Architectural Details: Studio Gang’s Flexible Framework for the California College of the Arts Campus
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In San Francisco, the California College of the Arts Expansion unites a once-dispersed institution on a single site, using that move to rethink how an art and design school’s physical space can better serve its pedagogical goals. In their A+Award-winning design, Studio Gang set out a campus that treats space as an active partner in teaching and learning. The project asks a simple but important question: “What kind of physical framework best supports contemporary education in making-based disciplines?”
CCA spent many years split between Oakland and San Francisco. Unifying the programs in one place presented a design challenge to remove friction, reduce travel time, and, perhaps most importantly, bring disciplines into closer contact. The expansion carries an institutional agenda as much as an architectural one. Consolidation can strengthen identity by placing people and resources together, but it can also compress differences by filtering varied cultures through a single setting. The design works within this tension. It seeks proximity and exchange while trying not to collapse everything into one uniform way of working.
California College of the Arts Expansion by Studio Gang, San Francisco, California | Photo by Jason O’Rear |Jury Winner, Higher Education & Research Facilities, 13th Architizer A+Awards
In planning this expansion, Studio Gang avoided the single signature building and instead, laid out a network of studios, classrooms, shops and shared spaces tied together by a common framework. Circulation paths and courtyards play as much of a role in shaping the learning experience as the buildings themselves. This framework can shift with changes in program or enrollment and can support collaboration as new forms emerge. If not carefully defined, however, the same openness can slide into neutrality.
The design enforces this transparency in a number of ways. Studio Gang used glass fronts to expose studios and fabrication spaces to view. Circulation areas cut across the work areas to further expose them to views across floors and yards. In this setup, visibility becomes a learning tool. Students can observe techniques, pick up tacit knowledge and exchange ideas. Even though some students may thrive when others can see their process, others may need privacy to take risks. As the architecture leans towards visibility, it still leaves room for filtered views and tucked away corners for the shy risk-takers.
California College of the Arts Expansion by Studio Gang, San Francisco, California | Photo by Jason O’Rear | Jury Winner, Higher Education & Research Facilities, 13th Architizer A+Awards
As part of this strategy, Studio Gang introduced outdoor courtyards, which they termed “maker yards” and sit at the core of the plan. They act as lungs for the campus and as shared ground linking programs. The yards extend studios outside, host messy work that benefits from fresh air and provide informal places for critiques and gatherings.
They also function as wayfinding devices that help people grasp the layout at a glance. In San Francisco’s fog and damp, use may shift toward staging, testing and social life rather than continuous fabrication. The value of the yards lies in their flexibility, supporting many modes of activity across seasons rather than a single fixed idea of making.
California College of the Arts Expansion by Studio Gang, San Francisco, California | Jury Winner, Higher Education & Research Facilities, 13th Architizer A+Awards
The plan also uses yards and narrow floor plates to bring daylight deep into rooms and to set up cross ventilation. These moves lower demand on mechanical systems and make workshop safety easier to manage. They also create a clear reading of how air and light move through the campus.
The material palette remains largely conventional for buildings of this type. Concrete, steel and glass provide durability and large spans for shops and studios. The environmental question becomes one of performance over time. Do the spatial strategies reduce operational energy enough to offset the embodied carbon of the materials? The answer will depend on use patterns, maintenance and future retrofits, not only on first-day metrics.
California College of the Arts Expansion by Studio Gang, San Francisco, California | Photo by Jason O’Rear | Jury Winner, Higher Education & Research Facilities, 13th Architizer A+Awards
The architecture translates institutional values into physical choices. Flexibility stands in for interdisciplinarity, transparency for collaboration and courtyards for community. Translation always simplifies. A flexible room does not create flexible thinking by itself, and a glass wall does not create a culture of sharing. What the design can do is remove friction for desired behaviors and make alternatives possible. The campus provides routes for chance encounters and rooms that can change size and function.
California College of the Arts Expansion by Studio Gang, San Francisco, California | Photo by Jason O’Rear |Jury Winner, Higher Education & Research Facilities, 13th Architizer A+Awards
Faculty and students will set the tone. The built setting supports them without trying to script every action.The campus sits within a dense urban context and opens multiple points of contact to its neighborhood. Edges offer views into making spaces and provide routes that draw the public to exhibitions and events.
This stance signals that the school is not a closed enclave. It positions the campus as a participant in the cultural life of the city. That openness creates opportunities for partnerships and public programs. It also requires careful management of access, security and the student experience. The design uses yards and forecourts to form thresholds where public and academic life can meet on clear terms.
California College of the Arts Expansion by Studio Gang, San Francisco, California | Photo by Jason O’Rear | Jury Winner, Higher Education & Research Facilities, 13th Architizer A+Awards
Calling the expansion a model for contemporary education invites a wider reading. The campus shows how a school can consolidate without becoming monolithic, how open sightlines can support learning without erasing privacy, and how outdoor rooms can carry social and environmental weight at the same time. It also shows where architecture needs institutional support. Policy, staffing and culture will decide whether the framework remains lively and adaptable five and ten years from now. For all these reasons and more, the project stood out to the A+Awards Jury, clinching the top prize int eh Higher Education & Research Facilities category.
California College of the Arts Expansion by Studio Gang, San Francisco, California | Photo by Jason O’Rear |Jury Winner, Higher Education & Research Facilities, 13th Architizer A+Awards
The California College of the Arts expansion treats a campus as a living system. It sets out a framework that favors adjacency, visibility and shared ground while leaving room for retreat and focus. Some choices carry clear advantages for collaboration and operations. Others introduce new demands on management and culture.
The value of the project lies in how it makes these dynamics legible. It gives the school tools to shape learning in real time and invites the community to test and adjust the model as needs change. In that sense, the campus does not present a final answer. It offers a structure for ongoing work, which is a fitting stance for a place devoted to making and critique.
The winners of the 13th Architizer A+Awards have been announced! Looking ahead to next season? Stay up to date by subscribing to our A+Awards Newsletter.
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