Tradition meets modern at Riverside City College’s Charles Kane Student Services and Administration Building (SSAB). Home to 14 different student programs and services and located at the main campus entry, the SSAB looks and feels like traditional Riverside from the outside—but on the inside, it showcases the forward-thinking drive that Riverside City College has for student success.
Student programs that were previously spread out among 7 campus facilities now reside together at the SSAB. First contact services, such as admissions, records, financial aid, and the cashier’s office, are located on the ground floor. The second floor is home to counseling, extended opportunity programs, and the college’s administrative offices. Uniting these programs under one roof creates a collaborative environment for staff and helps raise awareness of the student services offered within. Large translucent skylights bathe the lobby in natural light, enabling students to easily see what programs are available at the SSAB. Boundaries between departments are downplayed to allow programs to expand or shrink as needed, and to foster collaboration between departments. The traditional lobby is reimagined as a service-focused commons, forgoing expansive queueing areas in favor of smaller technology-driven student workspaces. An online queueing system enables students to wait for appointments from any location (on or off campus) and then notifies them via their mobile device. This online waiting “room” saves students time and frees up valuable space at the SSAB for more student programs.
Reconciling the strong, traditional architectural values of the community with the progressive service vision of the college became the primary challenge for the building design. The solution embraces both points of view, first conceiving of a building shell that exhibits elements of mission architecture such as heavy mass, deep punched openings, arched arcades, and pitched terra cotta roofs. Leveraging the passive design benefits of these elements also aids in producing a high performing building envelope. Modern glazed curtain wall elements located at entry thresholds hint toward a more modern approach to the building interiors. Upon entry, the traditional aesthetic gives way to a streamlined modern feel inspired by the bright colors and bold geometries of traditional Spanish ceramic tiles and are expressed in the interior color palette and hexagonal floor tiles of the main space. A lighting system comprised solely of LED fixtures and coupled with a high efficiency mechanical system works toward minimizing the building’s energy expenditure. Built on traditional yet looking toward the future, the fusion of the two aesthetics results in a unique spatial experience that clearly reflects the values of both the local community and the college.
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