California College of the Arts Campus Expansion
Merit Award /
2026, General Design
San Francisco, CA
At CCA’s expanded San Francisco campus, the landscape itself becomes a canvas supporting interdisciplinary creative practice.
©Thomas Nideroest
Openings in the green roof reveal “maker yards” below-flexible outdoor classrooms and heavy–making spaces designed to promote cross–pollination between disciplines.
©Thomas Nideroest
The maker yards cut through the double ground layer to allow natural light to filter below throughout the year, reducing electricity usage.
©Marion Brenner
An integral part of the major campus expansion, the meadow landscape reflects the Bay Area art school’s culture of freewheeling creativity.
©Surfacedesign, Inc.
Trees, shrubs, and perennials border the double ground layer, buffering noise from the street level to create a quiet environment.
©Marion Brenner
The educational communal garden serves as an outdoor lab for students in the textile department to experiment with cultivated natural pigments.
©Marion Brenner
Weathered steel planters naturally complement the California meadow-inspired planting palette.
©Marion Brenner
85% California native plantings form plant communities from fescue meadows to woodland thickets with trees, shrubs, and layered understory vegetation.
©Surfacedesign, Inc.
The meadow landscape on the double ground hovers above the sidewalks and rail lines of the surrounding neighborhood.
©Marion Brenner
Featuring a statement oak tree and entry grove, the campus yard bridges the existing building and the new expansion layering educational facilities, exhibition space, and an expansive green roof.
©Thomas Nideroest
Wood seating slabs connect the first and second floors, lending an informal and impromptu centerpoint for students and faculty to mingle, gather, and share ideas.
©Marion Brenner
In the first year since the opening of the new campus, the amphitheater has already been used as a venue for final presentations by students in the fashion design department.
©Thomas Nideroest
On the roof, a sweet osmanthus tree perfumes the air and fragrant perennials like giant hyssop also attract pollinators.
©Marion Brenner
Reclaimed wood benches surrounded by immersive planting creating room like areas for collaboration or quiet moments of repose.
©Marion Brenner
The flexible plaza accommodates large gatherings and often displays large works of art, sculptures, models, and prototypes created by CCA students.
©Jason O’Rear
Client
California College of the Arts (CCA)
Project Team
Surfacedesign, Inc., Lead Landscape Architect
Studio Gang, Architects
TEF, Associate Architect
Arup, Structural Engineer
Meyers+ Engineers, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, and Fire Protection
Lotus Water, Civil Engineer
Project Statement
California College of the Arts (CCA) is a century-old Bay Area institution that has trained creative minds worldwide. Once split between San Francisco and Oakland, its facilities are now unified on the San Francisco campus, with the main building extended and the landscape reimagined. Envisioned as a canvas, the landscape integrates reclaimed materials, native California ecology, and art. Rooftop learning areas, courtyards, maker yards, and a 1,400 sq-ft dye garden cultivate cross- disciplinary experimentation, akin to a living exhibition space. With sustainability and nature in mind, the campus extends learning beyond classroom walls, ensuring CCA’s creative imprint on the city continues as a place for learning, imagination, and connection.
Project Description
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 and exchange.
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.
