The winning entry in a design-build competition, this 55,000 square foot college Contemporary Arts Center is finely attuned to its Southern California climate and community context. The high-performance, LEEDTM Platinum certified project, incorporates innovative strategies for energy-efficiency that become bold design ideas. Inserted into an existing urban arts campus, the five-story structure includes a large experimental black box theater and an art gallery, both double-height spaces, surrounded by multiple studios, classrooms and offices. Reinforcing the interdisciplinary approach of the School of the Arts, the architecture stimulates interaction with the surrounding Arts Village with multiple terraces, landscaped courtyards, balconies and a colonnade. A new entrance court plaza has been planted with shade trees and fitted with wooden benches and integrated lighting to make it an inviting public gathering space.