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

  • Wold Architects & Engineers Acquires VPS Architecture

    Full-service planning, architecture, and engineering firm Wold Architects & Engineers recently announced that it has acquired VPS Architecture, according to a news release. The move will help strengthen Wold’s education and public-sector design expertise, industries in which both companies have strong pre-existing ties and relationships.

  • UCF Modernizes College of Hospitality Management

    The University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla., recently completed a major renovation effort for the Rosen College of Hospitality Management, according to a news release. The project modernized 77,600 square feet worth of academic classrooms, teaching labs, and collaborative spaces to support both students and faculty.

  • Texas Recruitment

    Texas Recruitment

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. The University of Texas at Austin's Texas Recruitment has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Grand Prize award in the category of Renovation.

  • St. John Fisher University

    Classroom Revitalization – Basil Hall Room 216

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. St. John Fisher University's Basil Hall Room 216 Classroom Revitalization has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Project of Distinction award in the category of Spaces.