Higher Education

Mt. San Jacinto, Menifee Campus Technology Center

San Jacinto, California

The Technology Center at Menifee Community College provides the college with much needed computer labs, digital classrooms, faculty offices, and a 200 seat assembly space. The 35,000-square-foot structure is a two-story configuration.

The campus educational mission is to ensure state-of-the-art learning environments for all Menifee College students. The new Technology Center will be an icon for future digital learners.

The Menifee College Technology Center is shaped in response to campus context, program uses, and the natural environment and client expectations for a digital classroom building. The campus is located in the high California desert exposing the buildings and outdoor spaces to strong winds and hot summer sun. Located on the valley floor provides the college panoramic views to the surrounding mountain ranges. An undulating profile of the distant ridge line creates a scenic backdrop to the campus and its buildings. The original campus buildings were designed to complement its natural setting. The Technology Center balances nature and technology continuing the campus tradition of building forms inspired by campus context and environmental conditions.

The building program consists predominately of a wide spectrum of computer labs ranging from computer aided drafting, multi-media, graphic design, business labs as well as digital photography and arts labs. Instructional labs are protected from the environment by controlling and minimizing any natural light. The expectation of the college for this building is that no direct sunlight reaches into teaching spaces. All visual access into teaching spaces will be provided from within the building itself through a central circulation element. Continuous skylights above the circulation space will flood the public spaces of the building with natural light. Daylight from the second floor skylights will filter into the lower level through a translucent catwalk in the floor illuminating the public space on the ground floor. The two building entries are designed as gathering spaces where social interaction will take place. Visually these transparent lobbies will act as the windows into the technology center displaying students interacting with technology. Additional windows are provided on the north side of the building framing views to the mountains in the faculty offices.

A roof garden allows students to gather outside under a perforated metal canopy protected from both the sun and wind. The sweeping curve of the building in plan faces directly into the strong winds. The opposite side of the building protects outdoor spaces and entries. The architectural expression of the technology center exaggerates the ornamental curved details of the existing campus buildings. The technology center boldly transforms building details into larger campus gestures leaving the impression of digitally enhanced higher learning.