UCSD HOUSING & DINING

La Jolla, CA

The design for this project resolves a sequence of specific responses to the project's program and its coastal setting. The building has three distinct identities: an active 13,000 SF main catering kitchen, a prominent and welcoming home for the campus' staff, and inviting rentable meeting and event spaces. The design expresses varied degrees of transparency/opacity. The catering kitchen, requiring service yard access on the north is concealed along the western public frontage and the southern campus-connecting ramp, while the Housing & Dining offices require visibility and direct campus and public access. The coastal condition is referenced in rough board-formed concrete walls at the lowest level, a sheltering overlook pier above a grotto-like entrance, a west-facing site stair whose zigzagging form echoes local bluff-climbing beach flights, and an ocean-colored glass wall. Meeting, conference, and event spaces were raised to upper levels where the west-facing glass screen wall allows ocean and sunset views while confronting intense solar gain, as well as utilizing high-performance laminated tinted glass with colored interlayers wrapping the building's west end.

2010, Orchid for Architecture, San Diego Architectural Foundation, San Diego2010, Divine Detail Award, American Institute of Architects, San Diego2010, Best of 2010 Award for Higher Education, California Construction Magazine Design Awards

Photos by David Hewitt & Anne Garrison