BRUTAL Students brought this project to life. They approved significant additional fees to pay for it, they actively participated in its design, and they formed the deciding body of the client’s stakeholder group. This project responds to their vision to re-vitalize a defunct brutalist concrete building into the sustainable social center of campus and provide a main pedestrian connection between the East and West neighborhoods of the college. The design team found the solution to these challenges through a collective, student-focused design methodology; through the innovative reconfiguration of spaces supported by strategic building additions; and through a design language evoking the materiality of the natural world in a built environment.
The Evergreen State College
COLLEGE ACTIVITIES BUILDING RENOVATION Olympia, Washington
PROJECT AREA: 97,826 SF Collaboration The unique student-driven nature of the project and alternative culture of the campus merited a completely open design approach. While a core group of student representatives joined select college administration and facilities leadership members, all meetings were open to public attendance, with interested students free to join and have a voice at the table in design workshops, eco-charettes, reviews and presentations. Connectivity The college features a residential East campus and academic West campus. Located at a key junction of pedestrian pathways between each, the CAB was originally built to serve as a connector that would bridge the steep grade change of the two areas. To rethink the pedestrian flow through the building, the design renovates the east and west entries to create organically welcoming façades. The warm wood treatment continues through the building to encourage movement. The new feature stair in the multi-level atrium provides highly visible vertical access within the building and directs students to the main campus plaza to the west. Fluidity Existing interior spaces immersed students in an environment of hard surfaces. Walls fronting the atrium are redefined to create a sense of natural procession and gathering spaces. Fluid walls, cool colors and glossy surface treatments complement the use of wood in these spaces, evoking forest and water in alignment with the natural landscape surrounding the campus. The brutalist building has shifted from concrete to energetic warmth; from rigorous geometries to playful forms; from cold, echoing interior hardscape to humanized gathering spaces; and from outdated systems to energy- and water-efficient LEED Gold sustainability befitting the eco-conscious aspirations of the college and its students.
CAMPUS PLAN
Pedestrian flow from the existing residences on east campus currently bypass the CAB. This renovation design draws students into the building, and makes it a central component of the campus experience.
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ideal pedestrian flow existing pedestrian bypass
REPROGRAMMING
By reprogramming building spaces, the renovation design transforms the CAB into a student-centric building. ADMINISTRATION ACADEMIC RETAIL FOOD STUDENT SPACE
existing: student space 11,400 SF
reprogrammged: student space 19,300 SF
NORTH FACADE
left: before above: after
ATRIUM - THIRD LEVEL
at left: before below: after
STOREFRONTS
at left: before below: after
DINING
left: before upper left: view of Marketplace Cafe upper right: View of Greenery Dining
MARKET PLACE CAFE
NEW OUTDOOR TERRACE
ATRIUM - CENTRAL STAIR
left: view east from third level below: view west from third level bottom: view from lower level