UC SANTA CRUZ STUDENT CENTER

Completed in 1989, the Student Center is a 16,000 s.f. hybrid building at the interface of the “Great Meadow” and a redwood forest, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. In the Great Meadow Master Plan, we limited new construction to the surrounding forest edge. Like Jefferson’s lawn at the University of Virginia, the Great Meadow here is sacrosanct. This building, following our own guidelines, mediates between campus core and protected meadow. The “U-shaped” plan creates a central courtyard. A trellised colonnade pulls an existing path through the new complex, surrounding an amphitheater-like sinkhole. The building’s scale is drawn from the residential colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, while its character derives from the site’s original farm buildings. Materials establish a language that melds local traditions with contemporary approaches to space and use.

Photography credit: Richard Barnes, Mark Darley