Santa Ana, California
Digital media and film/TV post-production learning facility and new media business incubator office building.
This 20,000 square foot, two-story high-tech facility is made up of classrooms, film screening rooms, a sound stage, picture editing rooms, sound recording and editing rooms, conference rooms, offices, computer rooms and a lounge.
Located in a redevelopment and business empowerment zone, the building was funded through a unique public partnership comprised of the Rancho Santiago Community College District, Santa Ana College and the US Department of Commerce. The expressed goal of the project is to create a local workforce trained in the digital arts that would attract and sustain high-tech and film production business to the City of Santa Ana.
Sited on a prominent corner on a newly-broadened avenue, the building is a linear volume of concrete block with an end façade of metal reaching out at a dramatic angle toward the corner and announcing its presence. A two-story prism of blue glass wrapped in a metal canopy penetrates the long façade and clearly functions as the entrance. A shifting pattern of horizontal windows and metal panels enlivens the long facades while a smaller prism containing an internal stair penetrates the sloped metal end wall. The overall effect is a building conveying speed, reflecting the speed that the technology it houses is changing the neighborhood.
Designed under the direction of Christopher Coe while Managing Director and Director of Design of Arquitectonica Los Angeles.