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Women Leading Design: Ghazal Khezri – Sandi Simon Center Tour
April 5 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm PDT
$20.00 – $55.00
Please join us for a tour of Chapman University’s Sandi Simon Center for Dance in Orange, CA. The tour will be led by Ghazal Khezri, AIA, Director at LOHA. The Sandi Simon Center for Dance is an adaptive reuse education and performing arts center at Chapman University that redefines a former orange packing house. LOHA’s adaptive reuse strategy opens the structure with a calculated cut through the original floor, allowing a reorganization into three levels and forming a new circulation through the former packing house. The Sandi Simon Center for Dance houses studio spaces for one-on-one and small groups instruction, performance space for small concerts and master classes, and a faculty studio and offices. The center addresses not only the studio and classroom needs of the dance program, but also provides spaces for students to socially engage as well.
While you are in Orange, CA, you can make a day of it and visit the Hilbert Museum and the Orange County Museum of Art. Both projects were featured in the Women Leading Design Panel at POWERFUL XI!
SPEAKER
Ghazal Khezri, AIA – Director, LOHA
Ghazal Khezri, AIA, is a director at LOHA. She has been practicing for 15 years and led the design team on projects such as Sandi Simon Center for Dance, Esri Campus Center, La Cienega, and 3434 Wesley. She has contributed to a diverse project typology, from cultural institutions, housing, and mixed-use to installations and objects. Ghazal’s design approach leans heavily on finding adventurous solutions responsive to the context, culture, and ecology of the place to bring joy and welcome transformation. Her ongoing interest includes unlocking new possibilities by questioning when to use an existing building instead of building a new one.
AIA CES: 1.0 LU|HSW Approved
Participants will become familiar with the Sandi Simon Center for Dance, an adaptive reuse education and performing arts center at Chapman University designed by LOHA, that redefines a former orange packing house.
Participants will be able to explain how LOHA’s adaptive reuse strategy opens the structure with a calculated cut through the original floor, allowing a reorganization into three levels and forming a new circulation through the former packing house.
Participants will review the history of the original structure. Originally built as a two-story headquarters for the Santiago Orange Growers Association in 1918, the post and beam heavy timber frame building is representative of the industrial vernacular style of its time. Villa Park Orchards Association took over the building in the late 1960s to expand its operations. Chapman University’s purchase of the building signifies a dedication to the preservation of this local historic landmark.
Participants will explore the Center’s studio spaces for one-on-one and small groups instruction, performance space for small concerts and master classes, and a faculty studio and offices. The center addresses not only the studio and classroom needs of the dance program, but also provides spaces for students to socially engage as well.
Participants will experience the daylighting afforded by the redesign. Entering through the courtyard on the bottom floor, sunlight that was central to the growth of the oranges permeates this entryway arriving at each of the floors and introduces a multi floor atrium in which galleries transition into dance studios and communal spaces transition into classrooms.
PARKING
Street parking is available.
