Caltech Walter and Leonore Annenberg Center for Information Science and Technology

“Essential in achieving this goal was the ongoing engagement in discussions with all team members. Listening to each other while also taking a stance allowed us to achieve better solutions than any team section could have achieved on their own. Now, a few years later, we can state without qualification that the building is a success, having created a space that users really want to be in!”

— Peter Schröder, Professor of Computer Science and Applied and Computational Mathematics, Department of Engineering and Applied Science

Caltech’s Annenberg Center for Information Science Technology provided a blueprint for a new way of working that has changed the campus’s dynamic.
In Caltech’s Annenberg Center for Information Science Technology, FF&P was inspired by our client’s desire to remove traditional educational hierarchies and boundaries in favor of integrating students and faculty as equal colleagues and collaborators. The Center’s design emerged directly out of listening to the building’s future residents describe what they do every day, how they need to work as individual studios, and how they hoped to heighten awareness of each other’s activities in order to spark inspiration and cross-pollination.
Sited on a popular informal pedestrian path between the center of campus and its northern periphery, the new 47,000-square-foot facility took advantage of this existing condition, encouraging cut-through foot traffic and creating a range of indoor and outdoor learning environments. The ground level disperses transparent, jewel-box-like classrooms and convening spaces among wide public pathways that are actively used by both building visitors and people crossing campus. Gardens surrounding the structure offer data and power access in order to serve as outdoor lounges and workspaces. Sculptural exterior stairs link all three floors.
On the upper levels, a skylight atrium links offices and gathering spaces, In response to what we heard during programming and planning, building residents work in research clusters surrounding this open area, which acts as a community hub and offers glimpses into the studios’ work areas. In the building’s northeast corner, a shared student and faculty lounge spans two floors connected via a spiral staircase. Everyone has equal access to views of the nearby mountains rising out of the Angeles National Forest.
The Annenberg Center has set the stage for a new way of working that has significantly changed Caltech’s campus dynamic. No longer do people desire to work solely in single, closed-door offices. Today, every facility on campus is now including the flexible, open, creative office atmosphere, encouraging programmatic and pedagogical evolution and while showcasing creativity and innovation.