Clive Wilkinson Architects

The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design

The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
© Michael Moran

THE SANTA MONICA COLLEGE CENTER FOR MEDIA AND DESIGN

Clive Wilkinson Architects

SPECIFICATIONS CONSULTANT
Specifications West LLC

MANUFACTURERS
Swisspearl, Arcadia Inc., Carlisle Wide Plank Floors, Delray Lighting, Haworth, Interface, J+J Flooring Group, Lightolier, Prudential Lighting, Pulp Studio, Vista Paint, Wilson Partitions, KONE, Milliken, iGuzzini Lighting

FIRE ALARM CONSULTANT
Glumac

ACOUSTICAL CONSULTANT
Newson Brown Acoustics LLC

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
Englekirk International

MEP ENGINEERING
SCEG

CIVIL ENGINEERING
Mollenhauer Group

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
RELM

LIGHTING CONSULTANTS
Lam Partners Inc

PROJECT DIRECTOR
Brad Carpenter

PROJECT ARCHITECTS
Ben Howell, Meghan Kes

ARCHITECTS
Clive Wilkinson Architects

PROJECT COORDINATORS
Juan Guardado, Michelle Pauly, Vern Saxe

WATERPROOFING CONSULTANT
Simpson Gumpertz & Heger

TELECOM CONSULTANT
Waveguide Consulting

PHOTOGRAPHS
Michael Moran

AREA
115000 ft²

YEAR
2018

LOCATION
Santa Monica, United States

CATEGORY
Higher Education, Offices

Text description provided by architect.

The Santa Monica College (SMC) Center for Media and Design (CMD) is a renovation and expansion of the school’s old Academy of Entertainment & Technology.

The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
© Michael Moran
The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
© Michael Moran

The 3.5-acre project includes the construction of a 30,000-square-foot instructional wing and renovation of an existing 50,000-square-foot teaching facility; a new, three-story building for KCRW, a public radio station licensed to the school; and a new, seven-level parking structure.

A courtyard with water features and a performance stage is showcased in the center of the complex. Located in ‘Silicon Beach’ – home to major media firms and tech startups – the CMD enables the school to unite all of its programs focused on media content development and design on one campus.

The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
© Michael Moran
The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
© Michael Moran

Our design process began with an intensive period of curriculum analysis, classroom visits, facility tours, client workshops, and visioning sessions.

Early on, it became clear that the Client considered instructional education alone insufficient preparation for a world in constant flux, as it has become increasingly difficult for students to apply academic knowledge in the workplace.

The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
 © Michael Moran
The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design

After several weeks of visioning, the Design Team determined that the fundamental idea uniting the CMD and KCRW is storytelling.

Thus, we set out to create architecture that acts as a narrative vehicle, shaping the campus into a sequence of experiences that showcase education as a progressive cycle.

The three buildings and central courtyard represent a student’s progression from higher education to the professional world via the following narrative:

The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
© Michael Moran
The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
© Michael Moran
The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
© Michael Moran

    1. RENOVATED MEDIA TECHNOLOGY BUILDING: ARRIVAL + DEVELOPMENT

    The renovated 50,000-square-foot building, which received a complete interior redesign, consists of classrooms and offices distributed along a central path indicated by an unfolding yellow ribbon.

    Interior glass walls maximize light and transparency into the classrooms, exhibiting students’ ideas-in-formation.

    2. NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGY ADDITION: EXPERIMENTATION + DISCOVERY

    The unfolding ribbon continues into the 30,000-square-foot addition, wherein students can explore and experiment with their ideas in professional-grade workspaces.

    The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
    © Michael Moran
    The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
    © Michael Moran


    The two-story instructional facility now holds a 180-seat screening auditorium, a large production suite with control booths, multiple editing bays for post-production work, high-end computer rooms, and a radio broadcasting suite, in addition to classrooms, spaces for collaboration, and a wide variety of student support services and amenities.

    3. NEW KCRW MEDIA CENTER: MATURATION + REAL-WORLD APPLICATION

    The new 34,000-square-foot Media Center marks the first time KCRW will have a standalone building in its 35-year history. An outdoor stage, audience viewing gallery, and a large performance studio allow the community more opportunities to engage with the station through events.

    The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
    © Michael Moran
    The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
    © Michael Moran

      As a professional center for the convergence of media, KCRW is the ideal and logical endpoint for this narrative. Characterized by a similar internal path and open workspaces, the station will share its resources to encourage creative collaboration and educational reciprocity.

      4. COURTYARD: CREATIVE COLLABORATION + EDUCATIONAL RECIPROCITY

      Connecting all of these experiences together is the new 18,000-square-foot courtyard.

      The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
      © Michael Moran
      The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
      © Michael Moran

      Complete with a café, event infrastructure, and supportive landscaping, this central space encourages collaboration and interaction while enabling all CMD programs to publicly converge into a single creative community.



      The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
      © Michael Moran
      The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
      © Michael Moran
      The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
      © Michael Moran
      The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
      © Michael Moran


      The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
      Plan - 1st Floor
      The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
      Plan - 2nd Floor

      The Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design
      Section

      Clive Wilkinson Architects
      T +1 310 3582200
      Clive Wilkinson Architects
      6116 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232, United States