Higher Education

The Fish Interfaith Center and Wallace Chapel is a richly layered building with a unique response to the imagery and spirituality of the program. The concept for the chapel was to develop a composition of space that transports visitors from the material world (campus) into the spiritual realm. The path into this realm incorporates a series of architectural and artistic elements that reinforce this transitional experience. The symbology used in this journey, however, had to comfortably accommodate people of many different beliefs. To achieve this vision, AC Martin collaborated with five prominent artists to create a metaphorically significant experience beyond that which architecture alone could create.

The journey begins outside the chapel with a 60’ light tower that glows at night with lantern-like illumination from backlit marble. This lighted beacon acts as a focal point, drawing the visitor into a pathway that integrates a three-part work of art featuring swirling blue lines in the floor, flowing together forming a musical score.

The main sanctuary is voluminous, bathed in filtered light highlighting the altar. The curved walls of the sanctuary were designed to make the experience of being in this space unlike any other place on campus. Above the altar is a golden-bronze metal sculpture portraying the setting moon and the rising sun. Light entering from the skylight and art glass windows interweaves with interior lighting to play upon the sculpture's metallic surface. The exterior is sheathed in golden collegiate brick providing a contextual relationship to the campus buildings and to the historic setting of Old Towne Orange.

Located at the northeast corner, the solar fountain marks the opening of a tranquil courtyard. The courtyard is divided into two main spaces, one representative of earthly life and the other representing eternity.

The Guerlain Spa occupies 14,000 SF on the 19th floor of the 47-story Art Deco landmark Waldorf=Astoria Hotel in New York City. Originally designed by architects Schultz and Weaver in 1931, the property is now part of The Waldorf=Astoria Collection, Hilton Hotel's premiere – Most Luxurious Hotel Collection.

Featuring the Guerlain Paris product line, the spa offers a personalized experience affording guests their own “cocooned” treatment rooms & bathrooms. The public lounge acts as a multi-activity space with treatment space by day and event space by night. There are a total of 15 treatment rooms, including one couples’ suite, providing guests with tranquil surroundings.

The materials used—marble, mosaic tiles, and natural woods—create a quiet and light respite for those who visit. The design emphasizes a sense of urban chic within a classical envelope, reinterpreting the unique qualities of the renowned hotel and spa in a modern and sophisticated manner.

Our team worked with Orange County on the restoration and renovation of the Heroes Hall Veterans Museum, located at the Orange County Fairgrounds. The 4,800 sf Veterans Museum serves as the center piece of OC Fair’s history. We utilized the building’s original structure while ensuring it’s structurally sound and advance. The renovation design allows for plenty of natural lighting to take in the exhibits, as well as view the OC Fairgrounds from the museum. The five-sided pillar at the entrance of the Medal of Honor Plaza has a plaque on each side to commemorate World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, and Iraq War. The plaques were commissioned in 1988 by AMVETS (American Veterans), before moving to their place at the Veterans Museum.

Hillside Dining Hall is a 12,600 sf tenant improvement project for an existing dining hall at Cal State University, Long Beach. Work included a complete renovation of the dining interior and kitchen facility as well as a new exterior covered patio and open garden. 

The vision for the Hillside Dining project was to create a social core—a ’home away from home’ for resident students. The challenging part programmatically was that the new venue needed to accommodate more students at peak time than the existing facility. The kitchen had to grow in size while the envelope of the existing building remained the same. 

This approach created ‘neighborhoods’ within the larger dining hall. Each zone has a specific ‘flavor’ in terms of food offerings and material finishes. The variety of seating options allow students to find their favorite space and make it their own, regardless of the size of the group.

The design of a new facility for the Horticulture program at Las Positas College is currently underway. The new Horticulture Facility includes classrooms, labs, offices, resource areas, and a greenhouse. The butterfly roof canopy of the new classroom building at the Las Positas Horticulture Facility, reminiscent of a pergola, serves as a welcoming entrance for staff, students, and guests as well as an outdoor learning space, gathering space, and public event space. The form of the butterfly roof highlights the beauty of the surrounding hills and helps blend the new building with its site. With the collaborative design process, the new Horticulture Facility has achieved many teaching opportunities for the students. Integrating learning with the built environment, the facility has many different types of fencing to serve as a teaching tool for the Horticulture students, while also still providing required separation and security.

The facility boasts over 1.7 million s.f. under one roof, including 30,000 s.f. of offices, and is over ½ mile in length with in excess of 270 truck dock positions. The site includes a nearly 1.5:1 ratio of trailer storage stalls to dock doors. Multiple ramps allow for flatbed trailer loading throughout. At the time of construction, the project was the largest single concrete tilt‐up distribution building in the world. In addition, tilt‐up panels at the high‐bay areas extended 75’ from top of footings to top of parapet, making them some of the tallest concrete panels in the world without intermediate floors. Crawler cranes were necessary to pick the panels.

The design of Fertitta Hall reinforces USC's mission of educating, recruiting and retaining the best and the brightest entrepreneurs and business leaders. The focus remained on creating a facility that is intensely collaborative and interactive utilizing the latest technology to support their unique educational pedagogy as well as provide abundant support spaces creating the student-centric environment with social gathering, food services, lounges, and study space.

The building adds 104,000 square feet of building space, meeting all instructional needs for the undergraduate program. This includes 21 classrooms, two of which are active learning, a 150-seat lecture hall, 50 breakout rooms, an improved Experiential Learning Center, and a library/collaboration area. Also included is a café, lounge, offices for the undergraduate program and the admissions office for the Marshall School of Business. The addition of Fertitta Hall resolves the issues of a lack of meeting space and individual and group study space and will allow students to be engaged between classes and after hours. 

Fertitta Hall provides significant outdoor space via an outdoor courtyard, shared with the adjacent Graduate School of Business, as well as gathering spaces outside on Childs Way for the students to meet, interact, and study. The building is certified LEED Gold, reinforcing the social responsibility mission of the school. 

We provided planning, entitlements, design, bridging documentation, and construction support services for the development of a 2.38 acre site at the airport perimeter in the City of Costa Mesa. The project consisted of a single story, 25,230 sf building that encompassed administrative offices, storage facilities and all the vehicle/heavy equipment maintenance shops for the Airport Maintenance Group. The site also contains ancillary facilities including a single-bay vehicle wash facility, fueling station, and parking for employee and airport vehicles.

This 71st-floor restaurant venue is a culinary French steakhouse with a California twist. This is the story of two characters: Marie Antoinette and the Mexican/Californian Vaquero. The essence of each character melds into a unique blend of rustic and chic. In a careful balance of masculinity and femininity where the California desert meets French opulence, two contrasting identities elegantly collide to create a rich and velvety ambiance.  

The experience begins at the crystal bar, a glowing pink glass beacon inspired by Marie Antoinette’s shimmering jewels, glassware and mirrors. Mixology drinks and amber vintage scotches are on the menu. Jewel-toned mohair sofas—an interpretation of Marie Antoinette’s Chaperone chair—adorn the bar lounge atop a vintage faded rug. Designed for courting couples and a chaperone, the curvilinear couch and freestanding chair encourage serendipitous interactions.

The wood parquet floor pattern, while fashioned after the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, takes on a relaxed, grey washed finish, more indicative of Southern California. Deep blue-gray wall paneling features custom routed imagery of traditional moldings found in Versailles. The meat-centric menu contrasts with the feminine palette of pink marbles and tufted upholstery. Aged meats and cheeses are juxtaposed with farm-cultivated artisanal California ingredients within the refined opulence of darkened glass vitrines.

Curvy glass cases punctuate the space, encasing the diagonal structural braces integral to the building’s architecture along with the extensive wine collection. The dining environment is a play of contrasts: pink mohair with brass hardware alongside charred wood and saddle leather accents.

A wine tunnel offers temperature-controlled cases of wine framed in lacquer panels opposite a glowing frosted-glass display wall, silhouetting bottles floating from floor to ceiling.

On the north side of the floor is the Atelier, a semi-private venue featuring an exposed prep kitchen offering interactive kitchen theater. A massive wood slab table is the piece de resistance for this ‘chef’s table’ concept. At the atelier table, guests can delight in flights of wine, cheese and charcuteries while enjoying a full view of the preparation underway behind the 12-foot-high darkened glass wall. A large plinth of Italian marble serves as a prep counter for the ‘charcutier’ in this workspace. Glazed refrigerated cheese case displays featuring California and French cheese selections line the path to one of two private dining rooms. This room features a wall graphic by artist Nick Veasey of an X-ray of a traditional French dress featuring a ‘panier’ structured to accentuate the hips—a fashion statement prevalent during Marie Antoinette's time.

The bathrooms, unlike the restaurant design, separate the DNA of both characters and each bathroom represents the ‘seed’ elements of each individually. 

Entering the men’s room there is a view looking northwest over the hills, slashed by an exposed raw steel diagonal structural brace. The moody palette includes a live-edge wood slab vanity with hammered copper sinks and copper mirror. The floor tile emulates rusticated blackened plywood. The dark mood of the bathroom conveys a rough-hewn cowboy atmosphere, with black mirrors and copper accents, bare bulbs hanging off brackets, and hand-cut glazed tiles that frame the opening to the toilet room, featuring a high-contrast bright blue California sky ‘Vaquero’ graphic.

In contrast, the ladies room is a cheeky twist on Versailles elements. Parquet flooring, continuing the pattern from the restaurant is made of dark brown marble. Past the entry vestibule, a long double-height hall is exaggerated with mirrors, reminiscent of the Hall of Mirrors from Versailles. Hidden doors and faux wall paneling mask four individual toilet rooms that feature bright jewel-tone colors inspired by Marie Antoinette’s gowns. The main powder room is flanked by a reinterpretation of table-mounted porcelain sinks on either side with brass hexagon mirrors above. A vanity is situated at the window and directly adjacent is another chaperone chair, this time covered in chinoiserie fabric, a favorite of Marie.

We provided master planning, entitlements, bid package, and oversaw the bidding and selection of a Design-build General Contractor for Lineage on their new Colton, CA, distribution facility. The overall facility is 420,000 sf, and includes a cross-dock area, a partitioned convertible and freezer area, banana ripening rooms, and minimal dry storage. Temperatures vary from -20 degrees to ambient.