Claremont McKenna College

CLAREMONT, UNITED STATES

CLIENT

TYPOLOGY

Education

SIZE M2/FT2

12,542 / 135,000

STATUS

IN CONSTRUCTION

In September 2022, Claremont McKenna College – one of the top U.S. liberal arts colleges – broke ground on its 135,000 SF Robert Day Sciences Center. It will be home for the College’s next-generation Kravis Department of Integrated Sciences – a powerful, multi-disciplinary, computational approach to advance gene, brain, and climate knowledge.

Expected to complete in 2025, the Robert Day Sciences Center launches a series of campus developments and improvements to prepare Claremont McKenna for its next chapter, and represents an educational evolution in how the College will prepare its students – one that deliberately and coherently integrates sciences and computation with the humanities and social sciences to address big thematic priorities in scientific discovery and application.

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The building’s structure is designed as a stack of two volumes, or rectangle ‘blocks’ – two per floor – with each pair rotated 45 degrees from the floor below. The exterior facade uses board-formed panels of glass fiber reinforced concrete, which create a wood-like texture.

On the interior, each individual volume is expressed as a rectangular wood-clad truss on the long edges, and as a floor-to-ceiling glass facade on the shorter sides. The continual rotation of each floor creates a sky-lit, central atrium at the heart of the building that provides direct views into classrooms and research spaces from all levels.

Students, professors, staff, and visitors will be able to access the new center from two main entrances – at the ground floor and the first floor – located at different elevations due to the north-south slope of the campus. Students entering through the south side will be met by a cafe and the open auditorium’s grand staircase that leads up towards the atrium. The full-height atrium with open spaces invite collaborative activity – embodying both the architectural and educational approach of the center.

Extending the Mall — The ground floor consists of two volumes aligned with the mall to continue it into the building.

Connected Entrances — A giant staircase for informal seating dips down at the heart of the building to create a connection to the promenade entrance.

Stacked Disciplines — Each floor is rotated 45 degrees more than the one below to create a stack of diverse program ranging from classrooms to laboratories.

Atrium — The full height atrium functions as a meeting and interaction space for students and faculty.

Terraces — The building features eight outdoor terraces. Four are directly adjacent to the atrium and function as social outdoor spaces.

Integrated Science — The building offers views in, out and in between classroom and lab spaces to inspire future scientists at CMC.

“The confluence of previously distinct disciplines: breakthroughs in computer and data science lead to breakthroughs in the natural and life sciences. The architecture for the new Robert Day Sciences Center seeks to maximize this integration and interaction of these previously siloed sciences. The labs and classrooms are stacked in a Jenga-like composition framing a column-free, open internal space with the freedom and flexibility to adapt the ever-evolving demands of technology and science. Each level of the building is oriented towards a different direction of the campus, channeling the flow of people and ideas between the labs and the classrooms as well as externally between the integrated sciences and the rest of the campus. It is our hope that the building will provoke new conversations between scientists and also stimulate the rest of the liberal arts students to take a deeper interest in the sciences and vice versa. The analytical embracing the experimental – rationality intersecting with creativity.”

Bjarke Ingels — Founder & Creative Director, BIG

The instructional and research spaces are organized around the perimeter of the building – providing classrooms with picturesque views while keeping the quieter instructional spaces farther away from the more social atrium. Overall, the interior’s materiality is defined by the marriage of the warm wood cladding, concrete floors, and functional research surfaces found within the integrated sciences labs.

Eight outdoor roof terraces located on the corner perimeters of each ‘bar’ offer sweeping 360-degree views of the mountains to the north, the campus to the west, and the Roberts Campus to the east. Designed with a mix of hardscape and softscape areas featuring native plantings, these “green roof” spaces are multi functional, designed to be used for outdoor classrooms, study areas, or places to meet classmates and professors.

Approximately 9,000 SF of solar panels on the Robert Day Sciences Center roof will provide between 200-230 megawatt hours of energy production per year.

“Today more than ever, an interdisciplinary approach to the sciences is vital to tackling the world’s biggest challenges such as health, climate, and misinformation. By literally stacking disciplines together, the building becomes an expression of collaboration and a crossroads for scientific thought. The parallel wings extend the historical framework of the campus mall, then pivot diagonally to face the future of the CMC campus expansion.”

Leon Rost — Partner, BIG

With views of Mt. Baldy, the building is positioned on the eastern edge of Claremont McKenna College, at the corner of Ninth Street and Claremont Boulevard – creating a strong gateway to the campus. This strategic position will facilitate strong connections to other academic departments on campus.

Bjarke Ingels Beat Schenk Leon Rost Alvaro Velosa Amir Mikhaeil Aran Coakley David Iseri David Holbrook Gary Polk Jan Leenknegt Kam Chi Cheng Lorenz Krisai Melody Hwang Minjung Ku Neha Sadruddin Peter Sepassi Ryan Duval Seung Ho Shin Sue Biolsi Terrence Chew Thomas McMurtrie Tracy Sodder Won Ryu Bella Yanan Ding Alex Wu Emily Chen Carlos Castillo Casey Tucker Chris Tron Dylan Hames Francesca Portesine Janie Green Bernardo Schuhmacher Jose Lacruz Vela Alan Maedo Gus Steyer Montre'ale Jones Ana Luisa Pedreira Ololade Owolabi Ahmad Tabbakh Bianca Blanari Yasamin Mayyas Sinam Hawro Yakoob Joseph Veliz Angela Lufkin Pooya Aledavood

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