West Valley College Visual Arts Building | Saratoga, California, USA | 2023

Architects: Mark Cavagnero Associates
Design Team: Mark Cavagnero, John Fung, Ellen Leuenberger, Olga Luebker, and Simon Newton
Executive Architects: TLCD Architecture
Landscape Architects: Quadriga
Community College District
General Contractor: Gilbane Building Company
Client: West Valley-Mission
Photographers: Henrik Kam

The new Visual Arts Building at West Valley College's Cilker School of Art and Design transforms a quiet quadrant of the academic campus into a vibrant hub for art students and the greater college community. Situated directly across from an existing performing arts center - the two buildings form a new gateway into the school and elevate the presence of the arts across the campus. Nestled among oaks and redwoods, the 20,000-square-foot building promotes interaction between the studio activities inside and the natural surroundings.

The overall design maximizes transparency and openness throughout the facility by featuring generously glazed curtainwalls and exterior circulation shaded by louvered canopies to bring greater visibility to the arts while offering generously covered outdoor working areas. Light-colored lime-plastered walls on a durable concrete base serve as a backdrop to the overall art-making experience. Located on a heavily wooded sloped site, the building is carefully threaded among existing trees, allowing the natural landscape setting to permeate the interior studio spaces. The hilly site made possible a double-height gallery and a flexible studio at the lower level, which serves as an extension of the gallery and a collaborative project space.

Operable sliding doors open to allow the gallery to weave seamlessly with the campus circulation and allow passersby to connect directly with the art on display. A central louver-covered stair leads to the upper-level arts courtyard. Five day-lit art studios, which wrap around the courtyard anchored by a heritage oak tree, are connected and have direct access to covered outdoor spaces for expanded use. The exterior plaza encourages cross-pollination of disciplines and stimulates creative exchange among students. The integrated layout of the metal/woodworking shop and kiln/foundry area is an extension of the ceramics and sculpture studios and further enhances the studio curriculum.