Allan Hancock College Fine Arts Complex
San Luis Obispo, CA

About the Building

The Fine Arts Complex is a new 88,000 gross square-foot, two-story building that includes visual arts, multimedia and applied design, photography, film and video, dance, music, and recital hall. The project consolidates all of the fine arts and performing arts (except theatre arts) into one Fine Arts Complex.

What We Did

This project constructs a 52,260 assignable-square-foot Fine Arts Complex. The purpose of this project is to consolidate the fine arts instructional facilities. The complex will provide adjacency of spaces to facilitate interaction between disciplines, shared spaces such as computer labs for better space utilization, a technology network, and adequate ventilation/electrical power required to meet the needs of the current and expected growth of the program. The final building will include 47,044 square-foot laboratory, 5,096 square-foot office, and 366 square-foot of other spaces.

Sustainability was at the forefront of the design of the Fine Arts Complex. The project has been submitted for and expects to achieve LEED Gold status. More than 10% of all building materials contain recycled content and 80% of the waste on the project was diverted from landfills. Drought-tolerant native plantings reduce water use and provide habitat for local bird and insect species. The building also features water-efficient plumbing fixtures, LED lighting throughout, and occupancy-controlled outlets and lighting that reduce energy usage. The Complex uses several distinct types of solar power, including solar panels at the Terrace, which provide a portion of the building’s energy, passive solar metal panels at the exterior that help save on heating costs, and rooftop solar panels that provide hot water for the building that is stored in large, insulated tanks on the second floor.

Project Details