Case Study: Living and Learning Neighborhood

Image Credit: HKS + EYRC Architects

The Theatre District Living and Learning Neighborhood

Architecture Firms: HKS + EYRC Architects

Learning Units: 1LU

This is a virtual Zoom meeting.  Meeting information will be shared with registrants directly.

In a new AIA|LA series, EYRC architect Matthew Chaney, AIA and HKS Architect Tom Greving, AIA  will present an in-depth view of the The Theatre District Living and Learning Neighborhood.

Located on a 10.9 acre site at the intersection of Revelle College Drive and North Torrey Pines Road in La Jolla, CA, this 2000-bed mixed-use residential neighborhood serves as a major public gateway to UC San Diego and links the campus to the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Inspired by the spectacular cliff-top site and its historical ecological role as a watershed straddling ocean and canyon ecosystems, the project concept became wrapped in the idea of exponential, nested ecologies.

Through Exponential Ecology, the design team is considering all aspects of the built environment and the interrelationship of physical, social, and emotional wellbeing. This supports the University’s mission to put student wellbeing first and connect to the surrounding community. Mirroring the interconnected webs in ecological science, the architectural concept can be illustrated as nested connections: that of student wellbeing to that of the greater community, mental wellness to physical wellness, science to art, and humankind to nature. Shaped by the winds, views and solar orientation, the site plan, building forms, skins and interiors all reflect these ideas of connection – to their outdoor setting, geographical place and context, as well as the sense of home and community.

Learning Objectives:

+Sustainability applying to multiple scales of the project including human (student) experience

+Collaboration between two architects – process during the competition and execution in a design-build environment

+Student housing design and how this can affect mental health – using research to inform design decisions

+Exploring prefabrication to save time and money, working with custom prefab manufacturer to ideate skin ideas

Panelists

Mathew Chaney, AIA, DBIA (EYRC Architects)

Mathew Chaney has been a Partner at National Firm Award winner Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects since 2013. Mathew has served as Principal-in-Charge for some of the firm’s largest and most complex projects including the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and School of Earth and Space Exploration both at ASU. He is currently Partner-in-Charge of the UC San Diego Future College Living and Learning Neighborhood Design-Build project. He is a recognized thought leader in alternative delivery methods throughout the A/E/C industry and lectures frequently on Design-Build and Integrated Project delivery across the country.

Thom Greving, AIA (HKS)

Thom’s career has given him the opportunity to provide design leadership for a wide variety of award-winning projects around the globe. As Regional Design Director for HKS’ Pacific Region, he applies his love for an inclusive process of design and problem-solving to many building types with his belief that designing without assumptions based on user- and research-based methodologies provides a pathway to meaningful, effective, innovative and sustainable environments. Most recently, Thom led complex efforts with a team of many partners as Design Director for both the University of California San Diego North Torrey Pines Living and Learning Neighborhood and the Future College Living and Learning Neighborhood on behalf of HKS.