Project Description
2017 Builder’s Choice & Custom Home Design Awards
Multifamily: Merit
The partially repurposed building that houses the Santa Barbara Center for Art, Science & Technology (SBCAST) embodies the same philosophy that guides the center’s activities. San Francisco-based firm Macy Architecture integrated architectural aspects of art, science, and technology into innovative live-work and exhibit spaces.
The complex includes nine studio apartments plus workshops, galleries, and other public spaces. Paying homage to the idea of a blank canvas, Macy’s architects selected an almost entirely white background for the interiors and most exteriors. White walls not only showcase visual art in the galleries, but also provide a clean, reflective light for resident and visiting artists to create their works. In addition, the center’s exteriors can be transformed into gallery walls with night performances featuring light shows and projections. For the streetscape façade of this highly walkable neighborhood, Macy chose a more subtle finish. Corten steel panels will continue to rust and oxidize over time, allowing the pedestrian entry to blend into the tree-lined sidewalk.
The architectural team emphasized high-performance features and sustainability in the project’s design. The former brownfield site contained an existing industrial building, which they repurposed. The old warehouse interlocks with new components—all built using advanced framing techniques to reduce construction waste. Hydronic heating, photovoltaic panels, and a solar thermal energy system work together to generate an estimated half of the center’s power needs. Given California’s fraught relationship with water, the highest priority involved conserving and reusing this essential resource. Rainwater cisterns hold up to 1,500 gallons of water for future irrigation needs using a high-tech drip system that automatically sets the watering schedule based on current weather and ambient evapotranspiration rates, ensuring every last drop of rainwater to fall on the site will stay there. — S.D.H.
“It’s complex, ambitious, and successful. I love how rich the interstitial spaces are.” – Juror Christiana Moss
Click here for all of the 2017 Builder’s Choice/Custom Home Design Award winners.
FROM THE ARCHITECTS:
SBCAST, The Santa Barbara Center for Art, Science and Technology, is an experimental live-work community designed to provide a creative, collaborative environment for local residents as well as global leaders within their respective fields, while serving as a model for urban, shared resource, environmentally sensitive living. Located on a former brownfield site near downtown Santa Barbara, SBCAST was envisioned as a community resource with an educational outreach mandate to further public understanding and enjoyment of art, science and technology in an accessible and engaging setting. The project was designed as an urban playground for students and professionals with interdisciplinary projects to research, create and share. SBCAST provides a variety of communal spaces, state-of-the-art workshop facilities, exhibition galleries, and an affordable-by-design housing component for 7 permanent residents and 2 visiting collaborators. Faced with the challenge of satisfying city parking requirements while providing a large-scale collaborative work and event space, the project features a permeable courtyard able to accommodate up to 14 vehicles, while integrating the infrastructure to support the transformation to a 5000+ SF outdoor workspace and / or host hundreds of people for events. Similarly adaptable, the workshops have been equipped to transform from light manufacturing to exhibition spaces, with special attention given to ways in which to modulate public and private programs to co-exist dynamically at various scales. The workshops / galleries feature large, operable openings to the street and / or to the courtyard, allowing the entirety of the street level to become an outdoor host to public events. Furthermore, the perforated steel stairs and catwalks invite the public to explore the various renewable energy sources and rooftop gardens on the Second / Third Floors and Roof Level. Sustainability Objectives: With a focus on resource efficiency, SBCAST was designed according to sensible, sustainable design principles attuned to the local environment. Following an extensive remediation process of contaminated soils on site, the existing, industrial structure has been re-used, while the new buildings were constructed using advanced framing techniques to reduce lumber and waste. The entirety of the exposed ground level features pervious or permeable surfaces, while passive systems have been designed throughout. This includes a walkable “cool roof,” as well as a minimum triple aspect in all dwelling units for natural light and ventilation. Habitable surfaces have been maximized with special attention to environmentally friendly, low maintenance, durable materials. SBCAST generates electricity on site, distributes hot water and hydronic heating through a solar thermal system, and collects rainwater for its multi-level, native & drought tolerant landscape and community garden. In addition to the required city metering, sub-meters have been installed to monitor local energy usage to each workshop and dwelling unit to better inform users of their environmental footprint. The project’s “flat lands” location is within the City’s evolving “Arts Corridor” and has convenient access to many resources & necessities nearby without the need for a car. It has a walk score of 94 (Walker’s Paradise) and a bike score of 97 (Biker’s Paradise).
FROM THE AIASF:
SBCAST is a low-cost, privately-funded, not-for-profit, live/work development that supports artist, scientist, and technologist collaborative work. The Center has an educational and community outreach mandate to further public understanding and enjoyment of art, science and technology through their juxtaposition in a creative, accessible, and engaging setting.
Playful white box forms have been pushed and pulled into a cluster around a simple courtyard parking area that doubles as a community event space. Exterior stairs, balconies, roof decks, and bridges invite exploration, while forming an engaging composition with the thoughtfully irregular windows.