Santa Ana College Debuts New Student Center

Santa Ana College, located in Santa Ana, Calif., debuted its new $60-million student center with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the evening of Tuesday, July 27. The Johnson Student Center measures in at 63,642 square feet and was funded through Measure Q bond funds approved by voters in 2012. The student center represents the penultimate district project that will be paid for with those funds.

“Based on recent social media engagement, students are excited to experience in-person this state-of-the-art building come this fall,” said Dalilah Davaloz, college spokeswoman.

The two-story facility will house financial aid offices, a campus bookstore, a health and wellness center, a cafeteria, and a student lounge area featuring billiards and table tennis tables. The new Johnson Student Center replaces the old student center of the same name, which was torn down in 2018.

The college partnered with HPI Architecture for the project. The facility is on target to be granted LEED Silver Certification. The college will hold an open house and hourly campus tours on Wednesday, July 28, and Thursday, July 29.

About the Author

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

Featured

  • Indiana University Launches Capital Campus in D.C.

    Indiana University recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new IU Capital Campus in Washington, D.C., according to university news. The eight-story facility will provide a central hub for the university’s existing programs and business operations based in D.C., uniting them under one roof and providing the opportunity to expand.

  • Classical building columns display digital data streams

    The Campus Nervous System: Why Facilities Risk Is Now a Leadership Issue in Higher Education

    Facility performance now intersects with safety, compliance, on-campus experience, institutional reputation, and financial resilience. That places it firmly on the leadership agenda.

  • California High School Opens New Classroom Building for 7th-, 8th-Graders

    Santa Rosa City Schools in Santa Rosa, Calif., recently announced the completion of a new classroom building for Piner High School. As the campus transitions to a Junior/Senior High School, the facility will play home to the school’s new population of seventh- and eighth-grade students.

  • 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.