Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Central Oregon Community College

Science Building

  • 12/01/13
Central Oregon Community College

INTERIOR PHOTOS © CHRISTIAN COLUMBRES, EXTERIOR PHOTOS © ALAN BRANDT

Nestled in a hillside campus on the side of Bend’s Awbrey Butte, the Central Oregon Community College (COCC) Science Building provides flexible instructional spaces that support innovative teaching and learning. The 45,000-square-foot flagship facility maximizes opportunities for putting learning on display in both private teaching and public spaces.

The building program features two floors of dedicated instructional labs for biology, chemistry, geology and physics. In addition to general-purpose classrooms, learning resource center, herbarium and faculty offices, a wide variety of informal breakout/student study areas are included throughout the building, designed to encourage collaboration and interaction. An alternating sequence of enclosed conference “boxes” and open study lounges runs along the building’s west face, sharing expansive views of Oregon’s Cascade Range with a large two-story lobby and covered terrace.

The challenge of introducing natural daylight throughout the building’s interior, particularly given the hillside site, became an organizing theme for the building’s volume and articulation. A series of skylights overlook the central lab/stockroom area, bringing daylight into the hallways, lobby and the labs themselves via continuous interior glazing between the lab spaces and adjacent hallways. Second-floor light wells draw daylight further down to the first floor core areas. The large interior lab windows and light wells also provide vertical and horizontal visual connections throughout the building.

The building’s material and color palette draws from its high desert campus context, incorporating the cedar and smooth concrete of neighboring structures while adding oak, fir and board-formed concrete to define significant interior spaces. The building’s lab spaces feature high-impact, bacterial-resistant epoxy walls and seamless, chemical-resistant rubber flooring, and employ vivid color to differentiate each discipline area.

The Science Center was a pilot project for Earth Advantage’s Commercial program for sustainability, earning EA Gold certification. It was designed by Portlandbased Yost Grube Hall (YGH) Architecture (www.ygh.com).

This article originally appeared in the College Planning & Management December 2013 issue of Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Rethinking K-12 Schools as a Continuous Learning Experience

    Most students move through three or more separate facilities during their K-12 journey, yet the built environments they encounter at each stage have traditionally been designed in isolation, with little continuity in spatial language, learning philosophy, or physical resources. Each new school is a reset with different layouts, learning models, expectations, and ways of moving through a building. The next generation of school design is making the case that the first day of kindergarten and the last day of high school can and should feel connected through common support systems and infrastructure in the physical environment.

  • Spaces4Learning Announces 2026 Product Award Winners

    Spaces4Learning has just announced the winners of the 2026 Product Awards! The award program spotlights outstanding product development achievements of manufacturers and suppliers whose products or services are considered to be particularly noteworthy in their ability to enhance K–12 and higher-education learning environments.

  • Wold Completes Geothermal Projects at Two Minnesota Schools

    Wold Architects & Engineers recently announced that it has completed two geothermal expansion projects for Mounds View Public Schools in Shoreview, Minn., according to a news release. The work at Highview Middle School and Irondale High School serves the district’s long-term goal of reducing energy costs and dependency on non-renewable fuel sources, as well as improving building performance.

  • Cal Poly Humboldt Starts Construction on Healthcare Education Hub

    California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in Arcata, Calif., recently announced that work has begun on a renovation project that will turn the Stewart Building into a new Healthcare Education Hub, according to a news release. The university is partnering with Sundt Construction Inc. for construction services.