The primary challenge posed by the charge to transform the original ‘Post Office’ building into a home for Art Center College of Design’s Fine Art and Illustration departments had to do with the potential relationship between the existing conditions and the program. The program of galleries, classrooms and offices filled the entire existing volume while still requiring an abundance of natural light. The existing building contained five natural light sources: a thirty foot square skylight above a double height atrium space in the center and double height voids in all four corners that we termed ‘light courts’. Formal galleries and circulation (conceived as informal galleries) were used to connect all the light courts effectively carving the mass of classrooms and studios with light.

A 35,000 sf fast-track adaptive reuse project, the scope of work included seismic retrofit, structural steel framing, new glass façade and stair additions. The entire renovation was designed and constructed in six months - pre-design through construction.

The final component to the design was to paint the façades pure black, to match Art Center’s historic Craig Ellwood building at the hillside campus. This black exterior, contrasting with the pure white interior, created a visual that was immediately recognizable as a new building on ArtCenter’s South Campus.