Architecture

The Keck Center for Science and Engineering occupies a significant site on the Chapman campus, located at the north-east corner, adjacent to the Chapman football field (to the west) and Argyros Forum (to the south).  The new building adds 140,000 SF of educational space and two levels of below grade parking. 

The Center presents a permeable, welcoming face to the campus and surrounding community. An entry plaza facing Argyros Forum addresses the anticipated pedestrian traffic flow from campus. One enters from the north into a generously day lit two-story space. A wide corridor is lined with floor to ceiling glass and integrated display cabinets, putting science on display. Throughout the length of the building, “events” are introduced as collaborative spaces, and to allow views out to the east and west. The heart of the building is at the midpoint and consists of a variety of gathering spaces.  A stepped amphitheater allows for casual meeting and working, and also provides vertical connectivity through the building.  A connecting stair rises from the second to third floor, continuing the connectivity to the upper floor. Each floor has a collection of meeting rooms and lounges complete with coffee making facilities and student gathering spaces. 

At the second floor, an outdoor terrace adjacent to the amphitheater allows for the collaborative space to spill outdoors.  The terrace also provides a physical break in the rather long eastern elevation. At the third floor, due to the prescribed setback, there exists an opportunity to have terraces and roof gardens along the Eastern face of the building.  The faculty lounge and seminar room are also adjacent to outdoor terraces. 

An open arcade occupies the first floor eastern face of the building and connects to the existing sidewalk at a number of locations. Outdoor rooms have been integrated in the garden space next to the arcade to encourage student and faculty gatherings.  The entry facing Center Street at the center of the building will provide access to the visitors’ stadium seating through a grand arched opening. Visitors will access the bleachers serving the football field through an arched two-story space.

The Autodesk Technology Engagement Center, which includes the Global HSI Equity Innovation Hub, focuses on closing equity gaps in STEM degree pathways and inspiring historically underrepresented minorities in STEM to pursue high-demand careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

This 34,000 GSF project is powered by cutting-edge technology to advance collaboration and interdisciplinary design and research, including labs for engineering, prototype creation, pre-manufacture, and iterative design. Flexible space for interdisciplinary teams to collaborate, innovate, and incubate is included. The project also includes a campus and community maker-space as well as student showcase space to inspire student curiosity and creativity.

To propel student success, the Equity Innovation Hub includes a next generation student success center, student study and collaboration space, and a P-14 outreach discovery lab.  CSUN will use these spaces to  engage middle, high school, and community college students as well as families, to include a whole family outreach approach.

The project is uniquely designed with equity as a core design principle. AC Martin led a series of design workshops, meeting with university leadership, an interdisciplinary faculty and staff collaborative group, and a student focus group, to ensure the project design would achieve its goals to:

• Be welcoming and approachable to students and the community.
• Highlight & inspire interest in STEM professions, education, real-world applications & technology.
• Ensure diverse representation of historically underrepresented minorities.
• Create flexible spaces & adaptable design.

The Autodesk Technology Engagement Center provides a new, modern, state-of-the-art facility, creating a new identity for the College and University at a prominent campus location. Additional site improvements include outdoor gathering space, seating areas, and hands-on STEM activity areas.

The 44,450 SF Energy Innovation Building (EIB) will be the central hub of research, experimentation, and collaboration on the future of energy in the San Joaquin Valley. The project will include research and teaching laboratories, a Capstone Design Laboratory, private/open offices, a flex-design event space, the Extended Education Global Outreach center, and an outdoor interactive space. The Energy Innovation Building will be tightly connected to its context, meeting the needs and desires of the talented and ambitious student body. Architecturally, it will seamlessly integrate with the existing campus, respecting its setting while representing a new era of energy and innovation at CSU Bakersfield. Environmentally, it will harmonize with the outdoors and the natural landscape, embodying sustainability design principles that align with the commitment to a greener, more resilient future. Communally, the design will be characterized by a welcoming spirit, creating a space where learning is not just a hidden pursuit but a visible and shared endeavor. In every aspect, this project will harness the potential of collaborative and inclusive design in order to move the region, and nation, forward with renewable energy research. With the Energy Innovation Building, CSU Bakersfield will be able to increase and promote robust industry partnerships, attract funding, facilitate faculty and student research, and engage the community. The Energy Innovation Building will solidify CSUB’s pivotal role in the future of energy solutions in the Valley and beyond.

This 2,500 SF project provides new biology laboratories and faculty and graduate student offices for Assistant Professor Joe Parker, Assistant Professor of Biology in the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering at California Institute of Technology. The laboratory focuses on the genetic, genomic, and neurobiological basis of symbiotic interactions in animals. Due to the nature of the Professor's work, the laboratory houses such insects as roaches, beetles, termites, and ants.

The Pachter Lab provides new computational/wet laboratories and faculty and student offices for Professor Lior Pachter, Professor of Computational Biology with the Biology and Biological Engineering (BBE) Division at Caltech. Located in the basement and first floor of the Kerckhoff Building, the gross project area includes 4,300 SF of basement lab space, 250 SF of first-floor faculty office space, and 500 SF of construction office/staging area space which was refurbished after construction.

Located on an operating academic health campus, owned and operated by the University of California as part of UC Davis, the North Addition Office Building is located immediately adjacent to the main teaching Hospital tower.

This new 133,000 SF, 6-story facility includes an array of teaching spaces, administrative offices and support programs.  The First Floor Conference Center is used primarily for teaching by outside guest lecturers, as well as internal healthcare and administrative hospital training. Included in the center are three large conference rooms (one with 40-person capacity, and two with 80-person capacity) and are used to support hospital programs, guest lectures, and teaching.

The building also features a 335-seat auditorium, which is technology-enabled with long-distance learning capabilities and includes state-of-the-art AV systems. The auditorium includes full black-out motorized shades, acoustically sensitive glass, and a large pre-function space. Additionally, a flat floor model allows for reconfigurable seating.

Finally, the building includes an 80-seat Medical Staff Collaboration Room used by faculty for group meetings and small lectures, a technology enhanced-outdoor space used to host meetings and small group sessions, and an adjacent cafe with seating for 30 people.

The building is also LEEDv3 Platinum Certified with 83 LEED points, making the North Addition Office Building one of the greenest buildings on the UC Davis Health campus.

The 2,209 SF updated basement level of the Gates-Thomas Laboratory Building houses Professor Aaron Ames’ Advanced Mechanical Bipedal Experimental Robotics (AMBER) Lab. This lab is equipped for students to design, build, and test robots and prosthetics with the goal of achieving human-like bipedal robotic walking. The mission of the AMBER lab is to translate these walking capabilities to robotic assistive devices.

This renovation required upgraded mechanical and electrical systems and additional acoustical treatment in the ceilings. The lab includes two long treadmills a 144 SF rotary walking area for bipedal robots, and updated 
design stations.

Reimagining a traditional educational institution, the 42,000 SF renovation of the second floor of McCarthy Hall introduces daylight and a sense of place to the Biology and Geology departments. Spaces include department offices, teaching and research labs, a cadaver lab, and an animal facility. Open, informal learning space throughout the floor provides students with areas to study, meet, and learn. Hallways, niches, and open space reach to the exterior in order to drive natural light as far into the center as possible. Integrated display cabinets and full-height glass walls with views into the classrooms reinforce the goal to put science on display.

The Swenson Family Hall of Engineering, located in the Keck Center for Science and Engineering at Chapman University, is envisioned not only as the campus epicenter for innovative thinking but as an inclusive social hub where cross-pollination of ideas can occur between faculty members and students. At the heart of the School is a Design/Create/Innovate (DCI Lab), a makerspace for experimentation and collaboration space for idea incubation. This main space includes a series of operable partitions and modular design that allow for a flexible and adaptable space supporting collaboration, presentation, and showcase events. Upper floors include faculty office space and instructional teaching labs, including: active learning classrooms; a circuits and structures lab; and  a signals and cyber lab.

The space occupies three consecutive floors:  the first level designed to be a collaborative student space traversed by a gallery or ‘ideation path’ connecting to the existing building; the second floor that includes labs, study alcoves, and research pods; and the third floor dedicated to faculty workspaces and meeting rooms.

The ideation path is a wide hallway that bifurcates the lower level of the Engineering school. This gallery path connects the collaborative student spaces, the dean’s suite, and the fabrication labs through an angular walkway covered in a metal mesh ceiling. The path features views into workspaces and instructional spaces through glass walls and large operable partitions.