Digital Arts Facility

Recognizing the emergence of digital media as a new field of artistic expression, the University of California, Santa Cruz has recently established a Digital Arts/New Media degree. The new 42,000 square foot Digital Arts Facility will house this new degree program, as well as portions of the existing departments of music, visual arts, and theater. The hillside site is well suited to the Digital Arts Facility's eventual role as the geographic and academic center of the arts complex.

The Digital Arts Facility will be accessed from the arts and theater complexes via a new bridge, connecting an existing path to a new outdoor overlook. This overlook, central to the arts area and with views of the Pacific Ocean, will serve as a flexible gathering space for all arts departments.

The mass of the building is a reflection of the disparate activities contained within. The sloped roofs on the northern side of the third floor accommodate large north-facing windows for a large drawings studio and five faculty painting studios. A gallery space on the third floor announces itself to the campus with a large translucent opening that will serve as a screen for back projection to the outside. An overhanging roof and large glazed opening to the south clearly mark entry, and the simple, repeating bays to the east of this entry mark the individual offices contained. Within the building, the Digital Arts program will be anchored by the "heart" of the building, the clearly expressed interior volume of the "Media Lab". This central volume will be a flexible space capable of housing installations and performances and available for use by all departments.

Construction is expected to begin in early 2007.