A transformative landscape approach completely reconfigures the social hub of the University of San Francisco Campus. The Science Center project, sited at the very focus of student life, demanded a new landscape typology that occupies center stage as it weaves through the primarily underground building. The design creates high-performing, multi-level outdoor-classrooms that treat, infiltrate, and collect stormwater, supports diverse native plant communities, and reestablishes the social heart of the campus for students, faculty, staff, and visitors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breaking from a century-old tradition of landscape being subservient to surrounding buildings, this radically integrated design solution placed over two-thirds of the new building below ground, comprehensively redefining the existing plaza as a multi-level landscape connecting interior and exterior space and program. Limited land and topography demanded an unprecedented level of integrated project design and delivery that created a building and landscape typology that fully engages the topography, making it difficult to distinguish landscape from architecture. By establishing multiple circulations, accesses, and overlooks between interior and exterior, the design creates an experience of moving seamlessly between various expressions of “ground” on three separate levels at this nexus of the campus.

 

• CAMPUS/CULTURAL
• Landscape