comment
New Student Union, ASU
Polytechnic Campus
Atwater Commons
Hamilton Village Towers,
University of Pennsylvania
Kenyon Athletic Center
Original Student Center
Expansion
The Warehouse
Tangeman University Center
University of Chicago, Graduate School of
Business
University Center of Lake
County
Westminster Theatre & Cultural Center
and Coastline Community College Learning CenterWestminster Theatre & Cultural Center and Coastline Community College Learning Center
An integrated theater and community college bring the college into the community.
This project comprises two distinct but closely integrated civic/educational buildings designed for the diverse, multi-cultural community of Westminster in Southern California: the Theatre & Cultural Center, a performing arts venue; and the Learning Center, a community college. Both buildings incorporate a contiguous sequence of exterior courtyards, terraces, and inhabitable walkways to create communal spaces that facilitate a variety of outdoor functions. The Learning Center’s courtyards and external circulation walkways extend the instructional spaces and create opportunities for both public and private interaction.
Based on what you have seen and read about this project, how would you grade it? Use the stars below to indicate your assessment, five stars being the highest rating.
The Theatre & Cultural Center anchors the new community complex and the adjacent Freedom Park, both located directly across the street from the City Hall. An elegant, 600-foot-long plaza fronts the complex and leads towards the main foyer, a soaring triangular volume inserted between the theatre and banquet facility.
The Theatre & Cultural Center establishes its civic presence through the innovative use of glazing on the front façade. The two main glass volumes balance the adjacent masonry-clad volumes and transform into a dramatic, glowing entry beacon at night. Three types of glass create a variety of transparencies and textures while defining the volumes that house the entry foyer and the theater. At eye level, clear glass creates sightlines and transparency, while clear glass with a fritted pattern combines with translucent sandblasted glass to create visual interest above. The custom-fabricated pattern of irregular vertical lines was designed to evoke bamboo plants as a tribute to Westminster’s large Vietnamese community.
The lightness of the glass balances the heavier, slate-grey, burnished concrete masonry units that define the building’s solid elevations. Creative coursing of the CMUs provides an elegant texture and visual interest to the theatre walls. On the opposite elevation, the banquet space’s exterior is clad in warm yellow Minnesota Kasota stone etched with vertical grooves echoing the glass pattern. Internally, travertine floors, glass railings and Anigre wood accents define and complete the palette.
Formal name of project: Westminster Theatre & Cultural Center and Coastline Community College Learning Center
Location: Westminster, CA
Gross square footage: Westminster Theatre & Cultural Center – 33,840 sq.ft.
Coastline Community College Learning Center – 42,000 sq.ft.
Completion Date: January, 2006
Total construction cost: Westminster Theatre & Cultural Center - $14.7 million
Coastline Community College Learning Center – $9.6 million
Owner: Westminster Theatre & Cultural Center –
City of Westminster
Coastline Community College Learning Center-
Coastline Community College
Architect:
CO Architects.
5055 Wilshire Boulevard, 9th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Tel: (323) 525-0500
Fax: (323) 525-0955
www.coarchitects.com
Video
Sign in to Comment
To write a comment about this story, please sign in. If this is your first time commenting on this site, you will be required to fill out a brief registration form. Your public username will be the beginning of the email address that you enter into the form (everything before the @ symbol). Other than that, none of the information that you enter will be publically displayed.