Working Together

The new Mary Stuart Rogers Gateway Building signals the opening of California State University’s new Palm Desert, California, campus. Designed by the Santa Monica architecture firm Lee, Burkhart, Liu Inc., the 38,000-square-foot facility is the first of four structures to be built on the master-planned campus.

Construction of the facility demonstrates the power of partnership. While California State University campuses are public institutions, the Palm Desert campus was constructed with private money. Had the university waited for public funding to come through, the new campus could have been delayed by 10 to 15 years. Some of the money came from neighboring cities, including Indian Wells, which donated $5 million, enough to acquire naming rights to the school’s second-and third-structures, the Indian Wells Center for Educational Excellence. The Indian Wells Center is actually composed of two structures, one a 24,000-square-foot classroom, lab, and office building and the other a 10,000-square-foot, 300-seat theater. The fourth planned building will serve students majoring in health care.

Although a modernist structure, the building blends in with its rustic desert site thanks to careful material and color selection. The deep overhang visible here is representative of others used to shade the building from damaging sunlight.

Other ways in which the small campus made partnerships a part of its success was by working with the College of the Desert to provide four years of undergraduate work for the students in Coachella Valley. According to recent statistics published in Palm Springs Life, only 28 percent of Valley students eligible to attend college do so. The national average is 62 percent. The partnership was necessary because the new Cal State Palm Desert campus only offers upper-division coursework leading to bachelor’s degrees in one of eight majors, as well as selected master’s degrees and teacher certification programs.

The local Palm Springs Desert Museum even signed on with a partnership, whereby the museum is loaning nine sculptures to the university. The architects worked with museum officials to integrate the artwork into the campus-both inside and outside the Mary Stuart Rogers Gateway Building. The sculptures, composed of metal, wood, granite, bronze, and other mediums, are now found in courtyards, on terraces, and in the building’s main lobby.

Inside, the building offers a cool and calm décor.

Perhaps the most important partnership regarding the building’s construction is the one made with the land. The desert landscape, while beautiful, also can be an unfriendly place to build. Extreme temperatures and punishing sunlight influenced the materials used on the three-story building, including concrete block and metal panels. Deep overhangs shade the building’s abundant glazing and an interior courtyard acts as a desert oasis. The building’s natural color palette was inspired by the school’s 55.3-acre site, which the city of Palm Desert donated to Cal State.

Inside the building’s modern architecture are found 15 classrooms, a 120-seat multipurpose theater, and three laboratories. In addition, the student union and the school’s bookstore are housed within. The building also is configured for distance learning and includes a production studio and control room to handle the latest technology.

The facility opened last fall in time for the 2002-2003 class schedule, and by all accounts, the partnerships have paid off.