Founded on the principles of the Arts and Crafts movement, California College of the Arts (CCA) has trained creative minds from around the world for over a century. Known for its holistic, hands-on approach, the institution fosters interdisciplinary dialogue across art, design, social practice, sustainability, and community engagement.

Today, CCA’s facilities—once split between San Francisco and Oakland—are unified within its San Francisco campus, forming a cohesive environment for art, design, and creative practice. Here, the landscape becomes a canvas for exploring the integration of reclaimed materials, native California ecology, and art.

Once known for its prolific arts scene, San Francisco has evolved into a more tech-oriented ecosystem—sparking a vision to honor CCA’s 120-year legacy through the landscape and celebrate the freewheeling creativity that animated its Oakland campus.

With the extension of the main academic building, the landscape redefines how the campus engages its surroundings, extending learning beyond classroom walls and reinforcing the outdoors as integral to the academic experience. New outdoor courtyards, framed by a layered “double ground” of maker facilities and landscapes, support cross-disciplinary learning, anchored by a monumental wood amphitheater linking the two floors.

Across disciplines, students engage with the landscape as both a working environment and a canvas for creative experimentation. A 1,400 SF dye garden—requested by CCA—reflects the institution’s expansive approach to learning, encouraging creative thinking beyond the classroom and offering students opportunities to explore their practice through the evolving relationship between landscape, art, and ecology.

Plazas, gardens, and outdoor learning areas crown the roof of the “double ground” podium and reveal maker yards below. Textile students use the dye garden to grow natural pigments, test color in natural light, and display garments outdoors, while sculpture and furniture students install site-specific works throughout the campus, transforming the landscape into a living exhibition space.

Sustainability and ecological design guide the landscape and planting palette, exhibiting CCA’s connection to nature within an urban context. Over 100 trees—including 13 Coastal Live Oaks—anchor the campus, joined by native plantings such as Manzanita, Yarrow, Bush Monkey Flower, and Coffeeberry that support pollinators.

In a region with rainy winters and dry summers, permeable concrete pavers and cast-in-place concrete mitigate stormwater and runoff.

Daylight and natural ventilation animate plazas, courtyards, and buildings during darker months, while evergreen and deciduous shade trees provide refuge in warmer months, reducing energy use. Renewable and reclaimed materials reinforce the campus’s sustainable ethos, including reclaimed timber benches and weathering steel planters for the dye garden that add structure and texture. Together, these elements cultivate an atmosphere of experimentation and community that encourages inquiry.

Since completion, the landscape reflects a contextual yet forward-thinking approach that celebrates CCA’s deep ties to the Bay Area arts community while offering a flexible framework for future generations.

In light of CCA’s recent closure and the campus’s transition to new users, the landscape outlives its original purpose—continuing to embody the institution’s creative legacy as a place for learning, connection, and imagination.

Credits –
Client: California College of the Arts
Photographer: Marion Brenner, Jason O’Rear
Architect: Studio Gang
Associate Architect: TEF Design
Structural Engineering, Acoustics: Arup
MEP/FP Engineer: MEYERS+
Civil Engineer: Lotus Water
Sustainability Consultant: Atelier Ten
Code, Fire, and Life Safety: Coffman Engineers
Thermal and Waterproofing: Thornton Tomasetti
Lighting: Pritchard Peck
Dry Utility Consultant: Urban Design Consulting Engineers
Wayfinding and Signage: Public Design
General Contractor: Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company
Landscape Contractor: Shooter and Butts, Inc.

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