Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

California College Breaks Ground on Creative Arts Facility

  • By Matt Jones
  • 02/03/22

College of the Redwoods, a community college in Eureka, Calif., recently broke ground on a new creative arts building. Staff and administration gathered on Thursday, Jan. 27, to mark the beginning of construction. The new facility will measure in at 29,888 square feet and will replace the former creative arts building, which was built in 1974. The project is expected to be complete by July 2023, according to local news.

“This is a wonderful opportunity to honor our faculty and our administration—and the fact that we are going to do a great service to our students by having a state-of-the-art creative arts building in one year,” said College of the Redwoods President Keith Flamer. “A year and a half from now, we will invite you back for the grand opening of a brand-new building.”

The project is expected to cost about $28 million, and the full measure of funds will come from the state via Proposition 51. Local news reports that voters passed Proposition 51 in 2016 to allow the state to allocate up to $3 billion in bonds for new educational facilities. Another major factor in the new building’s construction is that the current creative arts facility sits on a fault line.

The new construction will include energy-efficient features like radiant heat flooring, irrigation with reclaimed rainwater, solar hot water heating and an outdoor performing arts stage. The building will also be placed in a more central location closer to the campus’s performing arts center. The building’s photography lab will also see significant upgrades to its digital and video capabilities.

“We’ll have state-of-the-art equipment, and so our faculty will have upgraded technology to take advantage of what’s going on with education now,” Flamer added. “But also, the fact that our gallery will be more modern, so the whole building will be easier for us to access. We’ll be able to move to the center of the campus. This way, our students won’t have to trek from one end to campus to the other just to access their classroom.”

The college is partnering with tBP/Architecture on the project.

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Tennessee Middle School Completes Health, Life Safety Renovations

    The Giles County Board of Education in Pulaski, Tenn., recently announced that a series of renovation projects has been completed at Bridgeforth Middle School, according to a news release. The district partnered with Wold Architects & Engineers and Brindley Construction to modernize building systems at one of the district’s oldest schools.

  • California K–12 District Finishes Renovations on Multi-Sport Stadium

    The Alameda Unified School District (AUSD) in Alameda, Calif., recently announced the completion of a renovation project on the Encinal Jr. & Sr. High School stadium, according to a news release. The district partnered with Quattrocchi Kwok Architects (QKA) and Bothman Construction on the facility, and funding came from Bond Measure B.

  • Architectural Power for the Modern Campus Landscape

    For generations, an outdoor classroom only required a textbook and a patch of grass. Today, not only has the laptop replaced the printed pages, the rise of agile learning has turned campuses into study halls with students listening to lectures and researching topics from quads, gardens, and plazas. The challenge for architects and facility managers is to provide connectivity without cluttering the landscape with visual eyesores or creating safety hazards with extension cords.

  • Hawaii Elementary School Breaks Ground on New Classroom Building

    Kealakehe Elementary School in Kailua, Hawaii, recently began construction on a new, $16-million classroom building for its campus, according to a news release. The 13,000-square-foot building will stand two stories and connect the existing upper and lower campuses.