Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Riverside Community College District (RCCD): RCCD Coil School of the Arts

  • 04/01/18
Riverside Community College District

PHOTOS COURTESY OF LPA INC./COSTEA PHOTOGRAPHY, INC.

The Centennial Plaza in Riverside, CA, designed by LPA, Inc., is a project that serves a dual purpose—to provide space for instruction and to bring the community downtown to enjoy the arts. The centerpiece of the block is the LEED Gold-certified, 36,000-square-foot Coil School of the Arts. The design includes a 450-seat music concert hall, classrooms, practice rooms, a choral room, band room, orchestra room, a piano lab, and a state-of-the-art recording studio.

Designed with acoustics as a priority, the Coil School for the Arts is the home of the renowned Riverside City College Music Department. The concert hall concept design mirrors as a musical instrument, featuring deployable wall panels, mechanized perimeter drapery, and a moveable stage cloud that can be configured to support any music genre.

The architecture expresses the nature of the building, using heavy concrete masonry for its acoustical mass properties as the main building material. On the main façade, a large cantilever provides shaded spaces for outdoor visitors and users. Glass at the lower level creates a connection of the indoor activity of people in the lobby while patterned wood laminate panels resemble the craft of wood-made musical instruments.

The district’s commitment to the arts, culture, and history through the vision of the Centennial Plaza will solidify downtown Riverside’s place as an urban center for activity, creativity, and lifelong learning.

This article originally appeared in the College Planning & Management April 2018 issue of Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • From Approval to Opening: Inside Travis Unified School District’s Fast Tracked Campus Expansion

    The Travis Unified School District (TUSD) in northern California includes several elementary and high schools serving over 5,400 students. In 2024, the TUSD Board approved the addition of sixth grade to the Golden West Middle School campus for the 2025–26 school year, setting in motion an accelerated effort to bring new facilities online in less than a year.

  • Full Sail University Announces First Student Housing Facility

    Full Sail University in Winter Park, Fla., recently announced that development has begun on its first student housing community, according to a news release. The university is partnering with Nvision Development for construction and long-term management of the facility, which will stand five stories and have the capacity for more than 570 beds.

  • South Carolina District Starts Construction on $50M Middle School Renovation

    The Aiken County Public School District in North Augusta, S.C., recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for the $50-million renovation and expansion of North Augusta Middle School, according to a news release. The project’s funding comes from the 2024 renewal of a one-cent sales tax approved by local voters.

  • Quattrocchi Kwok Architects Opens New Office in Denver

    Education planning and design firm Quattrocchi Kwok Architects (QKA) recently announced that it has opened a new office in Denver, Colo., the firm’s third overall. QKA is headquartered in Santa Rosa, Calif., and runs an East Bay Area office in Oakland.