Client:
California State University - San Bernardino Program was fairly typical - exam rooms, offices, conference rooms, lounge and support spaces, racetrack circulation. The addition also included a student counseling component with dedicated reception/waiting/administrative spaces. I chose to respect the existing style, this despite a mis-mash of architectural styles flanking this building in every direction. Part of the decision to defer was based on an appreciation for the purity of the exiting forms but also budget. The choice actually worked out quite well as my preferred strategy for doing clinics is to bank up the exam/counseling rooms to a private garden. This to ratchet down the stress level for both staff and client. Here I was able to continue the sand-blasted tilt-up walls around to define an interior garden on 2 sides and adjacent to the exam/counseling rooms and waiting room. I raised the center portion of the addition to echo the existing form. This raised area defines the racetrack, which I capped with a continuous strip of Kalwall to provide daylighting for both the corridors and which the interior offices can borrow. A major renovation component of the existing building was the addition of a pharmacy and lobby renovation. I used a cloud and floor patterning to integrate 3 areas - pharmacy waiting/service, clinic waiting and the reception. The skewed geometries, forced perspectives, tilted clouds and wood wall panels and intersecting curves, collisions and color/texture selection were chosen to slightly disorient the client but in a playful/positive way.
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