WD designs new Administration & Student Services Building for Coastline College in Fountain Valley.
With a new identity to share with the greater Orange County community, this building is in a prominent location on the corner of their current campus. Contrasting with the relatively anonymous facility it will replace, the New Student Center clearly announces its significance to Fountain Valley and to the larger Orange County community. Its transparent north façade makes visible the activities of the College, glowing warmly after dark and allowing abundant daylight deep into the building during the day.
With the first floor organized to promote convenient and welcoming student “customer” access to one-stop services and counseling, the second floor is a secure executive and administrative area. Both floors are designed to encourage departmental interaction, maximizing efficiency by leveraging adjacencies and sharing staff, technology, and amenities. This intentional flexibility further serves to “future proof” the building, providing adaptability to accommodate the ebb and flow of departments as student program needs, workplace strategies, and technology continue to evolve.
Interiors feature integral wayfinding graphics and a color palette that reinforces the new Coastline brand identity. The transparent, light-filled interiors flow seamlessly out onto a range of outdoor spaces – all offering an expansion of program possibilities in the benign Southern California climate.
Upon completion of the new Student Services Center, the existing facility will be abandoned and demolished. It will be replaced by surface parking traversed by a landscaped pathway to effectively link the Student Services Center with the College’s other existing office facility to the south, a new pedestrian armature at the heart of a true, multi-building campus in Fountain Valley.