Originally the home of a supersonic wind tunnel, the reimagined facility offers learning environments mirroring that of professional transportation design studios

LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles-based Darin Johnstone Architects (DJA) today announced the completion of the new Mullin Transportation Design Center (MTDC) at ArtCenter College of Design (ArtCenter). Located on the college’s South Campus at 950 South Raymond Avenue in Pasadena, California, and joining other DJA-designed spaces within the 950 Building, the MTDC is the effective revitalization of the campus’s historic “wind tunnel” space into a state-of-the-art educational facility. The comprehensive MTDC redesign ushers in a new era for ArtCenter’s world-renowned Transportation Design program—providing capability for full-scale vehicular models, better replicating the experiences of professional design studies. Together, the redesigned facilities in and around the 950 Building further bring to life the long-imagined vision for ArtCenter’s South Campus as a dynamic, creative hub that enhances the entire college. 

Built by Del Amo Construction, DJA’s design nearly doubles the effective square footage of the wind tunnel, converting the barrel-vaulted, 43-foot clear high space to hold 31,000 square feet of specialized creative labs, large-scale makerspaces, classrooms, exhibition areas, studios and offices. DJA worked closely with ArtCenter to conceptualize vehicle-intensive spaces that facilitate research, experimentation and forward-thinking design with capabilities for the next generation of teaching, learning and creating. New gallery and exhibition spaces as well as a hovering mezzanine feature open opportunities to showcase, inspire and fuel imagination, displaying large-scale design projects as they take shape in alignment with ArtCenter’s “see, think, do” ethos. 

ArtCenter maintains one of the oldest and most influential transportation design programs in the world, known for the design of the iconic split-window Corvette, the modern Mini and the Ferrari F-430, and its graduates are responsible for the majority of the new concept cars unveiled at major motor shows year after year. A key goal of the design effort was to replicate the experiences of professional design studios through the use of new technology and the vehicular access made possible by the existing building’s volume. 

“The learning that will take place in the redesigned 950 Building spaces is future forward,” ArtCenter President Karen Hofmann emphasized. “The labs and equipment housed in these state-of-the-art spaces will enable students and faculty to have tools needed to visualize and realize the future of their disciplines. This building will propel the future of mobility, transportation design and industrial design, along with enhancing aspects of the entire ArtCenter experience.” 

A MOTION-CENTRIC DESIGN 

Originally designed to simulate motion by testing objects fixed in space as a supersonic wind tunnel, the new MTDC has been converted to accept real motion. With consideration to its past, the overall design acknowledges the interplay of time and the evolution of design processes related to transportation and modern aviation. A taut, smooth aesthetic of strange lightness hovers in contrast to the rough lovely wooden vessel of the original wind tunnel. 

The east side of the project, which holds studios and offices on two levels, is a simple bar laminated to the edge of the wind tunnel. The remainder of the space comprises hovering elements that float in the space and shape larger voids, a nod to the aeronautic history of the space. A flex lecture space and viewing deck on the mezzanine level sit above the Fabrication Lab and Vehicle Architecture Lab on level one. A curved ramping gallery, connecting to the second level, slips around and over the Art and Process Lab, framing the upper division undergraduate studio to complete the hovering diagram. 

MTDC was also designed to serve as a pedestrian passthrough and focal point that connects all of the buildings and facilities on ArtCenter’s South Campus. This passthrough on the west side of level one also contains vertical circulation elements that allow all visitors to loop up to the hovering programs and flow around the lab spaces visible below. All of level one is accessible to full-scale vehicles and there is a “street” through the space which passes under the hovering elements and connects all labs. As a result, MTDC is also the juncture where all disciplines and constituencies of ArtCenter can converge with both physical and visual access integrated throughout the space. It represents a future of intersectionality, where silos are replaced by opportunity, fluidity and a sense of belonging. 

A PIECE OF TRANSPORTATION DESIGN HISTORY 

Throughout the mid-1900s, the massive 85-foot wide by 220-foot long MTDC space was home to the Southern California Cooperative Wind Tunnel—a supersonic wind tunnel commissioned in 1945 and operated by Caltech as a testing facility for leading aerospace manufacturers including Convair, Douglas, Lockheed, McDonnell and North American. In 1953, it became a testing facility for General Motors automobile designs. Other types of testing followed, including missiles, torpedoes, wind-driven pumps, scaffolds, parachutes, rescue capsules, motorcycles and even street lighting. 

During the days of the functioning wind tunnel, the structure was filled with an enormous machine within which spaces existed as giant voids designed to move air to test aircraft. Eventually, it became an empty vessel capable of holding giant objects. In 2004, ArtCenter college leadership developed the idea of a satellite campus to expand ArtCenter beyond its Hillside Campus into the city, closer to public transportation and the cultural resources of Los Angeles. Daly Genik Architects (now Kevin Daly Architects) took that vision and created the beginning of the South Campus as it is known today, including repositioning the wind tunnel space for educational use. 

The interplay between the wind tunnel as a vessel holding objects and one containing extra-large voids greatly influenced the composition of spaces and the arrangement of functions in the design of the new MTDC. Additionally, the act of hovering or appearing to float became a conceptual driver for the work and a link to the poetic past of the wind tunnel. 

“The Mullin Transportation Design Center is more than a single project for DJA. It is the culmination of a decade of collaboration with ArtCenter and a team of people striving to create innovative learning and making spaces,” said Darin Johnstone, principal and founder of DJA and the project’s lead. “We have gained so much from this relationship and feel honored to design spaces to facilitate the college’s visionary approach to art and design education. Ultimately, our highest goal is simply to help inspire the next generation of art and design practice.” 

A NEW FOCAL POINT FOR SOUTH CAMPUS 

The new MTDC facility joins other significant educational spaces already housed in the 950 Building to serve as the cornerstone element of a transformational new chapter in ArtCenter’s history. The 950 Building as a whole now provides students and faculty with labs and shared workspaces where they can utilize the most innovative technology, media, tools and resources, and moves the institution closer to its vision of a connected campus on the Raymond corridor, coupled with the 1111 South Arroyo Parkway building that stands at the gateway of Pasadena. The expansion of the building and other concurrent projects fulfill the long-imagined vision for the South Campus as a hub for the entire college. 

Adjacent to the wind tunnel space, a portion of the 950 Building was renovated to hold the recently completed, DJA-designed Mobility Experience Lab by Genesis, Hyundai & Kia, which is dedicated to research and design, exploring the user experience. The 3,400-square-foot space allows unrivaled access to new technologies, tools and curriculum, creating an incubator for experimentation and discovery. It also provides facilities that simulate a wider variety of scales and experiences than typically found in the automobile industry. Here, students will focus on research into how end-users react to different kinds of lighting, sounds, control interfaces, motion and information. Through simulation and design fundamentals, students will explore trends, interaction, user interface design and human factors in design psychology and mobility design. Departments and students will work together in transdisciplinary courses, projects and workshops, and separately in highly specialized settings with top experts in their respective fields. 

950 BUILDING PROGRAM STATISTICS 

Mullin Transportation Design Center (MTDC) 

• One central flex lecture space totaling 1,533 square feet 
• Three specialized creative labs totaling nearly 7,000 square feet, including the: 2,239-square-foot Art and Process Lab, 2,543-square-foot Vehicle Architecture Lab and 2,190-square-foot Fabrication Lab 
• Five roughly 1,100-square-foot undergraduate studio classrooms 
• Three graduate studio classrooms ranging in size from approximately 1,100 to 1,600 square feet 
• Three roughly 550-square-foot general conference rooms 
• Nearly 1,000 square feet of of administrative spaces including offices and additional conference rooms 
• 10,703 square feet of galleries and exhibition areas as well as informal gathering areas and circulation space including pedestrian walkways

Other Key 950 Building Spaces 

• Mobility Experience Lab by Genesis, Hyundai & Kia - 3,400-square-foot educational lab space designed by DJA and completed in 2023 
• Graduate Media Design Practice (Grad MDP) - 5,700-square-foot educational space including a gallery, Immersion Lab, studios and offices designed by DJA and completed in 2022
• Bruce Heavin Media Production Studio - 3,800-square-foot media production space designed by DJA and completed in 2018 
• Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography (HMCT) - 2,400-square-foot center including gallery, workshops, archives, conference and support spaces designed by DJA and completed in 2015 

In addition to Johnstone, the DJA project team included Sandra Hutchings, studio director; Matt Liese, technical director; Howard Chen, project manager; Sean Davis, senior project designer; Dennis Lee, project designer; Long Pan, intermediate designer; Kaita Saito, junior designer; Sue Choi, intern; and Te-Kuei Huang, intern. 

Additional project team members and consultants included Del Amo Construction, general contractor; Parthenon, project manager; Labib Funk + Associates, structural engineering; Novus Design Studio, MEP engineering; Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, code consultant; KGM Lighting, lighting designer; Antonio Acoustics, acoustical engineering; HKA Elevator Consultant, elevator consultant; ZC Sustainability, LEED consultant; and 3QC, LEED commissioning agent. 

The MTDC project has already received recognition for DJA’s transformative design from organizations including AIA Pasadena & Foothill and Southern California Development Forum. The facility is on track to achieve LEED certification. 

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ABOUT DARIN JOHNSTONE ARCHITECTS (DJA) 

For more than 20 years, Darin Johnstone has led an architecture practice devoted to the concept of architecture as an overarching discipline. Consequently, DJA has accepted a wide range of design challenges across a spectrum of scales. From building design and documentation work, to large-scale programming and planning efforts, DJA has obtained a high degree of expertise in building projects, programming, feasibility studies and master planning. Based in Los Angeles, DJA has a diverse portfolio, wide ranging expertise and an award-winning practice dedicated to innovation and client engagement. For more information, visit djarch.net or find us on Instagram.