with the people of East Palo Alto, required developing a shared language about the building’s design before pencil was ever put to paper. This process uncovered certain expectations the center would need to exceed: the building would need to feel open and inviting to the street, but provide safe and secure spaces for children to congregate; it would need to be a place where people could come even without official business being there; and it would need to connect all ages, backgrounds and populations through meaningful experiences with the arts.

What emerged is a synthesis of architecture and community: an elevated village that celebrates the diversity of the arts–with pavilions housing different creative disciplines that operate as a dynamic collection of creative spaces, internally visible and inspiring. Areas for visual arts, a multi-use theatre, a woodshop, youth center, band room and more are clustered in separate buildings, united by an expansive roof that at once provides shelter for circulation and creates protected outdoor areas for hanging out.

The pavilions cluster around a central courtyard creating a protective, horseshoe-shaped footprint, with two street-side façades that provide both sheltering enclosure and numerous opportunities to showcase art. The porous, village-like assemblage invites the public to participate in every area of the ground floor, strengthening connections between youth, the arts, and the community.

As a result, the building is infused with the intention of the community. The design is not merely a gift by the John & Marcia Goldman Foundation, but a tool for East Palo Alto to explore, express, and grow its identity and relevance in the face of rising social inequality and urban development.