Back to School 2024 - Caltech
Though not a registered student, I am lucky to still find myself regularly on campus. As a member of the team that leads history and architecture tours at Caltech, our schedule aligns with that of the students - we get the summer off and return to the monthly tour schedule in the fall.
Our tours generally have been of the historal campus buildings but we have started to lead special tours of the modern campus, too. This post covers some of the modern buildings. In no particular order, here is an introduction to the modern campus buildings.
Resnick Sustainibility Center, Yazdani Studio of Cannon Design, 2024
The Resnick Sustainibility Center just opened to students on Sept. 24, the first day of Fall Quarter 2024. It’s the first mass-timber frame building in Pasadena! We docents were excited to tour the building earlier in August. Standing at 5 levels (3 above ground, 2 below), additional design details consist of an undulating glass curtain wall with aluminum fins to deflect heat. A new breezeway now serves as the gateway connecting the North and South parts of the campus along Wilson Ave.
Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Thom Mayne of Morphosis, 2009
This building’s address is 1216 E. California Blvd. Fun fact: 1216 is the wavelength of ultraviolet light emitted by the hydrogen atom. The sun is mostly hydrogen so the address hints at the kind of study done by the scientists in the building.
Some of the gallery images above show the public artwork in the building of Los Angeles-based artist Lia Halloran.
Halloran was inspired by the 18th-century French comet hunter Charles Messier, who cataloged fixed, fuzzy objects in the sky that he and others had initially mistaken for moving comets. His catalog, which listed objects to avoid while searching for comets, would turn out to be very useful to astronomers.
Halloran created paintings of Messier's objects with blue ink on semi-transparent drafting film. These were then contact-printed onto photographic paper and cut into circles evocative of the view through a telescope. Prints of each of the 110 Messier objects are displayed on the geometrically skewed lobby walls and stairwells of the Cahill building. Several of the original blue-ink paintings are displayed on the stairway landings.
The Court of Man (Beckman Mall) Baxter Hall, 1971 / Beckman Behavioral Biology, 1974 Architect: Robert Alexander
The grassy mall that terminates on the north end of campus at Beckman Auditorium is bordered by two brutalist buildings designed by Robert Alexander - Beckman Behavioral Biology (west side) and Baxter Hall of Humanities (East side). The two brutalist buildings are a noticeable, yet nice, contrast to the more refined style of Edward Durrell Stone’s new formalist Beckman Auditorium.
Baxter Hall has a surprisingly modern, mid-century lobby and chandelier topped spiral staircase.
Moore Laboratory of Engineering, Neptune, Thomas, Davis, 1996
The building style is a modern interpretation of Mediterranean. A Romanesque arch defines the main entrance with two outside staircases leading to the upper levels. Arcades are attached to the open ends of the U-shaped design. I enjoy sitting at the small tables and chairs under the shade of the arcade.
The decorative elements - the tile design (axon circuits) surrounding the courtyard fountains and abstract design in the tympanums above the arcades (integrated circuit and microwave antennas) reflect the science of the building.
Annenberg Center, Frederick Fisher and Partners, 2008
The building has staggered glass curtain walls. Planes of transparent glass alternate with opaque glass in four shades of green recalling Caltech’s olive trees. Annenberg Center is nicknamed the “Coke Bottle Building” due to the green exterior glass.
My favorite part of the building is the two-story “treehouse” at the NE corner with its spiral staircase.
Chen Neuroscience Research Building The Smith Group , 2020 (Spurlock Landscape Architects)
I watched this building while it was under construction from start to finish. I particulary love the thoughtful landscape design! As with most of the newer buildings on campus, there is natural light, even to the floors below grade.
The inspiration of the exterior design comes from a forest with “tree trunks”. The “tree trunks” are copper in contrast to the stainless steel of the neighboring Broad Center for the Biological Sciences,
The oculus, a dome-shaped skylight, lets in abundant natural light and is lined with the same tile pieces as that used on the sides of the spiral staircase.
The framed artwork in the lobby depicts the human brain. The artist Greg Dunn uses micro-etching to reflect light to create animation. Custom wallpaper designed by Santiago Ramon y Cajal depict arborizations (“tree growing”)of brain cells.
An architectural model can be viewed on level 1.