Enrollment in the MBA program is up 45 percent from three years ago — growth that the client attributes to the new building’s visibility.
Red tile roofs and stucco facades dominate the leafy grounds of Mills College, in Oakland. But for the new home of its now-10-year-old MBA program, the women’s liberal arts college and coeducational graduate institution asked architects Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (BCJ) to depart from the campus’s characteristic Spanish Revival style.
The firm responded with a decidedly modern building made of crisp volumes clad in stone, zinc, and glass. Completed in the fall of 2009, the Graduate School of Business houses classrooms, faculty offices, and areas for collaboration and impromptu meetings. The largest of these interactive zones is the double-story lobby, which opens to a covered linear porch and a lawn defined by the building’s L-shaped plan. These indoor and outdoor spaces function like a campus “living room,” says Greg Mottola, a BCJ principal.
A vegetated roof visible from the second floor is the most readily identifiable green feature, but the LEED Gold–certified building deploys several other tightly coordinated sustainable strategies, including daylighting, rainwater harvesting, and natural ventilation. These systems help maintain a comfortable learning environment and conserve resources and money, confirming the business school’s commitment to “people, planet, and profit,” or the so-called “triple bottom line,” explains Rosa Sheng, BCJ’s project manager.
Enrollment in the MBA program is up 45 percent from three years ago — growth that the client attributes to the new building’s visibility. The project has also proved to be an important faculty-recruitment tool. In fact, it was one reason Deborah Merrill-Sands elected to join the business school as dean this past fall. The facility, says Merrill-Sands, “demonstrates a dedication to advancing women of all backgrounds and to socially responsible business.”
Architect:
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
49 Geary Street, Suite 300
San Francisco, CA 94108
(415) 989-2100[p] (415) 989-2101[f]
www.bcj.com
Location:
Oakland, California
Completion Date:
August 15, 2009
Total construction cost: $21.4 million
Gross square footage:
28,000 sq.ft.
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