The new Classroom Building, designed by LMN Architects, has broken ground at the University of California Santa Barbara. It will be the first new classroom building on campus since 1967.
The four-story, 90,000-sf facility will increase campus classroom capacity by 35%, providing 2,000 seats across five lecture halls, three active learning flat-floor rooms, and 20 flexible classrooms in the center of the University’s shoreline campus. The building is designed to be a porous structure that opens at every face to welcome the university community and intertwine the life of the building with the surrounding campus and natural environment.
The Classroom Building will comprise two main volumes surrounding a central circulation corridor that runs east-west, linking the extension of Library Mall to Science Walk. An open-air paseo will interconnect the functions of the two buildings’ masses, providing outdoor terraces, stairs, bridges, and collaboration spaces designed to encourage collaboration among students and faculty.
The exterior will include a vertical facade system comprised of high-performance concrete panels and vertical windows that clad the outward-facing elevations. Facing the building’s internal public spaces, the building takes a radically different form by sculpting the shared exterior terraces with a more loose, organic formal language, driven by the efficient planning of the lecture halls within. The resulting formal and material qualities of these spaces take inspiration from the local vernacular architecture and the adjacent seaside cliffs, recalling the sedimentary sandstone in its curvilinear, polished concrete block walls.
In addition to LMN Architects, the build team also includes C.W. Driver as the builder. The project is slated for completion in 2023.
Related Stories
Big Data | Jan 5, 2018
In the age of data-driven design, has POE’s time finally come?
At a time when research- and data-based methods are playing a larger role in architecture, there remains a surprisingly scant amount of post-occupancy research. But that’s starting to change.
Mixed-Use | Jan 5, 2018
USC Village is the largest development in the history of the University of Southern California
USC Village comprises six buildings and 1.25 million sf.
Adaptive Reuse | Jan 4, 2018
Student housing development on Chapman University campus includes adaptive reuse of 1918 packing house
The Packing House was originally built for the Santiago Orange Growers Association.
University Buildings | Dec 20, 2017
New residence hall to house 500 students at Duke University
The project was designed by William Rawn Architects and will be built by Skanska.
University Buildings | Dec 5, 2017
UCLA’s Hedrick Study combines a library, lounge, and dining hall
Johnson Favaro designed the space.
University Buildings | Dec 4, 2017
The University of Nebraska’s new College of Business building highlights entrepreneur alumni and corporate leaders
Numerous storytelling spaces and displays are located throughout the building.
Wood | Nov 30, 2017
The first large-scale mass timber residence hall in the U.S. is under construction at the University of Arkansas
Leers Weinzapfel Associates, Modus Studio, Mackey Mitchell Architects, and OLIN collaborated on the design.
University Buildings | Nov 28, 2017
FXFOWLE and CO Architects collaborate on Columbia University School of Nursing building
The building has a ‘collaboration ribbon’ that runs throughout the building.
Sports and Recreational Facilities | Nov 27, 2017
The University of Memphis unveils the new home of the men’s basketball program
The Laurie-Walton Family Basketball Center will provide a strong commitment to donor and VIP cultivation.
Adaptive Reuse | Nov 10, 2017
Austin’s first indoor shopping mall becomes Austin Community College’s new digital media center
Renovation of the defunct mall represents Phase 2 of ACC’s $100 million adaptive reuse project.