Designed by Irvine, Calif.-based LPA Inc., the new Monarch Student Center replaces the previous student center located on the same site. The earlier building was very small, outdated and lacked several student amenities, according to Steve Flanagan, principal at LPA Inc., and was demolished to make way for the new Monarch Student Center and a parking structure. The new facility includes a bookstore, dining hall, student health center and student lounge.

“The Monarch center was designed with a large [variety] of indoor and outdoor student spaces so that each student could enjoy spaces that fit their personality and or desired level of interaction with other students,” Flanagan said. “[This variety] of spaces — some small and intimate, some medium for small groups, and others large and inclusive — allow students to decide if they would like to passively or actively participate.”

The building has a large outdoor plaza with multiple entries both horizontally and vertically so students can flow easily between indoor and outdoor spaces, eliminating a singular main entry that can be intimidating for some students, especially first-time visitors, Flanagan explained. There are also a number of “plug-and-play spaces,” he noted, as well as Wi-Fi throughout — even in outdoor spaces around and under the building.

“This project is truly the heart of the campus and is located centrally where students will pass by the building on a daily basis,” Flanagan said. “With the placement of the new multilevel parking structure adjacent to the Monarch center, it may also be the first and last building many students pass by every day so the design team felt it was important to give students an opportunity to enjoy and appreciate the amazing year-round climate we know to be Southern California.”

The temperature in the summer months at LAVC can reach more than 100 degrees, so the design team created a giant solar umbrella to provide ample shaded space outdoors. The solar umbrella can also shelter students from the rain and collect rainwater in the winter months. The unique feature was a direct response to programmatic requirements to provide a large outdoor covered plaza for concerts and other large student functions, activities and gatherings, Flanagan said.

The 20,000-square-foot, sloping canopy stands 41 feet above the ground at its highest point. Clad in bright yellow metal panels, the Student Union wing is elevated off the ground to allow the space, landscape and views to flow underneath it. A “skybox” includes student meeting spaces, administration, a boardroom, a gaming room, several lounging areas and protected exterior decks.

“This project is one of our most exciting higher-education projects when you take into consideration the total end result,” Flanagan said. “The facility feels like it’s much larger than the square footage built due to the large covered outdoor spaces.”

Inside, students can enjoy a wide variety of dining options in the Monarch Student Center as the dining program was designed to appeal to LAVC’s diverse, multicultural student body, Flanagan said. In addition, the food service areas are designed in a food-court style, allowing students to go directly to the food of their choice.

On track to achieve LEED Silver certification, the facility features several sustainable elements. Woven into the project site and the student plaza is a dry-creek drainage system and sustainable garden where students can understand and appreciate how the campus diverts rainwater from the storm drain system and into the ground water. Native and drought-tolerant plants are also featured with natural boulders and cobble.

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School Construction News spoke with Emily Koch, project designer for Irvine, Calif.-based LPA Inc., and Kate Mraw, associate/design director for LPA Inc., about the key elements they consider when designing STEM environments. Their current projects include STEM spaces for Sequoia Unified School District in Redwood City, Calif., and Corona-Norco Unified School District in Riverside County, Calif., to name a few.

Q: Define what you consider to be a STEM environment.

Koch: A STEM environment supports an integrated, interdisciplinary exploration of STEM subjects applied to project-based learning — where students and teachers are focused on solving real-world problems that break the boundaries of the traditional classroom walls and subject periods.

Mraw: Any environment can become a STEM environment. It is really the teaching and learning activities within the space that begin to create an integrated and interdisciplinary STEM space. It is important to realize that because STEM education is grounded in the real-world application of learning, the space can be much more unique than traditional, lecture-based, learning space.

Q: In what way is a STEM environment different from other learning environments?

Koch: Most importantly, the STEM environment is flexible to support a wide range of activities and technology — researching a topic online, videoconferencing with experts around the world (or even in space!), building a prototype of a solution, or sharing individual and team ideas and outcomes.

Mraw: In a robust STEM environment, the curriculum will reflect realities of students’ lives. So, there will oftentimes be space in the studios or labs that allow for 2D, 3D or digital display of local community issues. Students use that inspiration as their framework for researching and connecting to their problem-based activities. The importance of ‘connecting’ is also reflected in the space with zones that support mentorship, collaboration, brainstorming and design-thinking activities.

Q: What are some of the key elements involved in designing a STEM environment?

Koch: To support these various activities and encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, a STEM environment needs connections to resources — technological as well as tactile. Think makerspace, cardboard, pipe cleaners, sinks for water and washing up messy hands, as well as connections to nature such as outside work areas for fresh air and green-space for restoring creativity.

Mraw: The elements for successful STEM environments are not too dissimilar from those of any Future Ready learning environment. LPA recently completed a research study with the University of San Diego’s Learning Space Design Project, which identified design features that support next generation learning and teaching, highlighting how to unleash student and teacher agency of space. This study focuses on four space concepts that are very relevant in designing STEM environments: Flexible, Collaborative, Transparent and Connected.

Q: Would you say that STEM environments are more beneficial to a specific student age group? If so, which one and why?

Koch: STEM is for all ages and all levels. It’s important to grab the curiosity and wonder that elementary students have, but the middle and high school years are when 21st century skills are set that can impact students’ trajectories beyond school. So, giving these middle and high schoolers real-world understanding of how science and engineering work can set them on the path for success in STEM careers.

Mraw: At an early age, students begin to explore and nourish their creativity, curiosity and sense of wonder. As students mature, these skill sets are valuable tools that help students empathize and innovate solutions to problems that don’t even exist yet. The importance of STEM education cannot be overemphasized. Our role as designers is to support that curiosity by creating environments that are flexible enough to allow for multiple learning modalities; collaborative enough to create opportunities for both informal and formal intersections of ideas; transparent enough to allow learning to happen anywhere so that the student work can be celebrated; and finally, connected enough to the digital community, the learning community, to the outdoors and to the idea of inquiry and discovery.

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School Construction News spoke with Franco Brown, associate, design director at LPA Inc. in the architecture firm’s Higher Education Group, about how the company incorporated circa-1950s design elements into the new complex.

Q: What are some of the project’s key design elements?

Brown: The building design was inspired by the biorealism concepts first introduced by mid-century master architect Richard Neutra. Along with his then-partner Robert Alexander, Neutra designed many of the original campus buildings as long, linear bars that blurred the lines between indoor and outdoor space, integrating nature and using operable windows for natural ventilation. After 60 years, his ideas still hold true today. We designed the building as a long and narrow ‘bar’ (clad in orange glass) that folds on itself to create an internal student courtyard. This bar (that houses the majority of the classrooms) was elevated over a concrete podium to capture natural light and the nearby ocean breezes. The featured lecture and specialty labs as well as the faculty offices were located on the ground floor for easy wayfinding and accessibility. The circular Computing Center was created using a radial array to allow staff to monitor six different spaces and the central computer floor from one location.

Q: What green building elements were integrated into the facility?

Brown: The single-loaded exterior circulation of the upper level bars gives each classroom space access to cross ventilation and natural light on two sides. This model challenges the notion that everyday work and study spaces must be enclosed in air-conditioned boxes and disconnected from the outdoors. While the building still provides air-conditioning when needed (an electronic signal is sent to the equipment when windows open), it leverages the Southern California climate using natural ventilation for many months of the year, reducing energy costs and enhancing the indoor experience.

Additionally, the majority of the building’s circulation areas (hallways, corridors, lobbies and social spaces) were designed as protected exterior spaces that do not need air-conditioning, reducing the energy load of those systems by more than 25 percent. The roofs on the concrete podium were originally designed as elevated gardens to capture and collect rainwater. The concept was later changed, replacing the vegetation by pebble ballast and cacti.

Q: How have the staff and faculty influenced the design?

Brown: The staff and faculty’s main concern at the beginning of the design process was the assumption that five different academic programs would be housed under one roof. This mega-building concept would make wayfinding and identity for each program very difficult. LPA’s design response was to give each program a dedicated bar that could be easily identifiable by color and material and phased over time. The bars (five in total) would bend and fold, creating courtyards and landscaping between them. The IDC project establishes the first phase with two bars housing the Mathematics and Business programs. Phase II will see an additional three bars built for Social Sciences, Literature and Languages.

Q: How is this project different from those you’ve completed in the past?

Brown: The project achieves full integration with its context and natural environment. The building’s orientation, and its unusual and iconic shape is the direct result of the programmatic needs as well as the desire to leverage the local climate to enrich the lives of students, faculty and staff.
 

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The Orangewood Foundation found that by the time a foster child begins high school they have had as many as 10 placements and attended as many as 15 different schools. Since many of these children have little to no mobility, the place in which they live and learn must offer a variety of spaces that can inspire and guide them to become productive in their academic careers. As such, the school’s mission was to create a strong educationally focused community, with joint-use and industry partnerships.

The first phase of the school’s 115,000-square-foot master plan includes a three-story, 30,000-square-foot academic building, designed by Irvine, Calif.-based LPA Inc. It features diverse learning spaces that support engineering and design programs as part of the school’s STEM-focused, project-based curriculum. For instance, LPA’s interdisciplinary approach to design allowed several sectors of the design company to work together to create a learning-on-display environment in which students can see the building’s internal mechanical systems and learn about its inner workings.

Each floor of the new building features a STEM lab and four learning studios that share a collaborative learning commons. Walls open, furniture rolls and collaboration is evident in the design, which encourages learning to happen throughout the facility’s flexible spaces.

“The classroom design is so flexible that the school is using some classrooms as lab spaces until the future lab building is built,” said Kate Mraw, design director for interiors in LPA Inc.’s education studio.

Mraw said that many of the challenges on the project stemmed from the school’s need for a space that will meet both current and future educational demands. “[The school is] privately funded, so until the rest of the campus is built, the spaces need to fulfill multiple functions,” she added. “We took that as an opportunity to create solutions, with classrooms opening up into each other and common spaces being used as one.”

In order to create active learning spaces, it was also important to select the ideal furnishings, according to Mraw. The dynamic nature of the space comes from the mobile furniture inside. The students, staff and faculty tested furniture in the school’s portable housing spaces first and went through a trial-and-error process to determine what furniture worked for them.

One of the things that was really different about this project is that Samueli has a smaller student-to-teacher ratio, according to Mraw. LPA Inc. conducted several workshops with Orangewood Foundation to better understand the learner profile and how to design the space to match the learner. These workshops influenced many of the displays and signage throughout the building. For instance, the school features motivational signage and even writable wall space for students to create their own messages. There are also interactive walls that highlight various majors and career paths to inspire a sense of curiosity for students after they graduate.

The next phases of the master plan will include a student union, gymnasium, specialized learning studios and a residential village to board 80 foster youth and their guardian families. The project is designed to meet LEED for Schools Certified criteria.

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School Construction News spoke with Ozzie Tapia, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, project designer at LPA Inc., about how the design team created a safe and secure facility while maintaining the open and interactive feel typical of recreation centers.

Q: What was the main goal of the project?

Tapia: As the last critical piece to the campus life and activity puzzle, the main goal of the BRIC was to provide a true hub of student life on campus — an exciting and lively destination to see and be seen, where students can exercise, hang out and relax while immersed in a sustainable environment. The program includes a three-court gymnasium, a multi-activity court (MAC), rock climbing wall, weight and fitness areas, several multipurpose rooms, racquetball courts, an indoor running track and a 6,500-square-foot outdoor pool.

Q: What are some of the project’s key design elements?

Tapia: Neighboring sports facilities on campus were notorious for their lack of connection to the exterior, so a shift away from this paradigm of introverted buildings was established. The BRIC frames and makes a direct connection to the adjacent campus quad and views beyond by opening up to them visually with a façade primarily composed of glass, and physically by breaking the building open at the intersection of major pedestrian paths converging at the building’s entry.

This augmented transparency allows the recreation center to become a human billboard of student activity. At its center, the mixed-mode, naturally ventilated atrium houses a 55-foot-high, rock climbing wall. It acts as a transitional space between the true exterior and conditioned interior spaces.

Q: What safety or security measures were incorporated into the design?

Tapia: The building and pool enclosures were designed as one secured compound. While all code-required emergency exits are in place, there’s essentially one entry and exit point through the three-story atrium main entry. Turnstiles with handprint-scanning technology streamline user access and oversight. Furthermore, the interiors were designed as a series of large open volumes that are visually connected, reducing hidden corners and spaces. This allows for maximum supervision with minimal staff.

In high activity areas such as recreational courts and the rock climbing wall, materials were carefully selected in and around safety and run-off zones to support the wellbeing of users and — at the same time — not detract from the experience.

Q: Was staff and student feedback provided to the design team?

Tapia: The BRIC was funded entirely by student fees, and this allowed for a unique, more inclusive process from the beginning. A series of open-forum design charrettes were carried out with students and staff on campus. We received direct feedback on everything from actual program and amenities prioritization to building system and materials selection to the simple fact that a truly sustainable facility that mirrored their values was very important to the student body.

Q: What were some of the project’s key challenges, and how did your team overcome those challenges?

Tapia: A key challenge from the get-go was to accommodate a large program on an awkwardly shaped site — bound by easements, setbacks and challenging topography — with less than optimal orientation. The design solution was to use these site limitations as driving forces to actually shape the building by maximizing the footprint, extruding up and expanding horizontally once above the constraints. However, once it became clear that the upper floor needed to be much larger than the ground level, LPA’s in-house engineers and architects designed and implemented a unique Vierendeel truss structural system to support the large cantilevers, while avoiding the exterior columns that the university expressed it did not want.

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To achieve LEED Gold certification, C.W. Driver implemented construction site recycling and waste management, utilization of recycled materials, enhanced commissioning, and water-efficient plumbing and landscaping. New lighting and ceiling systems were constructed with energy-efficient glazing systems to improve the building’s energy efficiency. The sustainable upgrades to the complex will save the university millions of dollars in deferred and ongoing maintenance.

“BIM coordination was utilized for the entire project, but proved especially beneficial on the remodel portion of the project, for the coordination of new systems within limited above ceiling spaces,” Biglione said. “Additional challenges included performing all of the work within an occupied campus and maintaining egress paths of travel.”
Both Storm and Nasatir Halls were named for renowned SDSU professors in 1986. The west wing of the social sciences building on campus was renamed Storm Hall after Alvena Storm, a geography instructor who joined the faculty in 1926 and taught on campus for 40 years. Storm was known as an expert on the geography of California and the American West. Nasatir Hall was named for Abraham P. Nasatir, a professor emeritus of history, who taught at SDSU for 46 years from 1928 to 1974. Nasatir was internationally known for his research on California history and received four Fulbright fellowships.

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