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Architecture
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| **** Honor Award **** |
Cuyamaca College, Student Services Center
(# 241) |
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| Completion |
10 / 2022 |
| Specific Use of Building |
Student Services Center |
| Project Location |
Rancho San Diego, California |
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Cuyamaca College has a beautiful hillside campus with a lush Central Campus Green, but prior to this project, it lacked a clear front door to campus and had limited space for. The client wanted to put outreach and student support together as the face of the College and do so while maintaining or even increasing the amount of occupiable outdoor spaces associated with the Central Green. The resulting project also needed to connect seamlessly with the campus and adjacent Student Center despite challenging grade conditions on the hilly site.
The planning concept for this design was driven by the intent of making access to services and support as easy and as legible as possible. Prospective and new students can find information and enrollment assistance on their first walk into campus. Enrolled students find support services arrayed around the upper-level plaza, easily available just outside the Student Center. Outdoor waiting areas and planted roof decks add to the green space at the center of campus, maintaining and enhancing the lush environment Cuyamaca College is known for. The intent was to make an environment in which the community and student body felt welcomed upon arrival, and in which all users felt the building was an extension of the campus landscape where they could relax, engage, and experience the beauty of the surrounding valley.
The building envelope follows a similar strategy of openness; the building skin peels apart to create layers of architectural façade. This creates abundant opportunities for glazing to bring daylight deeper into the interior spaces, while projecting roofs, walls, and fins mitigate solar heat gains on the affected elevations. Finer grain porosity is achieved by natural ventilation elements within the glazing and operable walls, allowing passive cooling to be used when conditions allow and improving the sense of connection with the outdoor environment. Primary building circulation occurs between these layers of façade systems, with dramatically cantilevered walkways and stairs. In this way, the layered expression of the architecture supports both a more sustainable operation of the building as well as enhancing the openness of character and connection to the surroundings that were central to the goals of the project. Additional sustainable strategies include the use of intensive onsite stormwater retention basins that are integrated into the plaza as design elements, efficient chilled beam cooling systems, and water efficient fixtures and landscape throughout.
Engagement now begins at the new arrival plaza, where visitors immediately find the Welcome Center. A seamless experience of accessible indoor and outdoor spaces leads from admissions and financial aid on the first level, up through enrolled student support on the second level to the renovated Student Center, and outward with a new ADA path of travel to the top of the renovated Central Green space. The entire campus experience is revitalized around the priorities of providing access and support to all students along their educational journey. The new Student Services Building has created an iconic new face for the College and extends a literal bridge to higher education opportunities to the surrounding community.
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