Recently approved by the city council, the new Cultural Campus will revive historic structures and add new spaces for the community’s experience and enjoyment of local culture and art.
Acclaimed interdisciplinary design firm HGA is leading the architecture and planning efforts for the expansion of the City of La Quinta’s Cultural Campus—part of a city-wide initiative to develop meaningful cultural spaces for the future. The new, publicly accessible campus—located at 77885 Avenida Montezuma—will combine the past, present and future into an experiential cultural epicenter that weaves together landscape, history and art for exploration and appreciation by residents and visitors of all ages. The La Quinta city council unanimously approved a majority of the components detailed in the HGA-designed master plan, totaling $3.31 million, on July 18, 2023.
The Cultural Campus is designed to provide the La Quinta, California community with designated spaces for opportunities to enjoy cultural and artistic experiences, such as rotating and permanent art installations, live performances and educational workshops. The comprehensive project includes new spaces for dialogue, production and education accomplished through operational and experiential enhancements to the existing La Quinta Museum and historic Casita as well as potential additional interventions still under review by the city. New additions to the site will include a museum archive and development of a new Courtyard Oasis, Arts Plaza and Community Promenade.
An open space concept for the campus landscape will fuse an ethnobotanical garden that incorporates narratives of the Cahuilla tribes and the biomes of the Coachella Valley with low impact, drought tolerant development practices to create a multi-sensory experience along the arts promenade. These open spaces will also allow for a mix of flexible public art and new media opportunities for the city.
“The comprehensive plan for the City’s Museum and Cultural Campus elevates and integrates civic life and the arts. Incorporating the City’s mission for the future of the arts, the plan includes a new visitor and arrival experience, operations enhancements, and an expansion featuring a new state-of-the-art archive and outdoor multicultural and flexible events space.” said Matt Austin, project designer at HGA.
Driven by a growing citizenry of diverse professionals, the City of La Quinta approached HGA to guide the full expansion plan to ensure the long-term use of the campus for La Quinta’s future generations while continuing to handily serve the city’s existing population. HGA’s scope of work encompasses all visitor experience planning, public space programming, landscape design and architectural design.
“We selected HGA from a pool of qualified candidates to design our city’s newest cultural landmark because of their forward-looking design ideas, strong client-oriented approach and breadth of experience in creating engaging cultural spaces,” said Michael Calderon, management analyst for the City of La Quinta’s Community Services department. “Their deep understanding of the distinct needs of our growing community through their in-depth research process has resulted in a master plan design that is beautiful, accessible and will be highly functional for years to come.”
In addition to Austin, the HGA project team includes: Kevin Donaghey, principal; Olivia Lu-Hill, project coordinator; Ben Karg, design coordinator; Leighton Deer, mechanical engineering; Ethan Fogle, structural engineer; Gwendolyn Bromme, technology specialist; and Sierra Dennis, sustainability specialist. Project partners include McCullough Landscape Architecture and Tribal Consultant, Kim Marcus.
HGA is known nationwide for its work in creating iconic, award-winning cultural facilities such as the American Swedish Institute’s Nelson Cultural Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck, North Dakota and the currently in-progress Jackson Hole Museum & Historical Society in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
About HGA
HGA is an acclaimed interdisciplinary design firm committed to making a positive, lasting impact for our clients and communities through research-based, holistic solutions. We believe that great design requires a sense of curiosity—forming deep insight into our clients, their contexts, and the human condition. We are a collective of over 1,000 architects, engineers, interior designers, planners, researchers, and strategists, with 13 offices. Our national practice spans multiple markets, including corporate, cultural, education, local and federal government, healthcare, and science and technology. Visit HGA.com or follow on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.