San Diego City College Quad – Downtown San Diego

The new Business and Humanities Quad is a multi-building complex comprised of a 128,000 SF five story Arts and Humanities (AH) building, a below-grade 40-car parking structure and a new 62,000 SF three-story Business Technology (BT) building, forming a “Quad” on the southeast corner of the downtown San Diego campus. This multi-building complex serves as a civic landmark amongst other prominent public serving facilities such as the new Central Library and Padres Ballpark. Situated on a full two City block site between B and C Street on 16^th, the project is located at the northern edge of the vibrant I.D.E.A. District in downtown San Diego. The client and design team took full advantage of the opportunity to engage with, and support, the momentum of this fast developing urban context. Traditional learning spaces were carefully orchestrated with exterior gathering and inspiration spaces to successfully integrate with the urban streetscape fabric.

Significant importance was put on framing views from classrooms to adjacent public spaces and outward to downtown San Diego. Spatial sequences were orchestrated to establish relationships between arts and business programs to exterior gathering areas. In turn, special attention was also paid to the integration of the pedestrian movement through the site in acknowledgment of the unique role this project plays as a gateway from the larger city to the heart of the existing campus. The result is a rich tapestry of engaging new and existing spaces with links and connections to and from internal campus places, and the surrounding East Village community.