Located roughly 30 miles east of Los Angeles, the new Student Services Building (SSB) at California State Polytechnic University (Cal Poly) in Pomona, Calif., is a new campus gateway to welcome students registering for classes and applying for financial aid, as well as prospective students and their families meeting for on-campus tours, and alumni actively involved in the campus community.
Undulating standing seam aluminum roof is building’s distinguishing feature
Photo: Bill Timmerman
Campus Consolidation
Allowing for future growth, the 140,000-square-foot, two-wing SSB consolidates key departments previously located in the existing Classroom, Lab and Administration (CLA) Tower and Registration buildings, as well as other buildings on campus. The enrollment, registration, financial aid, cashiering and prospective student services were combined into easily accessible, one-stop service centers adjacent to their supporting administrative functions.
The SSB is made up of a three-story, 110,000-square-foot building where the service centers are located on the ground level to facilitate access, increase visibility and streamline operations for students and staff. The related offices for academic, student and administrative affairs are located on the second floor to support the services below while encouraging collaboration among different departments and divisions through shared conference facilities, kitchen areas and break rooms. Offices for the university president, provost and university advancement are located on the third floor.
Additionally, there is a two-story, 30,000-square-foot wing across a shaded pedestrian breezeway that houses the veteran resources center, orientation and four multipurpose rooms to accommodate conferences, meetings and training functions on the ground level, as well as staff, faculty, student customer services centers on the second level.
Designed by CO Architects, Los Angeles, the building is topped with a 90,000-square-foot undulating standing seam aluminum roof that spans over two separate structures. The broad, open pedestrian breezeway leads from the main parking area to the student union and library, and is designed to feel like a shaded outdoor street lined with seating and gathering amenity spaces, while connecting students to the heart of campus.
Project architect Alex Korter, AIA, RIBA, LEED AP BD+C, associate principal at CO Architects, says the desire was for the building to serve the entire campus community, not just the functions and departments housed within. “By creating a shaded pedestrian path through the building—a welcome respite from the hot Pomona sun—we provided a comfortable place to meet, sit, gather and talk for everyone on campus,” he says. “This breezeway provides the campus with a new amenity that also improves access to student service functions and generates a direct pedestrian link from parking to the social core of the campus.”
Photo: Nils Timm
Energy Management
To make the SSB representative of the campus and its place in the greater context, the roof shape is tied to the topography of the campus and the surrounding foothills and mountains. “While expressing contextual form, the roof’s energy performance was paramount,” Korter explains. “All of this was balanced with optimizing the roof shape to act as the most efficient shading device for mitigating heat gain and glare while providing ample daylight.”
As such, the roof is designed as the primary performance driver for the curving building to achieve an advantageous Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of 31. The average EUI is 65. To optimize the roof geometry, minimize energy loads for lighting and cooling, and increase user visual and thermal comfort, the architects used extensive daylight, glare and solar heat gain analysis modeling. “Reducing the energy use of the building through passive design strategies at a low first cost was a great way to provide [Cal Poly Pomona] with long-term value,” Korter notes. “In addition to its LEED Platinum certification, the low EUI building can help set new sustainability standards and aspirations for the university, as well as for the California State University system overall.”
Photo: Bill Timmerman
Complex Curves
Korter notes that breaking down the compound curve geometry to optimize paneling, coordinating the concrete and steel support structures, and communicating the roof shape and scope to the trade contractors took a lot of work. To achieve this, CO Architects used building information modeling (BIM) to explore, analyze and optimize options for the standing seam roof, as well as facilitate the transition from design straight to fabrication and installation.
“Our intent,” Korter says, “was to use relatively standard materials, such as 16-inch-wide aluminum roof panels, and manipulate them into something new. We analyzed the curvature capacities and fabrication method of the panels, and then adjusted the shape accordingly. The panels are supported by more than 19,000 clips, which had to be placed accurately on tube steel and concrete substrates. This process required extensive coordination.”
To achieve the complex curvatures of the Valparaiso, Ind.-based Kalzip Inc.’s standing seam roof, the custom-shaped panels were roll formed on-site. The continuous east-west alignment of the standing seams gives the roof texture and grain, while allowing skylights to provide more daylight to the top floor. There are a total of 12 skylights—10 north-facing skylights and two louvered air intakes—which were achieved by manipulating the roof shape and introducing wedges of vertical window-wall. Korter adds that the hydrology of the compound shape was studied to determine the drainage patterns of rainwater so gutters and downspouts could be properly sized and located.
Celebratory Brew
To celebrate the completion of the project, the architects collaborated with Innovation Brew Works, the campus-affiliated brewery, to create a unique beer with the project’s design concepts in mind. Brewed in the late fall at the end of the harvest, the team created a Saison-style beer (farmhouse ale) with a hoppy, West Coast kick using local ingredients, such as black sage and honey from the campus. Called “Groundscraper,” as a nod to the building’s horizontality, the brew was distributed in special bottles with custom-designed labels, which were distributed by CO Architects to the complete project team as a thank you for the successful project. The beer is also available for purchase at the brewery’s taproom.
The roof has perforated metal overhangs that vary from 5 to 28 feet deep depending on the orientation, to protect the aluminum-framed, low-E reflective glass exterior wall from the sun, filter dappled sunlight and optimize daylight to the interiors. Northwestern Industries Inc., Seattle, fabricated the curtainwall system from Kawneer Co. Inc., Norcross, Ga., with double-glazed, insulated glass units with low-E coating from Guardian Glass, Auburn, Mich.
To determine the optimum overhangs around the perimeter of the building and the courtyard, Korter says they had to continuously analyze yearly shading levels on the vertical exterior enclosure as well as daylight levels on the interior floor plates. “If over-shaded, low daylighting levels would require more lighting; if over-lit, the solar heat gain would require more cooling,” he says.
Additionally, Korter says they extensively analyzed the level of perforation for the panels that form the overhangs and breezeway. “The amount of perforation had to balance shade and daylight performance, as well as the fabrication capability to make sure the Kalzip panels kept the structural integrity. Taking all the factors into account, we settled on 18% perforation for the panels to meet the performance goals for the project. The configuration needed to ensure that someone viewing the whole roof from afar perceive it as one continuous shape across solid and perforated panels, while those standing below could clearly see the sky.”
To fabricate the panels, Kalzip brought the panel-forming machines to the job site with the aluminum coil and produced all of the panels based on the digital models. CMF Inc., Orange, Calif., installed the panels.