California College of the Arts Completes Hybrid Mass Timber Facility

The Studio Gang, an architecture and urban design practice, has just completed the latest expansion for the California College of the Arts (CCA) campus in San Francisco, according to a feature by designbloom (11-08-24).

This newly built hybrid mass timber facility supports art and design education while setting a new benchmark in sustainable architecture. By connecting to CCA’s existing main academic building, the new structure creates an indoor-outdoor space that encourages collaboration among students, faculty, and diverse creative disciplines.

Studio Gang’s 82,305-square-foot expansion for CCA is anchored by a concrete ground level. The design team optimizes this level for workshops and fabrication spaces that accommodate physically demanding creative practices.

Rising above the concrete base, two mass timber pavilions provide classroom and studio spaces, as well as a new home for the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. The exposed mass timber structure, among the first of its kind in California, features a unique eccentric braced frame system that highlights the natural beauty and structural functionality of the timber.

The building’s hybrid mass timber structure cuts the carbon footprint by nearly half compared to conventional structures. Key facilities for heavy equipment and physically intensive activities are strategically concentrated on the ground floor, optimizing structural load distribution and future adaptability.