California College of the Arts is expanding its campus in San Francisco

California College of the Arts is expanding its campus in San Francisco. 

The campus expansion, titled Double Ground, will feature specialized and flexible studio, lab, classroom, critique, fabrication, exhibition, and gathering spaces, the university says in a news release. 

The college said it has secured more than $118 million and its Maker/Meets/Future Campaign, a $123 million fundraising effort, will go toward construction of the expanded campus. 

The expansion is named Double Ground because it will have, essentially, two ground levels. The “lower ground,” at street level, will house workshops and studios requiring heavy equipment: facilities for ceramics, metal, sculpture, and furniture, among others.

Many of these ground-floor spaces open into shared maker yards, flexible outdoor courtyards that serve as extensions of the surrounding workshops. Ample windows reveal what’s happening inside the adjoining studios, while maximizing the natural light inside.

The “upper ground,” will be a second main level featuring an outdoor plaza and a park-like garden with views down into the maker yards.

The new campus will have two residence halls with housing for 700 students, as well as a 90,000-square-foot expansion of the main instructional facility.

Around the campus perimeter, pavilions will house classrooms, labs, and studios accessed via deep, external walkways that extend the buildings’ classroom and art-making spaces outdoors. 

A renewable energy platform for the campus is envisioned as a model of green construction and operations. The model will provide optimal energy efficiency and has a goal of net-positive operations, including a microgrid into the campus to harvest and store clean energy.

The architect is Studio Gang.