Client:
Humboldt State University, - Arcata, California I was responsible for the design of the 15,000 sf student community center containing a marketplace/deli, great hall, offices, cafe, mail room and support spaces. Challenges were a tight/fault- ridden site, a limited budget and a very tight schedule. Additionally, I skinned the housing units and developed the interior courtyards. I also designed the soccer/maintenance facility and the ticket booth/welcome center. HSU's official architecture style is Mission-not-Mission. Overt references to the Colonial style had to be avoided for political reasons. So what I ended up with was stylized Mediterranean - multi-colored stucco walls, exposed wood beams and details, buttresses, heavy traditional cornices, tile roof and other Mission-not-Mission iconography. Community Center/Great Hall features include monumental clocks on both faces, 3 monumental fire places, exposed Parallam structural members, smoking balcony, and liberal daylight in the cafe. The great hall on the second floor of the community center posed a special challenge due to it's squat proportions. The solution was to pop up the center volume and use curved beams to ease the compression. This also allowed for daylighting and yielded a stronger 55 mph presence. On the housing units, I shaped the elevator shafts into towers anchoring each of the residential blocks. Elsewhere I used a combination of gables and buttresses to punch the projecting pavilions and establish a horizontal rhythm across the long facades. To ground the massings, I used a water table over a projecting base. I varied the height of the water table to lend a more dynamic quality and to further reinforce the projecting elements. Windows were framed and punched by projecting sills and headers. A heavy, two-part fascia and modest overhang defines the termination of a 5:12 pitched roof.
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