EAST LOS ANGELES COLLEGE’S DESIGN-BUILD COMPETITION WAS CONDUCTED IN ORDER TO EXPAND LOS ANGELES COMMUNITY COLLEGE’S SOUTH GATE CAMPUS. THE EXPANSION WAS PROPOSED ON ONE OF THE LARGEST FORMER LOCAL INDUSTRIAL SITES, THE FIRESTONE TIRE AND RUBBER COMPANY, WHICH WAS OPENED IN 1927. DEEMED AS A BROWNFIELD SITE, THE MAJORITY OF THE SITE’S EXISTING WAREHOUSE BUILDINGS WERE REQUIRED TO BE DEMOLISHED, WHILE A SMALL HISTORICAL ADMINISTRATION
BUILDING ON THE CORNER OF FIRESTONE BLVD. AND SANTA FE AVE. WAS TO BE MAINTAINED. WITH THE AVAILABLE SITE AREA DICTATED BY THE CAMPUS MASTER PLAN, THE PROPOSED BUILDING SHAPE FRAMES A LARGE OUTDOOR COMMONS AREA, WHICH MAINTAINS A SENSE OF OPENNESS, AND WELCOMING WHICH IS CONSISTENT WITH THE COLLEGE’S ETHOS. AT THE INTERIOR OF THE ROUGHLY 100,000 SQUARE FOOT BUILDING, SPACES WERE ARRANGED TO SUPPORT 21ST CENTURY LEARNING AND STUDENT
SUCCESS. THIS WAS ACHIEVED BY THE PROVISION OF A VARIETY OF SPACES OF VARYING SCALE AND THE INTEGRATION OF FLEXIBLE CLASSROOM SPACES WITH THE ADVANCED TECHNOLOGICAL TOOLS AVAILABLE TO TODAY’S STUDENTS AND FACULTY. AN EXAMPLE OF SUCH A 21ST CENTURY LEARNING SPACES IS THE COVERED CENTRAL AREA AT THE VERTEX OF THE BUILDING WINGS. HEREIN, A MULTI-STORY, GENEROUSLY SCALED, OPEN AIR SPACE WITH CAREFULLY DESIGNED VERTICAL CIRCULATION PROVIDESTODAY’S STUDENTS INFORMAL GATHERING AREAS WHERE STUDENTS CAN SHARE LEARNING EXPERIENCES AND CONNECT WITH THEIR PEERS