Project Description
Design: While at first glance the Building appears to adhere to the Campus’ modern architectural tradition, the architecture is actually closer to the Mediterranean style for which the City of Santa Barbara is known. Panoramic glass curtain walls and aluminum cladding have been designed to blend with Mediterranean elements such as porticos, trellises, overhangs, semi-enclosed gathering spaces and native Santa Barbara sandstone. By combining these two architectural styles, the Building provides a visual bridge between the existing campus architecture and that of the surrounding community. In addition, the Building is the first to face inland and inward to visually acknowledge the East Campus. In this way, the Building is linking the East and West Campuses, which previously felt like separate entities turning their “backs” on one another.
Learning Environment: The Building provides a mixture of traditional classrooms and experimental “Studio Classrooms” to accommodate active, collaborative, small-group learning environments where instructors can act as “facilitators” equipped with a variety of visual displays (multi-media, smart boards, etc.). In addition, the Student Study Areas feature flexible interaction spaces and multi-media support. The Student/Faculty Study Areas are equipped with collaborative study pods to support spontaneous breakout sessions between instructors and students. Socially progressive learning environment design elements include:
• Dedicated light fixture in every classroom to illuminate sign language interpreters during film/media projections.
• Unisex bathrooms to facilitate gender transitions.
• Enlarged desk/chair configurations for Braille screens and keyboards and power sources for these elements.
Community Environment: The Building provides a new home to classrooms, labs, offices and support functions previously dispersed among portable buildings on the College’s East and West campuses, thereby providing a sense of educational community not possible under the previous campus configuration. The Entry Boulevard serves not only as the main entry and as a visual variation in the Building’s length, but also provides an outdoor activity hub and student gathering space. With respect to the larger Santa Barbara community, the Building provides learning space for Adult and Continuing Education classes and other community outreach programs.
Physical Environment: The Building’s design responded directly to the User Group’s physical design priorities:
• Functional Respect: The Building provides more classroom and educational space than initially envisioned by the project’s scope with minimal visual impact and the lightest possible environmental footprint.
• Transparency: The Building’s transparent eastern facade allows for full appreciation of the site’s incredible mountain and ocean views from within the Building, the East Campus Walk, other points on campus, as well as from the surrounding community.
• Identity: The Building’s volumes and materials (including natural stone and vegetative roofing) were carefully selected to be compatible with, yet distinct from those of the adjacent Theater, giving the Building its own place and identity.
Additional elements tie the Building to its physical surroundings: Lightly inclined vertical mullions tether the articulated glass curtain walls, echoing the wood pilings supporting Santa Barbara’s historic Stearns Wharf (visible on the horizon). The undulated metal canopy hovering above the Entry Boulevard provides a nautical element evoking the ocean’s waves.
High Performance: The Building features energy and water usage displays, a second-story roof garden planted with native, drought-resistant plants that SBCC and the community may use as an educational resource. In addition, the Building will be LEED certified and feature sustainable elements such as:
• Vegetated swales to promote rain water infiltration.
• Water usage reduction with WaterSence-certified fixtures and fixture fittings.
• On-site water source and reclaimed water for all non-potable applications (toilets and urinals).
• Naturally ventilated spaces to take advantage of the cool ocean breeze through operable windows and louvers.
• Maximized interior daylighting with exterior and interior permanent shading devices and high performance glazing.