In the shade of a palm oasis, a new 14,000 sf Visual Arts facility extends the core campus and reinterprets the 1960s architectural language at College of the Desert in Palm Desert. The program includes indoor and outdoor classrooms and labs, exhibit space, and a multipurpose room for interdisciplinary classes, lectures, and exhibits.
The project, conceived as a vessel for the celebration of the craft of art making, provides visual connectivity from passing students to interior exhibit and critique spaces. This ‘program transparency’ is a primary goal and serves as the prime catalyst for a campus-wide engagement of the art program. Daylight from rooftop monitors floods the interiors with soft, stable north light while their projecting profiles evoke the surrounding mountain peaks. A palette of concrete block and stucco in desert tones couples with exposed steel and custom perforated panels to protect the building and outdoor spaces from the harsh sun. Currently tracking LEED Gold.
Desert Context
Vicinity
Campus Analysis
Story of the Palms
Site Plan
Concept Diagrams
Pedestrian Street
Gallery/Pinup Space
Floor Plan
Sections
Courtyard Classrooms
Sunset
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