UCSD HOUSING & DINING SERVICES ADMINISTRATION BUILDING
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 for UCSD, a prominent and welcoming home for the campus' Housing•Dining•Hospitality Services staff, and inviting, lively 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•Hospitality 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. This iconic screen, utilizing high-performance laminated tinted glass with colored interlayers wraps the buildings west end. Three colors of glazing were carefully placed and oriented to shimmer like ocean waves.
Photos by David Hewitt & Anne Garrison
