Technical Arts Incubator
Architect: Macy Architecture
Client: Santa Barbara Center For Art, Science and Technology
Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Completion: Late 2012

An innovative new art and technology incubator is coming to Southern California. The Santa Barbara Center for Art, Science and Technology (SBCAST), when it opens next year, will bring together artists, scientists, and technology professionals, encouraging them to pursue under-appreciated ideas. Think of it as a permanent version of TED.

Located on a 14,500-square-foot former brownfield site in the city’s industrial neighborhood, the live-work space will have community areas, a public exhibition space, and shared workshop facilities. There will also be nine affordable housing units for seven permanent residents and two visiting collaborators.

SBCAST tapped Mark Macy of San Francisco-based Macy Architecture to design the 8,470-square-foot space. The complex will consist of nine individual buildings, ranging from one to three stories, staggered along a deep, narrow footprint and include the re-use of an existing 1,235-square-foot pre-engineered metal structure. The other eight buildings will be largely built of re-purposed steel shipping containers. In addition, the $500,000 project will include photovoltaics, passive solar water heating, and rainwater capture. “Its rough, incomplete appearance is by design, allowing the space to be adapted according to its needs,” said Macy.

The project will break ground early next year and be completed by the end of 2012. SBCAST, a privately funded, non-profit organization, is the brainchild of Alan and Cindy Macy of Macy Cornerstone, a non-profit developer that specializes in supporting the arts. The center will also include educational and outreach programs and have a close relationship with the University of California Santa Barbara, City College, and local high schools.