“The philosophical approach to the Johnson Hall renovation is rooted in the creation of a bold interior volume dedicated to international connectivity. Carving out this two story space within the existing building creates a dramatic collegiate “Hall”, signaling the new Center for Global Affairs as a nexus or “hub” operating both within and beyond the confines of Occidental College.
A state of the art interactive media wall streams real time information, while facilitating conversations with students around the globe, providing a virtual nexus for dialogue and connectivity. Johnson Hall, as a new media and language lab, offers an opportunity to bridge student discourse internationally while magnetizing the student body to both participate in and become inspired by the world around them.” Belzberg Architects
Given the pervasive nature of technology and its contemporary applications in education, redesigning Johnson Hall necessarily entailed that the context of learning is no longer confined to physical space alone. To achieve a more immersive learning environment, the building’s original layout, based on cellular rooms and the division of circulation from program, was transformed into multilayered, overlapping spaces.
This paradigm shift conceives of the entire building as a total learning environment, rather than a collection of classrooms. Areas of movement and transition are enhanced and activated, democratizing the functionality of rigid, formal learning styles associated with the standard classroom and lecture hall, and developing latent potentials in the communal spaces that adjoin and connect them.
Classrooms were redesigned to be omnidirectional, flexible, and transparent, looking out to the central atrium of the Global Forum and into common areas and corridors to what is beyond, making visible the act of education itself, through spatial adjacency as well as material transparency and translucency. Technology-supported, collaborative learning is put on display via folding and sliding glass partitions that can make classrooms and surrounding common areas continuous.
The technological nexus of the entire building is in the lobby—an intervention that he describes as a “digital Post-it wall.” More properly called the Global Forum, it’s a gently folded plane in slumped glass, subtly textured and sandwiching a layer of vinyl printed with one of two graphic patterns. “Each glass panel fits in a particular place in the composition. It’s a jigsaw puzzle,” he explains. Kinetic aspects of the wall are twofold. To begin with, it incorporates 10 monitors—but not just any old TVs.
The monitors are what makes the wall, without a doubt, a magnum opus of technology. Members of the Occidental community post their content, presentations, and on-line conversations on the screens via a proprietary app named Global Crossroads. “It’s the college’s marketplace for ideas, a platform for topics of international importance,” he says. The app also makes the wall an interdisciplinary element accessible to the entire campus, not just those enrolled in the relevant curriculum.
Access even extends to the students studying abroad. World affairs, he adds, “should be all about the exchange of ideas.” The other kinetic aspect involves computer-controlled LEDs. White is their default setting. Once someone mounts a presentation, however, it’s announced by blues or purples or oranges sweeping across the wall. “As the tones move, they create a moment. It’s like the curtain going up on an old-time movie,” he continues.
Location: Los Angeles, USA
Architects: Belzberg Architects
Project Team: Dan Rentsch, Chris Sanford, Susan Nwankpa, Chris Arntzen, Corey Taylor, David Cheung, Kris Leese, Micah Belzberg, Brock Desmit, Barry Gartin, Ashley Coon
Lighting Consultant: Teal Brogden Schram
Media Consultant: Second Story
Historical Consultant: KCK Architects and Planners
Structural Engineer: Thornton Tomasetti
Mechanical Engineer: California Engineering Design Group
Electrical Engineer: Wyatt Design Group
Acoustical Engineer: Newson Brown Acoustics
Glasswork: Custom Glass Specialists
Woodwork: Spectrum Oak Products
General Contractor: W.E. O’Neil Construction
Project Manager: Schwanke Construction Management:.
Area: 40,000 sf
Year: 2014
Photographers: Benny Chan, Iwan Baan
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