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Michael Maltzan's masterplan for Pasadena’s ArtCenter approved

Time to Grow Up

Michael Maltzan's masterplan for Pasadena’s ArtCenter approved

A new 15-year master plan designed by Michael Maltzan Architecture (MMA) for Pasadena ArtCenter College of Design was unanimously approved by the Pasadena City Council on July 16. 

The plan calls for the large-scale transformation for the school by expanding southward ArtCenter’s Craig Ellwood-designed Hilltop Campus. Among other aspects, the new plan calls for up to 1,500 new student beds, a series of new elevated terraces and quads, and a handful of new residential and academic buildings across the school’s new South Campus. The existing Hilltop campus will receive cosmetic and functional upgrades, including a new solar array, Urbanize.la reports 

Tina Chee Landscape Studio will be designing the site’s landscape strategies. (Courtesy Michael Maltzan Architecture/Tina Chee Landscape Studio)

Tina Chee Landscape Studio is slated to work as the landscape architect on the project while ARUP and Sherwood Design Engineers will handle energy and water infrastructure optimization, respectively.

MMA’s multi-phase plan will first connect a pair of existing South Campus buildings and two new housing towers with a new sloped terrace that spans over a stretch of train tracks cutting through the site. Phase one of the expansion will add 350- and 500- unit student housing towers as well as a new landscaped quad, and is expected to be completed by 2020.

The campus addition will be connected by a new student center capped with an elevated pedestrian terrace. (Courtesy Michael Maltzan Architecture)

The project’s second phase will kick off that year and will involve a great deal more effort and construction. 

The addition will add a second, much more expansive elevated terrace southward from the northern cluster of buildings impacted by phase one. The elevated terrace is depicted in project renderings containing interconnected pedestrian areas with large planters, public art, and assembly spaces filling out the spaces between the new buildings. A new multi-level student center will be located below the elevated terrace. 

With the new multi-level complex, the architects hope to bring a form of “layered urbanism” to the site that will embed a variety of social, commercial, and cultural uses across the campus. Pedestrian improvements—including a bicycle path running the length of the site—will accompany the campus expansion. 

Phase two is expected to be complete by 2027.

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