En[act]: the Book (Jasmine's Version)

Performance at California Western Law School

Studio Jaz | Caswell Espinoza and Jasmine Lin | Spring

Acknowledgements

Chloe Chou

Stacey White Studio Financial

Aidan Shelloe

Studio White (Winter/Spring 2022)

Taylor Design

Simon Thomas, Teresa Endres, Marcus Simons, Rachel Hole

Reviewers

Ryan Yaden, Sam Rusek, Allison Peitz, Adam Martin, Adie Hailat

Ailis Murray, Edwinson Chan, Umut Toker, Brent Freeby, Carmen Trudell, Ansgar Killing

INTRODUCTION

EN[ACT] is a performing arts center located in Logan Heights, San Diego and is part of our proposed campus master plan of Cal Western School of Law. The new campus development plans on serving 1,000 graduate law students. The campus proposal is composed of a combination of mixed-use academic and residential buildings. Our project serves to make theater more widely available, especially to those that may not be aware of theater or have less opportunities to experience it. This book illustrates our approach to developing a performing arts center that brings together the Barrio Logan community and law students within a larger university campus.

Executive Summary

The California Western School of Law (CWSL) is currently located in downtown San Diego, California, however they plan to relocate within the San Diego area as the current buildings and locations are undesirable due to lack of space, noise, lack of cohesive campus. In aligning with their goals to provide a campus more connected with the community as well as a rigorous curriculum that encourages empathy, Barrio Logan was chosen as the location for the new campus. The new campus is located just north of the US-Mexico border and was chosen to create a more connected interface between the students and the clients they are serving, most of which are falsely incarcerated and asylum-seeking. Since the law students will be providing pro-bono services for the local community, this requires a safe, comfortable, and approachable campus. To foster this environment, our project is designed to serve as a public performing arts center that encourages the greater community to visit the campus through theatre programming and serve as a transition between the campus and Barrio Logan.

The book starts with a description of the problem, moves into analysis of the chosen site, reviews the proposed master plan, and finally describes the final project within the campus. The next chapter expands on the background of Cal Western Law School, its goals, and the scope of work. CWSL is a non-profit law school that plans to represent the state’s diverse society and serve 1,000 students. As previously mentioned, part of the curriculum requires students to provide pro-bono services for the falsely incarcerated and asylum-seeking people of San Diego through their law clinics. The chapter also explains the causes and statistics of mass migration (resulting in asylum-seeking statuses) as: crime and violence, environmental degradation, elite indifference, poverty and poor economic opportunity. The research data has shown that natural disasters, homicide rates, high poverty rates, and elite indifference have resulted in migration from Latin America to the United States. As a result, the goal is to make the campus welcoming for clients in need of pro bono legal services. The chapter finishes with a summary of different sites in the San Diego area that could meet the needs of the law school, the students, and their clients. These areas are Chula Vista, Mission Valley, Barrio Logan, and Downtown San Diego.

Barrio Logan was selected as the final site for the campus due to its proximity to the primary community that may require services. As a result, Chapter 3 focuses on site analysis and research. It contains information on community context, demographics, and environmental conditions on and around the site in Barrio Logan. Initially, the Barrio Logan community grew due to the creation of a major commercial seaport and railroads which provided a housing boom in the area. The spirit of the community today is due to the early twentieth-century migration of the Mexican families. Barrio Logan has become a vibrant and artistic neighborhood, with a variety of colorful murals located throughout the area. In terms of climate, San Diego’s climate is very pleasant with most of the hours in the year falling into the human comfort zone. As a result, some key passive design strategies are sun shading, internal heat gain, and solar direct gain for heating and cooling in the climate. In conclusion, Chapter 3 supplies site understanding that was fundamental to the development of the campus master plan.

Chapter 4 focuses on the goals during campus planning and also illustrates the ideals of a campus plan: appropriate human scale, logical wayfinding, transitional zones, biophilic design, and environmental design. Based on these goals, the campus master plan features central nodes and buffer zones to create a sense of community and safety on campus. Further, the plan will include local fruit trees and native plants to enhance the air quality, well-being of the students and their clients, and food insecurity. The streets lining the campus also feature transitional areas to encourage interactions between the students and the surrounding Barrio Logan. This is accomplished by following the street planning outlined in the Barrio Logan Community Plan. Overall, this chapter focuses on goals for ideal campus to community building, safety, and well-being.

Chapter 5 focuses on the individual building aspect of the project. In pairs of two, groups designed a building that offers services in support of the campus and greater community. En[act] is situated near the northwest corner of the master plan to take advantage of the steady flow of public pedestrians from the nearby transit center as well as Barrio Logan. The main program of En[act] is to be a performing arts center and features a proscenium theater, lecture hall, offices, dining, bar, multiple lobby spaces, study rooms, rehearsal rooms, and private practice rooms. This chapter details the project’s purpose, program distribution, design intentions, and formal influences. The chapter ends with visuals of the project, including site context, floor plans, site sections, interior and exterior renders, and diagrams explaining various features of the building. The rest of the book includes an individual reflection on the project, as well as an appendix of all process work leading up to final development.

Design Process and Project Phases

The design process began with collective research of the client and site, followed by individual design exploration before being finalized in student pairs. Initial research was guided heavily by the underserved populations that would occupy the project with a particular emphasis on immigrant demographics. These demographics were studied in the context of economics, criminal activity, climate desirability, climate hostility, and more to understand why people immigrate into the United States and to better understand the people using the project. Research was also invested in the qualities of a good law school and college campus. This research was bolstered by the physical site visits to San Diego. On these visits, San Diego, specifically downtown and Barrio Logan, was experienced firsthand. This includes but is not limited to engagement with locals, site documentation, and personal observation. The data collected and firsthand experience was taken by the collective to create “How Might We...” design statements to guide the design process of Cal Western’s Campus. Over the course of double quarter, each project was developed in three design stages: Conceptual Design, Schematic Design, and Design Development. Conceptual Design was defined by the individual’s exploration of different programs within a law school. This is known as a “moonshot” that played with what truly makes a law school and investigated what issues might be prominent and need resolving such as mental health or language barriers. As the “moonshot” developed, building massings were generated to start to see what building forms could potentially capitalize on passive design strategies. Alongside the development of the “moonshot,” the master plan for the campus itself was iterated in small groups, trying to capture the qualities of an ideal campus. Simple extrusions and street organization shaped the beginning of Cal Western’s reimagined campus. From there, it was beneficial to explore how one massing might fit into the campus context, and where it might be. EN[ACT] began with initial massings that sought to acknowledge the sun and wind of San Diego as well as “moonshots” that explored language barriers through performance and made hard skills more accessible through program like a vocational school. These two concepts were taken and refined through review from peers, mentors, and faculty. These concepts were elaborated upon in the second phase of design.

Schematic Design puts the concept into practice. EN[ACT] was explored in two iterations, one focusing on a performance venue and the other focusing on the vocational work. It was developed primarily through section, with a desire to welcome immigrants and foster community between them and the law students who serve them. During this phase the two ideas developed on their own before coming

together to become a single project. The vocational schools became service spaces for the theater and the project as a whole functions as a home for the arts on campus while also making theatre more accessible to the immediate community. The performance space manifested in a proscenium theater that is sculptural and raised to the second floor while vocational studios stay on the ground floor, constructing set pieces, costumes, and lighting design. As the schematic design developed, it became more detail oriented. Façade, floor, and wall assemblies became important aspects of the design with special attention to acoustics and electric lighting.

The final design phase was the final push to a completed project. Design development brought forth final design challenges that required resolution such as the structural grid and building face. The building’s relationship to its campus context was properly evaluated, creating set backs in the building face in acknowledgement of neighboring Studio KaLe and the campus quad. Design development also integrated the building’s systems such as the air based displacement ventilation system, acoustical cloud, and two unique structural systems. The project utilizes these systems to enhance the performance of the theater while also serving the occupants with outdoor terrace spaces and private program on the upper floors. Efforts at the end of this phase were focused on the construction of a final physical section model and completion of the project’s representation.

CHAPTER 2

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION

LEGAL EDUCATION AND THE CAL WESTERN SCHOOL OF LAW

California Western School of Law (CSWSL)

California Western School of Law is currently located in downtown San Diego and is the City’s oldest law school. It was founded in 1924. They currently occupy three buildings on Cedar Street on the northern end of downtown near the I5 freeway. They have approximately 670 law students with planned expansion to up to 1,000. They are an independent, not for profit, that offer four degree pathways. The school is committed to providing a rigorous legal education to a diverse student body with an emphasis on experiential learning through simulations and community clinics that serve underserved clients in the areas of criminal, immigration, trademark, legal aid, and internet law.

In their new location, the California Western School of Law are hoping to reflect their school motto through the campus experience. Rethinking the physical presence of the overall campus location can act as a catalyst in better serving the immigrants justice, protection, and upliftment to aim towards a brighter future. The approach to better serving the at-risk communities requires interventions integrating legal education practices and a sense of empathy towards human migration and civil rights. The Cal Western School of Law is playing a crucial role in serving the evolving communities of San Diego and providing high quality education to shape future lawyers.

Aiming to represent the state’s diverse society, California Western Law School is training ethical, compassionate, and competent future lawyers and hopes to aid the underserved populations. With 41% of the 2021 student being ethnic minorities and 59% women, Cal Western attracts a diverse population that aims to better the world around them. Cal Western offers scholarships and grants to students ranging in socioeconomic status opening the doors to lower income applicants. To create a college community unified with its local community, the site is in Barrio Logan, San Diego, a neighborhood who is currently facing challenges that students could offer legal advice for. Cal Western prepares its students to focus on immigration law and criminal justice by placing them in clinics located near the school to obtain practical work experience while working towards their degrees. Locating the campus in a community of those who lack legal aid gives students a greater opportunity for creating change. Cal Western offers its students many class courses, clinical programs and community law interventions which encourages students to give back to the community in which they are located.

Legal Education

The educational requirements to practice law in the State of California consists of several processes and requirements with varying academic standards to be met. While the California Bar Examination is the ultimate milestone to obtaining licensure to be an attorney, the traditional educational requirement entails obtaining a JD (Juris Doctor) degree from law schools registered by the State Bar (California-accredited) or approved by the American Bar Association (ABA). The JD takes three years to complete which follows the

pre-legal education of College Level Equivalency Programs Examinations or at least two years of college in any given major. The most typical undergraduate majors choosing this path in California obtain a four-year bachelor’s degree in English, Business, or Political Science. This does not limit other majors to take up the JD program as an academic path to achieving licensure as an attorney. The state bar of California summarizes the following legal education options for eligibility to obtaining licensure

- Three or four years of study at a law school accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA)

- Four years of study at a State Bar-registered, fixed-facility law school

- Four years of study with a minimum of 864 hours of preparation at a registered unaccredited distance-learning or correspondence law school

- Four years of study under the supervision of a state judge or attorney

- A combination of these programs

The academic process requires a guided approach with mentorship; from graduate school all the way to becoming a practicing attorney. CWSL offers a variety of courses to cover ground on theoretical knowledge and practical application. Some of the traditional courses are offered based on the year’s curriculum. These are split into three years

First Year Curriculum

- Foundational year with special emphasis on legal analysis, research, and writing to explore opportunities. The academic year is split into trimesters, some of the courses include

 Civil Procedure

 Contracts

 Legal procedures

 Torts

Second and Third Year Curriculum

- The upperclassman curriculum includes two important milestones which are the STEPPS program and the Clinical Externship Program. STEPPS includes a client-attorney simulation set up to practice law earlier in the educational years. Some other courses include

 Constitutional Law I

 Criminal Procedure I

 Evidence

 Legal Scholarship Training Seminar

 STEPPS

 Torts II

CSWL also focuses on clinics and assistance programs to provide opportunities for externships, and simulation-based learning. The pro-bono programs excel in bridging the gap between the academic world and real time problems. Trial law is another essential part of the program to practice communication and real time delivery of arguments. Some of the Clinical Programs include

- Access to Law Initiative

- Competitive Advocacy Program

- California Innocence Project

- Pro Bono and Public Service Honors Program

The ethos of legal practice can be found in academic initiatives that are taken up by the law school to shape lawyers that are rigorous workers, empathetic citizens, through the experience of obtaining a law degree at Cal Western School of Law. Experiential Learning programs such as law clinics, paralegal services, advocacy programs, community law projects etc. Aid in enhancing the legal education aspects that mostly pertain to minimum formal education requirements.

Mass Migration and Underlying Causes

One of the primary areas that students dedicate time to on this campus are the experiential learning clinics that deal with issues of social justice and give the students an opportunity to interact with real clients. Given the schools focus on immigration related issues, the following research was completed to gain an understanding of the San Diego community and those clients the students would ultimately be working with. Research focused on five primary immigration related issues: crime and violence, environmental degradation, poverty and economic opportunity and immunity and elite indifference. Each gave us a basic understanding of why large populations are moving into the US and what needs to be done to create a desirable, welcoming environment.

Crime and Violence

- Comparisons between crime, specifically homicide rate, and rate of asylum seekers (per 100,000) in the countries listed

- While not definitive, in general countries with higher homicide rates also see more asylum seekers moving to the US Environmental Degradation

- Attention to the mass effects of natural disasters on populations, and the # of people displaced by environmental disasters; categorized by the worst natural disaster in the country

- Natural disasters have played a significant role in the displacement of large populations

- There is evidence that many of the countries with the most asylum seekers in the US have also experienced high population displacement from natural disasters

Poverty and Economic Opportunity

- Poverty rates have been shown to be exceedingly high among the countries studied. Some correlation between Poverty/the lack of economic opportunity among countries and asylum seekers can be seen with some countries but not all.

- Poverty rates are even among the countries studied, but countries with the highest rates of asylum seekers also tend to have higher poverty rates.

Impunity and Elite Indifference

Higher Education

- We studied the rates of infant mortality to see if that too was an underlying cause

- There is a slight trend between infant mortality rate and # of asylum seekers, however some countries with few asylum seekers still see extremely high infant mortality rates.

Comprehensive Findings

- The identified causes do a decent job of describing some of the reasons people are seeking asylum in the US, however there is one outlier that sticks out in multiple databases. Brazil features similar numbers to the countries with the most asylum seekers but sends very few people to the US. With a GDP ($1,434.08 Billion) nearly 33% higher than the next closest country in Central and South America, (Mexico, $1,076.16 Billion), Brazil remains appealing to people despite the ongoing issues.

Every place of higher education has multiple physical and environmental characteristics which make it successful. Finding those common trends in campuses across the country was the first step towards designing a new campus for Cal Western School of Law. We looked at schools that served anywhere from 800 to 20,000 students with a wide variety of disciplines and consolidated our findings to create a strong starting framework to begin master planning. We were able to narrow down the characteristics of an ideal campus to the following:

Community and Safety Organization Accessibility and Transportation

 Integrate the campus with the surrounding community through open design and community-based activities that interact with the general population.

 Provide transparency at the ground floors to maintain “eyes” on the street.

 By creating access to emergency response stations that alert authorities of criminal activity along the campus circulation routes to provide security.

 Supply adequate even lighting throughout campus, including those to academic functions and campus housing.

 Increase building density (while maintaining a human scale to provide spaces for students as well as the community.

 Provide clear and consistent indicators of where important programs are located and how to access them

 Provide clear pedestrian circulation routes using a consistent visual language and scale to provide a connection between all spaces

 Provide universal access to make areas easy to traverse for people of all physical types

 Easy access for walkways to create a safe space away from traffic or clear spatial integration of pedestrian walkways within traffic routes.

 Integrate bike routes throughout campus that tie into the community bike circulation system

Resources

 Campus should include spaces for informal learning such as spaces to study or for student support services in a single location.

 Provide spaces that can be shared / accessed by the broader community. should act as multipurpose spaces for students and community members to both enjoy and be able to use as recreational spaces as well.

 Resources for education should include financial aid, career advisors, access to studying with professionals, and disability resources.

 Resources should provide functions that help support student success even in the non-academic side, for example such as a childcare center.

Site Selection

- The studio researched four potential sites: Chula Vista, Mission Valley, Downtown San Diego, and Logan Heights. Each site was researched in terms of their relevant community boundaries, natural resources, social attributes, people, built environment, and heritage, in order to determine which location seemed most fitting for a future campus community. This information was aggregated into a single exhibit and presented to the studio partners with voting taking place to determine which location would best serve the institutional needs. Some of the assets and disadvantages of each location are as follows:

Chula Vista

 Chula Vista was an attractive location because of its proximity to the US-Mexico border, making this location convenient for immigrants served by the Latin American Institute of Law and Justice. However, it was ultimately not selected because of its lack of public transportation, which isolated it from other law resources in downtown San Diego.

Mission Valley

 The Mission Valley proposal incorporated the law school campus into SDSU’s Mission Valley campus expansion. Some advantages to this proposal included that it was well connected to downtown San Diego by public transportation and that it would have access to SDSU student culture. However, it was not selected because it was the furthest away from the US-Mexico border, potentially making it inconvenient for law clients living in Mexico, and because it lacked the existing infrastructure and vibrancy of an existing more downtown site.

Downtown San Diego

 Downtown San Diego: Downtown San Diego was attractive because it is the current location of the Law School, and students would have access to its social scene, law firms and the San Diego County Superior Court. However, it was narrowly decided against as the density of the buildings required was not considered viable for all uses.

Logan Heights

 Ultimately, Logan Heights was selected. This is a predominantly Hispanic community, which could make the campus more convenient and approachable to Hispanic individuals served by the Latin American Institute of Law and Justice. Additionally, it is the closest location to downtown San Diego and has access to public transportation. Moving forwards, our studio deemed this area’s relatively high crime rate and large unhoused population as matters that required careful attention.

Demographic Distribution

SITE

Contextual Understanding

Population

 The total population of Logan Heights, also known as Barrio Logan, is 58,408, with around a 5% population increase annually. The community makes up about 4% of San Diego’s total population of 1.4 million people.

Community Context

 The initial neighborhood of Barrio Logan grew due to the development of a US Naval Base in 1898 in San Diego. Later, the creation of a major commercial seaport and the railroads also provided a housing boom in the area. This brought many diverse groups to the area, including African Americans, Japanese Americans, Filipino Americans, and Italian Americans. However, the spirit of the community today, known as the “Logan Heights Experience” (aka The Heights, Logan, La Logan, Barrio Logan, etc.) is due to the migration of the Mexican families which began around 1900. They came from all parts of Mexico, including Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango, Michoacan, Zacatecas, etc. The population growth of Mexican families would continue up to the 1950s. In 1956, the placement of Interstate 5, the Coronado Bridge, and deliberate changes in zoning patterns (from primarily residential to mixed-use industrial) devastated Logan Heights by removing economic viability and decreasing property values. In both aspects, Logan Heights residents felt uninformed and unable to voice objections or opinions on the expansion of San Diego, and to this day, families still feel a deep sense of loss. However, in the late 1960s, the residents of Logan Heights came together to oppose the construction of a sub-station under the San-Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge by the California Highway Patrol. Through incredible will and commitment, the land was turned over to the community and later became Chicano Park. The community’s tenacity, spirit, and determination to preserve Barrio Logan as a vibrant, culturally rich, and united community continues on and can be seen today in their Barrio Logan Community Plan.

 San Diego has a distinctive cultural identity from Hispanic populations from over sixty years. Historically, the area became prominent from industrial jobs, and there was a significant increase in San Diego’s Mexican population due to the 1910 Mexican Revolution. Alongside the prevalent Hispanic and Latino population, 42% of San Diego’s residents are white, 16% are Asian residents, and Black or African American residents make up 5% of the population. The median age is around 26.8 years. Overall, the culturally vibrant community consists mostly of local families that need a catalyst to revitalize the sense of physical connection that drives socio-economic and employment growth.

Poverty

 In Logan Heights, the annual median income varies with an average income of $52,944. The total median income lies below the average at $40,310, primarily belonging to demographics under 25 and over 65. The total working population of Logan Heights consists of 51,093 people, 73.9% of which are above the poverty level with an additional 22.9% below the poverty level. The average Barrio Logan household lives on an annual income 45% less than the rest of San Diego.

Air Quality

 San Diego is currently ranked as having the seventh worst ozone pollution in the country. With a median AQI, or Air Quality Index, of 64, this city reports only 73 days of good air quality throughout the year while the remaining 292 days record air quality that is moderate or unhealthy for sensitive groups.

Insolation

 Average annual solar radiation value of 6.13 kilowatt hours per square meter per day (kWh/m2/day)

Water Availability

 The availability of water in Logan Heights is limited due to its lack of precipitation and large population. Annually, it receives approximately 12 inches of rain per year, mostly seeing clear and sunny days. Logan Heights also experiences an average humidity of 69% per year with the most humid month being July and the driest being January. Given its context in southern California, Logan Heights and the rest of San Diego

rely on imported water from northern California or the Colorado River through the 242-mile-long Colorado River Aqueduct. Still, Logan Heights and San Diego produce 10% of their own drinking water through the desalination of ocean water.

Climate Desirability

 Barrio Logan’s climate is one of the most desirable in the United States. Its location on the waterfront ensures comfortable temperatures, breezes, and humidity throughout the year. Average temperatures fall between 50° F and 77° F, most of which are approaching the California Energy Code Comfort model which calls for indoor dry bulb conditions around 68°F (20°C) to 75°F (23.9°C).

Land Use

 Barrio Logan is organized in a manner that prioritizes its residential and commercial communities. In the Barrio Logan Community Plan, the commercial and residential zones are the heart of the community and are framed by major streets and key sight lines. The development of these zones is driven by multi-family development, but are restricted by the large, industrialized zones. Near the waterfront, land is reserved for heavy industrial and military development, primarily the San Diego Naval Base. The industrial and military development of the land has forced awkward circumstances on the existing community as some residents find themselves living next door to a boat building yard. This shows a relative disregard for the existing community present before the industrial development. Additionally, the proximity of the Naval Base has sparked development that further imposes on the Barrio Logan Community such as a need for naval lodging. Barrio Logan has been forced to adapt and integrate these waterfront industrial conditions.

Land Use

Resource Availability - Resource Availability

 Logan Heights benefits from coastal air and its proximity to the Pacific Ocean. The coastal winds can easily be utilized in passive design strategies for individual buildings as well as energy generation for the city as a whole. Offshore wind and hydroelectric farms have enormous potential in powering the city but have received push back from the city power suppliers like San Diego Gas & Electric Company. Gas and electricity are provided by the San Diego Gas & Electric Company. SDG&E has substantial investment in the Barrio Logan community. One of the utility’s major power stations in the San Diego region is in Barrio Logan. This station is identified as the Silvergate substation, located west of Harbor Drive at Sampson Street.

- The site is located adjacent to the I-5 and the Coronado Bridge, making it a hub for vehicle transportation. Through the site, there are two modes of public transportation that circulate. Trolleys and buses run alongside bicyclist lanes. There are anticipated road improvements to enhance mobility and connectivity in the community such as the Draft Mobility Element that is meant to make walking, biking, and public transit more attractive in the city, including Barrio Logan. The Draft Mobility Element will work alongside the developing land use of the community to create a more vibrant and accessible neighborhood through the growth of the community’s interconnections.

Ecosystem Understanding

· The site is effectively flat and continues this way to the bay to the west and south, elevation increases well beyond the site boundary to the north and east. Balboa Park is built on top of a hill while it spreads out into the many canyons that stretch from it.

 Soil is primarily composed marine and nonmarine, poorly consolidated, fine- and-medium-grained, pale brown sandstone = weak soil conditions

 Close proximity to Rose Canyon fault= earthquake and liquefaction prone area but occupiable

· San Diego has a diurnal swing of about 35 degrees Fahrenheit with a mean temperature of about 65-70 degrees. This puts San Diego in the comfort zone for a major portion of the year: June to November.

· Design Strategies that are effective in the climate are internal heat gain and solar direct gain. Sun shading is important as well for higher sun angles.

 Intense urbanization means no native plants are present and little landscaping

 Coastal proximity means future plans to preserve vegetation in waters (algae and marine grasses) to preserve small sea creatures in the area

 Despite the lack of rainwater, the coastal climate can support many types of succulents, such as the artichoke agave or the Mexican fence post cactus.

 Various wildflowers can also strive here such as the Arroyo Lupine, the Goodding’s Verbena, the Bush Anemone, as well as Texas Sundrops.

 Several types of trees can successfully live in this climate such as the Chaste Tree and Pheonix Mesquite.

 In the right conditions, San Diego can be quite lush as we can see in Fern Canyon in the San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park.

· San Diego’s wind direction, strength, and temperature are influenced by the nearby Pacific Ocean and primarily comes from the northwest.

· Birdlife is the most prominent, almost non-existent wildlife beyond this

· Nearest wildlife is 3.5 miles away in a canyon: coyotes, deer, and other mammals

· Six miles south of the community is a habitat for rare/endangered birds

· 430 bird species in the area, half are seasonal (in San Diego County)

· Infrastructure and dumping waste have contributed to decreased biodiversity especially in north and central bay of San Diego (location of Barrio Logan is central bay)

o Oil spills, ship waste, etc.

· Ocean life includes dolphins, otters, and sea lions, as well as fish and crustaceans but much less diverse

CAMPUS MASTER PLAN

How Might We Goals

 How might we reflect global context within local design?

 Globally, how might we respond to humanitarian issues such as immigration and mass incarceration through quantitative research and qualitative application?

 Locally, how might we design as “apart” of the community rather than “a part” from it, both visually and spatially? Additionally, how might we create a strong campus environment and identity while still welcoming those in need?

Campus Planning Best Practices

Upon analysis and review of other universities, it was concluded that important qualities that exist for a campus plan to be successful must be reflected. Our project seeks to prioritize the experiences of the Law students and Latin American immigrants who will predominantly be utilizing these campus spaces. On the other hand, we also wish to create a transitional experience from the public to private through landscaping features that introduces biophilic design. Furthermore, the qualities and characteristics of a campus plan that are of greatest interest to our project include: (1) responding to environmental and cultural context, (2) implementing transitional spaces, (3) introducing biophilic design, and (4) continuity of design that encourages sense of community.

- The best practices we have outlined for our site and project include:

Biophilic Design

- Implementation of vegetation – including deciduous trees and shrubs with an emphasis on those that provide food

- Landscape design that seeks to engage communities

- Landscape and vegetation that encourages health and wellbeing of project’s users

Transitional Spaces

 How might we design to promote student physical and mental well-being through the organization and development of spaces for both student and community interaction?

- Creating transitions within the campus in order to encourage interaction between students as well as indoors and outdoors

- Important in order to create distinctions between spaces

- These transitional spaces seek to create dynamic buffers within a space to elevate the user’s experience.

Sense of Community

 How might we emphasize the architect’s and law student’s responsibility to serve through building design?

- Creating central nodes or quads that allow for various student or regional communities to cross paths and engage with one another

- Provide buffer zones for students to study or rest between classes

- Provide landscape features whilst implementing seating that enables people to sit and engage in conversations

 Utilize unique site conditions as well as environmental factors to create a safe and accessible place for learning?

Environment and Cultural Context

Campus Comparatives

- Implementing design strategies to address site climate conditions and ground context like surrounding buildings or soil types

- Understanding the cultural context of where a project resides and how to contribute in a respectful way

- Encouraging community engagement with local communities

- A Nolli map is a figure ground drawing that aided us in developing our campus plan. These plan drawings help to distinguish private, semi-private, and public places from each other and clearly differentiate space from mass using black and white to represent the area being studied. We used several Nolli maps to help inform us of the flow of spaces on our campus and identify the ideal qualities of a law school campus. Some of the specific campus functional elements we would like to emulate were determined to be on these nine campuses:

Georgetown Law School

 This school was chosen for its centralization and walkability in the Washington D.C. area. The campus provides its students with living facilities (such as childcare, a fitness center, and housing for 300 students) to support students’ educational excellence. This is in addition to the classrooms, clinic spaces, and an expensive library. The proximity to national buildings and public transportation also encourages immersion into the extracurricular activities that D.C. has to offer.

Harvard Law School

 The campus is comprised of mostly historic buildings with lots of green open space between buildings. The WWC is the hub for all student life which holds common spaces, classrooms, clinics, and dining facilities.

Fordham Law School

 The school’s closeness to the urban setting, along with its inclusion of greenery and proximity to Central Park provides easy access to city activities and nearby law firms. While located in a large, bustling context, the silver LEED certified campus itself contains a smaller plaza within to create a threshold between the campus and the city.

Duke University School of Law

 Students are expected to live off-campus, while the law school features many sheltered outdoor spaces for students to relax and study. Its clinic wing is designed as a separate law office that fosters trust between law students and clients because it offers a space to meet confidentially.

Notre Dame Law School

 This campus creates community through large library reading areas as well as “living rooms” for student and teacher interaction. It utilizes large grassy lawns for social spaces and provides housing for graduate students and their families on campus.

New York University Law

School

 The school is a unique campus as it is a series of buildings nestled in the city itself and centered around Washington Square Park. It is very well integrated into the city and fosters experiences in which school and city life intertwine.

Stanford Law School

 The central location of the university primarily gives students access to the mental health services. There are several green spaces available in the form of courtyards for studying and gathering. Its circulation system is also robust as the campus is broken up into four buildings with separate educational functions linked together with shared courtyards.

Lewis and Clark Law

 The ample green spaces on the 20-acre campus function as “living rooms” to encourage community and gathering and are used as outdoor classrooms on occasion. The school is further surrounded by the forests of the state park, giving students access to nature as they make their way through the intensive law curriculum.

University of Oregon Law School

 The buildings on this campus create pockets of public space that are more sheltered than the general public realm and are oriented towards a shared courtyard with other buildings.

Campus Comparatives

- While the term community most frequently refers to a group of people or a tangible location, the abstract definition spans beyond physical reach. When compiling the campus master plan, reflecting the conceptual community surrounding our site was imperative to the proposal’s success. With a site located in Logan Heights, our master plan was faced with the challenge of being a point of transition to the more urbanized Gaslamp district as well as the lower density community of Barrio Logan. The campus serves as a major threshold between Downtown and the future developments planned for Barrio Logan. The project is based on a series of transition zones that required attention; by focusing on scale, density, and circulation we were able to propose a seamless shift that melds two communities into one.

The Scale

- With the Barrio and Downtown in mind, buildings were designed following the idea that the campus alludes to the infrastructure around it. The master plan gradually shifts from five story structures in the southwest corner of the site to a larger scale of up to nine story structures on the northeastern side of the site.

The Density

- Similar to the transition in scale, density played a significant role in designing the campus master plan. The lack of accessible public realm was a primary concern in the initial design phase. The proposed campus plan allows for the street condition to adhere to its surrounding context while the site itself remains inviting for members of the surrounding communities to experience and inhabit.

The Circulation

Campus Resiliancy

Resiliency refers to a site’s ability to weather adverse conditions (both immediate disasters and long-term stresses) while maintaining a high level of functionality and safety for all its residents. In our era, a primary test of resiliency is a site’s response to the challenges posed by climate change. As a coastal site in a drought and fire-stricken state, our campus will be particularly at-risk. The central concerns include sea-level rise and flooding, increasing temperatures, and decreasing precipitation. Although in the most catastrophic climate scenarios our site may simply become uninhabitable, we have pursued resiliency strategies that will ensure its functionality under many circumstances. Some primary strategies are outlined as follows:

-Addressing Sea-Level Rise and Flooding: Our buildings avoid placing primary or essential functions in below-grade spaces, so that flooding events do not damage or inhibit campus activity in the long-run.

- Implementation of bioretention swales?

- Addressing Increasing Temperatures:

- Reducing urban heat island effect with extensive site vegetation, cool roofs, and rooftop gardens.

- Increasing tree canopy on street edge and internal campus quad to give community greater access to shade in extreme heat. Addressing Decreasing Precipitation:

- Use of building-level water capture and reuse of graywater to reduce strain on municipal water systems.

- Extensive native-plant landscaping to reduce campus irrigation needs.

- Addressing Unreliability of Energy Access

- Reducing energy needs (and thus reliance on potentially spotty energy grids) by taking advantage of appropriate building-scale and site-specific passive strategies.

- Site design with awareness of solar access to increase natural daylighting in each building.

- Extensive on-site solar generation to reduce loads on city grid and provide an independent energy source.

Many of the measures described here are very physical and architectural. While these may help preserve life and increase physical comfort, the campus also takes measures to address social and communal resiliency. By providing spaces for justice-oriented law education and pro-bono practice, as well as non-academic programs (such as markets, greenhouses, daycares, and more), the campus works towards lifting the community and putting the neighbors in a better situation to recover following a disaster. The conjunction of architectural and social interventions embodied in our campus to support making Barrio Logan more resilient in the face of the challenges to come

- The selected campus site provides a bridge between varying existing hardscapes like pavers, concrete, asphalt, and decomposed granite, with a goal of maintaining and enhancing the overall ground plane moving forward. Following the requirements defined in the Barrio Logan Plan, all major throughfares will consist of sidewalks ranging between ten and fourteen feet accompanied by planting strips and class I and class II bike lanes.

Project Purpose

- En[act] is about bringing people together from diverse backgrounds. It is meant to bridge the gap between two unique, potentially disparate parties to spark dialogue and foster lasting community. This is necessary to enhance the relationship between the law school and those they serve because mutual understanding improves collaboration and unity. In prioritizing performance, the project provides a medium through which people can share a universal experience whether you are a student, client, or local community member. In more direct relation to the law school, performance plays a key role in a lawyer’s success. This is seen through mock trials and other rehearsals which give law students the charisma and social presence they need to command a courtroom. En[act] takes these skills and gives them to all occupants to foster community and legal success.

Project Program

The project’s program is defined by its commitment to the proscenium theater, dedicating most square footage to performance and the support thereof. This space also can function as a didactic lecture hall to be used by the law students for more traditional lectures. On the third floor, there is also a smaller theater that overlooks the campus quad and can also be converted into a didactic lecture hall. The main theater seats around 550 while the smaller theater seats around 150. In support of the large venue, there are several rehearsal and private practice rooms that vary in size to accommodate a variety of performance types. Due to the loud nature of the building, there will be multiple quiet study rooms and outdoor balcony spaces to provide reprieve as well as a rooftop café on the upper floors. In relation to the greater campus context, an active lobby and dining space is on the ground floor, and the form itself opens to the quad. The neighboring academic and community-based buildings contrast our own project as they accommodate the students’ more professional and personal needs. The artistic and social needs of the students and community are supplemented by our project.

Performance Goals

- The project’s EUI target is 27. Our current EUI is 25.8. Due to the situation of our building within the campus, we don’t have large amounts of solar heat gain due to our neighboring tall building to the South shading us. As all of our theater support programs are placed on the exterior of the building, they have high daylight autonomy. Further, due to the skylight and separation of the theater from the floorplates, light is also delivered internally to the programs and walking areas as well. The theater is acoustically separated with a thick structurally isolated, mass wall with entry vestibules. The theatre is surrounded by other uses that provide supplemental acoustic separation, from traffic and other campus noises.

Block and Stack

- Our theater form was influenced by the swinging dress of the ballet Folklorico dancers. We chose this as the influence as we wanted it to connect back to the Mexican community and culture of Barrio Logan. The large form in the center of our project drives the rest of the building. It plays with daylight, reflecting light down to circulation spaces and making it more experiential.

ACOUSTICAL CLOUD

Acoustical panels reflect sound back towards the audience, adjusting their height to accommodate specific performances

DISPLACEMENT VENTILATION

An air based system ventilates the theater, air is supplied through the floor and returned at the ceiling

ACOUSTIC INSULATION

The large air gap between the exterior face and the theater massing provides acoustic separation

SOLAR HEAT GAIN

Heat gain in the building is mitigated by neighboring projects, shading the southern face

ACOUSTICAL CLOUD

Acoustical panels reflect sound back towards the audience, adjusting their height to accommodate specific performances

DISPLACEMENT VENTILATION

An air based system ventilates the theater, air is supplied through the floor and returned at the ceiling

NATURAL VENTILATION

Wind from the prevailing north-west direction ventilates the lobby space

CAMPUS VIEWS

The project opens up to the heart of campus for internal views, taking inspiration from New York’s Highline

Furnished Floor Plans

The large air gap between the exterior face and the theater massing provides acoustic separation

Circulation Thermal and Ventilation Systems

The building ventilation system is air and HVAC ducts are located within all of the floor assemblies throughout the building. Air as a system was chosen due to the needs of the main proscenium theater which requires large amounts of ventilation and fast temperature changes. In the main theater, there is displacement ventilation through the floor to allow for a high rate of air change while still being relatively silent for the theater acoustics. Further, our main ground floor passageway that is expected to have high pedestrian traffic is oriented in the direction of the prevailing winds to allow for natural ventilation.

Detailed Wall Sections

Exterior and Interior Vignettes

These last two quarters have been the most influential of all my quarters currently spent at Cal Poly. During double quarter, I have learned more about building technologies and building details than I have in my entire time at Cal Poly. Due to the constant interactions with firms as well as learning Revit, I feel more confident that I can enter architecture as a professional career. I am eternally grateful for all the knowledge I have learned this quarter. I also have built connections with the entire studio and have learned how to extensively work in a studio team, group, and duo. Through this quarter, I feel that I understand architecture even more now as a profession and as a method of helping communities and people. This experience was invaluable and has set me up for success in the future, as a person and as an architect.

The role of the architect is to build with communities. Architects must be a part of their community and have a sense of responsibility and accountability towards the community as a result. In being part of the community, it allows for the architect to understand the identity of the people and how to design with compassion and empathy and in a way that brings the identity of the people into the architecture. Part of the responsibility of the architect is working on the project with due diligence. This due diligence includes balancing and integrating a wide variety of factors such as understanding the history of the site, the flora and fauna, waste and energy management, water management, climate, lighting, economics, experience, etc. However, these can be interconnected in ways where improving one aspect will improve another. This ultimately culminates in an approach to empower and decolonize or at the very least, spread a radical form of love.

While the concept of building community is at the center, this is supported by designing with intention and understanding the wide variety of systems that go into any building and how to manage them. Unlike an individualistic mindset as is normally seen in the architecture world, it is important to work with multiple people so a wide variety of knowledge can be utilized to integrate systems thinking and as a result, multiple stories can be understood by the end of the project. While each individual project will vary based on its own needs, there are still universal factors that must be balanced within every project. (Many concepts previously mentioned and below are inspired from the words of Glenn Murcutt and Anupama Kundoo.) If these factors are balanced correctly, they improve the lives of the users and bring value beyond capital to the community. For example, when Rural Studio provides housing for community members, the houses are not envisioned with increasing the monetary wealth of the neighborhood but rather it still provides value as it unites and creates joy within the community.

To start, an important system that is balanced is the economics of the project. It’s important to understand the full life cycle cost of the building and how that impacts other building systems and the community or client as well. Architects should lean on the side of value engineering when possible by providing the most amount of value for the cost. For example, Glenn Murcutt designs based on industrial catalogs and combines industrially produced parts to create a product that is both customized and readily available through mass production. For example, the window system in his house is made from door parts. By relying on standard parts but finding new uses for them, his projects are economical and customized.

Another important system to consider is the site. The site covers a large range of factors from the history of the place, to the climate, to the environment and ecosystem, etc. The project must respond to all of these factors. By responding to both the climate and local ecosystem, the building requires less energy as well as being a more enjoyable experience for the user. Some examples of decisions that could potentially

arise when trying to consider all of these factors could be: whether to blend the building typology in with the surroundings or have it stick out, based on the local culture, choosing between different building forms to maximize the heating and cooling performance, or which building orientation increases daylight and ventilation.

Another aspect to consider is the experience for the user. This is another aspect that includes a wide variety of factors such as heating, daylighting, sensory processes, circulation, user understanding, simplicity, space, and many more. All of these considerations can provide value for the user beyond its monetary cost. A well designed building that is enjoyable and useful to the user is more valuable than an aesthetically beautiful building that is constantly overly humid or hot or freezing. Part of community building is ensuring that the building can take care of the occupants in the same way that the community takes care of the building.

The architect must also consider materiality. Considerations of materiality include analyzing their economics, effectiveness, and viability. Choosing materials based on building needs and site is essential as it can be the difference between a miserable user experience and a joyful one. While aesthetics are the main concern in the architecture world, it is more important that the material is the best choice for the job based on the demands of the project.

While these are not the only aspects the architect will consider throughout a project, they are some of the most important ones and cover a large part of the difference that separates the impact of beneficial projects from ineffective projects. As formerly mentioned, these systems must also be combined and simultaneously considered together as all of the factors affect each other and cannot be treated as single separate entities.

Further, it is important for the architect to physically engage with all of these systems. The architect should be involved with the construction process and be hands on with understanding various building languages. The architect must be familiar with and understand the basics of construction to be able to confidently design and experiment with structure and other form typologies to maximize the potential of the various systems within the building.

By gaining understanding through physical labor, it reminds the architect to be humble and to honor the identity of the project. The architect can build with empathy and positive actions to discover joy and beauty with their local community.

After working on my own studio project for six weeks, I have realized that community building needs to operate at every scale. It’s not enough to plan for it on one large scale only. To properly execute it, it requires more thought at both individual person to person levels as well as considering the local city, state, and country. I still firmly believe that the architect should be within the community while designing, especially now, after six weeks of designing. I feel distinctly disconnected from the people I am designing for, and I feel that at the end of the project, I wouldn’t know what impact I ultimately have. Simply doing research is not enough, doing research is just the bare minimum. For an architect to truly know and care about the people they are designing for, it requires more than just time; it requires vulnerability as well. However, for this ideal to come about, something in the world would have to drastically and irrevocably change.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anderson, Dave and Timothy Hursley, directors. Rural Studio: Love Stories. YouTube, YouTube, 19 June 2015, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=704hR8KLCf0&ab_channel=RuralStudio. Accessed 5 Jan. 2022.

“Barrio Logan Demographics.” Point2, https://www.point2homes.com/US/Neighborhood/CA/San-Diego/Barrio-Logan-Demographics.html#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20population%20of%20Barrio%20Logan%3F&text=There%20are%2058%2C231%20residents%20 in,born%20citizens%20account%20for%2013.81%25.

“Cal Western School of Law.” California Western School of Law, https://www.cwsl.edu/.

“Chicano Park: National Landmark, Local Treasure.” National Landmark, Local San Diego Treasure, https://www.sandiego.org/articles/ parks-gardens/chicano-park.aspx.

“Cross Ventilation.” 2030 Palette, http://2030palette.org/cross-ventilation/.

Dean, Andrea Oppenheimer, et al. “Introduction.” Rural Studio, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 2002, pp. 1–13.

“Direct Gain: Glazing.” 2030 Palette, http://2030palette.org/direct-gain-glazing/.

“Direct Gain: Heat Storage.” 2030 Palette, http://2030palette.org/direct-gain-heat-storage/.

Harbor 101 Barrio Logan Community Plan - San Diego. https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/legacy/planning/community/ profiles/pdf/cp/cpblfull.pdf.

“Logan Heights - San Diego History Center: San Diego, CA: Our City, Our Story.” San Diego History Center | San Diego, CA | Our City, Our Story, https://sandiegohistory.org/journal/1983/january/logan/.

Logan Heights Historical Society: Memory Album. https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/legacy/planning/community/cpu/ barriologan/documents/pdf/barriologanmarketanalysis1208.pdf.

“San Diego Native Plant Guide.” Eco Minded Solutions, 26 Mar. 2019, https://ecomindedsolutions.com/san-diego-native-plant-guide/.

“Shading Devices.” 2030 Palette, http://2030palette.org/shading-devices/.

Stohr, Kate. “100 Years of Humanitarian Design .” Design like You Give A Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises, Metropolis Books, London, , 2007, pp. 33–55.

United States, Congress, Office of General Counsel, and Office of General Counsel. 2020 Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, The American Institute of Architects, pp. 1–5.

EN[ACT]: Performance at California Western Law School Studio Jaz |Caswell Espinoza and Jasmine Lin