HGA Architects and Engineers has been awarded the contract to design a new, $58 million Student Success Center at East Los Angeles College, located in the L.A. suburb of Monterey Park. The project was won through a design-build competition and contains 130,000 SF. The complex is striving to achieve Net Zero Energy and is on target for LEED Gold certification. Slated for completion in summer 2014, the design will consolidate nine school departments into a flexible learning environment, encouraging collaborative student-faculty interaction while incorporating sustainable strategies.
The five-story structure will bring together the nine school departments that were previously dispersed throughout the campus. Included will be classrooms, offices, common areas and labs such as language, reading and writing.
The center’s restorative design includes natural ventilation allowing for nearly 70 percent of all classrooms and offices to be within 25 feet of operable windows. High-efficiency mechanical systems and lighting are included, along with solar shading.
An open-air, central court connects the Success Center’s two distinct wings: one for faculty offices and another for classrooms. The court also serves as the building’s main entrance and vertical circulation spine, with a full-wall, painted graphic mural and brick pavers extending outward toward the campus quad. There are two other atriums, one that is a shaded exterior atrium for the classroom wing and one that is interior skylit space at the office wing, offering informal gathering spaces while further reinforcing natural ventilation, day-lighting and interior circulation.
Joining Matson on HGA’s design team is Designer Satoshi Teshima, LEED AP, with Patrick Thibaudeau, CSI, CCS, LEED AP, handling sustainability. Project team members include Eric Chang, Project Manager and Leslie Fishburn, Interior Design. HGA’s project scope includes planning, design, interior design and sustainability.
Pinner Construction is the general contractor for the design-build project. Consultants include Saiful/Bouquet, structural engineering, FBA Engineering, electrical and Fundament & Associates, mechanical engineering.
