At 102,000 sf, this LEED Gold building for the City College of San Francisco creates a home for three programs: Teacher Education, Child Development, and Community Health. It includes classrooms, administrative offices, laboratories, meeting rooms, study spaces, a childcare/family center, activity room, computer lab, and café.

 

Rather than the traditional double-loaded corridor model, a full length, three-story

atrium is inserted, creating a dynamic offsetting of circulation balconies and bridges. The atrium provides social spaces, brings daylight to the interior, and functions as the lungs of the building. Fresh air is drawn in from exterior louvers through the classrooms, into the atrium, and exhausted out the skylights, creating a primarily wind-driven natural ventilation system.

 

From the programming phase through completion of construction documents, Cynthia Bell held the role of designer and manager of the interior architecture.