East Los Angeles College, Language Arts & Humanities

Flexibility for the Future

Part of a design/build competition, this education building on a dense urban campus consolidates nine departments into a flexible learning environment that encourages collaborative student-faculty interaction while incorporating sustainable strategies to achieve LEED^® Gold certification. Working with a large program, the team pulled the program apart to separate the faculty offices from classrooms in two distinct wings, with an open-air, five-story courtyard connecting the wings. The exterior reinterprets the campus’s existing brick architecture. The office wing is clad in brick yet visually emphasizes the concrete-slab structural system. Along the glass classroom wing, multicolored black-out shades add visual variety. Inside, flexible classrooms allow re-arrangement of furniture configuration for different learning options. Nearly 70 percent of all classrooms and offices are located within 25 feet of operable windows.

Sustainable Design

HGA utilized BIM, Rapid Prototyping, wind studies, daylighting analysis, and biomimicry techniques to create energy-efficient, sustainable outcomes in an ideal learning environment. Sustainable highlights include natural ventilation, high-performance glazing, solar shading, high-albedo roof, energy-recovery wheel, and water-efficient landscaping, among other features.