California College of the Arts: The Latest Architecture and News

Studio Gang has revealed concept designs for their campus master plan for the California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco. Currently split between facilities in San Francisco and Oakland, the new unified campus will bring together the school’s various art and design programs into one “vibrant indoor-outdoor environment.”

The design concepts aims to become a “highly sustainable model for the future of creative practices,” arranging programs into upper and lower ground levels to encourage interaction and cross-departmental osmosis. 

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The California College of the Arts (CCA) has selected Studio Gang out of three finalists to design an expanded art and design college campus for the school in San Francisco. Currently split between San Francisco and Oakland, CCA’s expansion in San Francisco will allow all of the school’s programs to be housed in one location.

Over the next five years, Studio Gang and CCA will collaborate to create a new campus to host 2,000 students, 600 faculty members, 250 staff members, and 34 academic programs, and to be a model of sustainable construction and practice.

Digital design and fabrication have combined with ubiquitous computing and globalization to change the field of architecture. At California College of the Arts in San Francisco, faculty and students in the Bachelor of Architecture, Master of Architecture, and Master of Advanced Architectural Design programs team up with companies, agencies, and community groups to make architecture that addresses the challenges and opportunities of economic growth, climate change, and technological disruption.

One ongoing initiative is a multi-year design research project showing how cities can redevelop their waterfronts without damaging marine ecologies. In the Buoyant Ecologies project, students and faculty from the school’s Digital Craft Lab work with external partners to show how innovative waterfront architecture can actually enhance marine ecologies. By teaming up with fabrication specialists Kreysler and Associates, scientists from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, Autodesk’s Pier 9 Workshop, and the Port of Oakland, professors Margaret Ikeda, Evan Jones, and Adam Marcus recruited high-level experts to advise students and help them test their ideas.