Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Allan Hancock College Debuts Completed Fine Arts Complex

  • By Matt Jones
  • 03/08/23

Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, Calif., recently opened its new Fine Arts Complex to the campus community, according to a news release. The new facility brings together all of the college’s fine arts disciplines—including art, graphics, animation, photography, music, film, dance, and more—underneath a single roof for the first time. The college partnered with architecture firm DLR Group for the project’s design.

The facility measures in at 88,000 square feet and features amenities like a performance space with a capacity of 400; rehearsal space for dance, band, and choruses; ceramics studios, recording studios, painting studios, and graphic design studios; a film classroom and screening room; and labs for photography and digital media. The building also features a two-story central gathering space and an outdoor courtyard for interdisciplinary collaboration.

“The grand opening celebration for the new Fine Arts Building is also a celebration of new opportunities for the arts moving into a single location on campus,” said DLR Group Principal Dennis Bree, AIA, LEED. “Students from all arts disciplines will gather to inspire each other and celebrate creativity with a facility that connects them to daylight, landscape, and modern technology. Our design team is thrilled to open new areas for social gathering, critical discussion, and display that showcase the incredible talent of our students at Allan Hancock College.”

About the Author

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

Featured

  • A digital silhouette works at a computer, immersed in a glowing, interconnected world

    How Will AI Transform Learning Space Design?

    For years, higher education has designed learning spaces around technology as a tool for display, capture, collaboration, and connectivity. AI changes that equation.

  • Stanford Online Reveals New Immersive Learning Studio

    Stanford Online recently marked its 30th anniversary with the announcement of a new immersive learning studio, according to a university news release. The studio takes advantage of AI-powered and immersive learning technologies to continue delivering personalized and faculty-led education.

  • 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.

  • Designing for Every Mind

    Learning environments have the power to shape not just what students know, but who they become. When a school is designed with genuine empathy—for the full range of ways students think, sense, and engage with the world—it becomes more than a building. It becomes a catalyst for growth, confidence, and belonging. That is the animating idea behind neurodiverse design, and it is one that is transforming how more architects and designers are thinking about school design.