In order to meet the demands of a growing student population, Santa Monica College purchased an existing office property adjacent to the Santa Monica Airport to develop as a satellite campus. A consultant team led by tBP Architects was selected to “re-vision” the site as a campus to serve the needs of a higher education environment.

The initial phase included the complete renovation of an existing four-story building into classrooms, offices and common space including a cafeteria. The exterior open space has been developed as a series of outdoor rooms that complement the interior functions, while establishing design standards, which will aesthetically tie the Bundy Campus to the main campus. The West side of the building is an enclosed courtyard organized around an elliptical lawn, which provides gathering space and outdoor dining as an extension of the cafeteria. The openness of the building’s East side lends to a more public space, organized around a translucent stair tower, and designed to embrace future plans for a linear campus organization. A large open plaza will accommodate gatherings while open turf panels organized along a pedestrian walk allow for booths for annual career fairs. Vine covered green screen panels become focal points to the open spaces, forming metaphorical “outdoor classrooms” defined by a robust plant and material palette reminiscent of the canyons’ coastal location.

With much of the site occupied by large surface parking lots, the perimeter of the campus was redeveloped as a vegetated bioswale, planted extensively with ornamental grasses. The parking lots were regraded to drain to the perimeter, handling all surface run off through a linear cobble swale connecting and a series of over-sized French drains, which ensure re-percolation. While merely a satellite campus, the design principles and sustainable practices established here have had an immediate impact on current construction projects on the main campus.


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