Coastline College Newport Beach Campus

Innovative campus serves as sustainability model for local college district

The Newport Beach Campus for Coastline College is state-of-the-art, distance-learning college designed for a new generation of tech-savvy, eco-conscious students. The LEED Gold project serves as a model of sustainability for the district and includes a holistic natural ventilation system, maximized daylight, green roofs, living walls, stormwater management and drought-tolerant planting.

The project consolidated an existing 10.5-acre campus onto a new 3.9-acre site by going vertical. The 66,800-square-foot concrete structure steps from a one-story façade on the west to a three-story building on the east. Developed as an outdoor terrace, the roof of the one-story section serves as a student quad that overlooks an adjacent natural preserve with views to the ocean. Green roof planter walls double as seating, with plenty of pocket areas for students to study or socialize.

A central three-story atrium runs the length of the bar-shaped building, serving as both the main circulation spine and the heart of campus. Facing onto the roof terrace, a two-story curtain wall adds daylights to atrium and features operable windows that naturally ventilate the space. By taking advantage of ocean breezes, as well as the structure’s thermally stable concrete mass, the building uses exclusively outdoor air for cooling. High-efficiency fans help circulate air throughout the building.

At the east, the three-story-high structure is carved out at the base, leaving two stories that float over a portion of the 260-stall surface parking lot. East-facing windows are protected from the sun by a large, offset plane of rust-colored metal mesh. The semitransparent sunscreen filters sunlight to the interior and creates a dramatic aesthetic against the cast-in-place exterior walls.

The campus includes a community art gallery and promotes a comfortable, productive learning environment that encourages socialization, engagement and environmental awareness. In addition to achieving LEED Gold and surpassing Title 24 standards by 33 percent, the project was recognized for outstanding design by the AIA.