“Students no longer take three scheduled meals a day, preceded or followed by concentrated periods of study,” says Jim Favaro, Principle Architect of UCLA’s new Hedrick Study project. “Young people today want the option of taking meals and studying in fragments of time throughout the day and night.”
It is this idea that drove the design of the Hedrick Study, a modern hybrid of library, lounge, and dining hall on the UCLA campus. The Johnson Favaro-designed space took an existing 22,000-sf food-court-style kitchen and cafeteria in Hedrick and turned it into a more suitable 24-hour space.
The original kitchen was updated to service all of UCLA’s west campus residences. The remaining 11,000-sf was renovated to include a European-style food hall, a fireplace lounge, a large central reading room, and a quiet study room. Naturally lit lounges and smaller study areas surround all the main areas.
Photo Credit: John Ellis.
The central reading room has a custom-printed sunset ceiling and allows students to observe surrounding activity through wall openings while remaining acoustically isolated and conducive to individual study. The separate, midnight-blue quiet study room continues the theme created with the central reading room’s sunset ceiling through the use of a NASA photograph of the universe on the ceiling. On the north side of the central reading room, wrapped in full height black chalkboard walls, is the fireside lounge.
On the east side of the reading room is the main lounge. Modeled after a hotel lobby, the main lounge faces out onto gardens and provides group seating, individual seating, reading tables, and study carrels. Group study rooms are located along the south wall. The west side of the reading room has three 20-foot-long community tables at bar height.
The space is the result of an amalgamation of design inspirations: hipster hotels, steampunk, and the maker movement; traditional university libraries like UCLA’s Powell Library an Harvard’s Widener; and the Italian rosticceria, French boulangerie, English pub, and American delicatessen.
Related Stories
Digital Twin | May 8, 2023
What AEC professionals should know about digital twins
A growing number of AEC firms and building owners are finding value in implementing digital twins to unify design, construction, and operational data.
University Buildings | May 5, 2023
New health sciences center at St. John’s University will feature geothermal heating, cooling
The recently topped off St. Vincent Health Sciences Center at St. John’s University in New York City will feature impressive green features including geothermal heating and cooling along with an array of rooftop solar panels. The geothermal field consists of 66 wells drilled 499 feet below ground which will help to heat and cool the 70,000 sf structure.
Mass Timber | May 1, 2023
SOM designs mass timber climate solutions center on Governors Island, anchored by Stony Brook University
Governors Island in New York Harbor will be home to a new climate-solutions center called The New York Climate Exchange. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), The Exchange will develop and deploy solutions to the global climate crisis while also acting as a regional hub for the green economy. New York’s Stony Brook University will serve as the center’s anchor institution.
University Buildings | Apr 24, 2023
Solving complicated research questions in interdisciplinary facilities
University and life science project owners should consider the value of more collaborative building methods, close collaboration with end users, and the benefits of partners who can leverage sector-specific knowledge to their advantage.
Green | Apr 21, 2023
Top 10 green building projects for 2023
The Harvard University Science and Engineering Complex in Boston and the Westwood Hills Nature Center in St. Louis are among the AIA COTE Top Ten Awards honorees for 2023.
Higher Education | Apr 13, 2023
Higher education construction costs for 2023
Fresh data from Gordian breaks down the average cost per square foot for a two-story college classroom building across 10 U.S. cities.
Market Data | Apr 11, 2023
Construction crane count reaches all-time high in Q1 2023
Toronto, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Denver top the list of U.S/Canadian cities with the greatest number of fixed cranes on construction sites, according to Rider Levett Bucknall's RLB Crane Index for North America for Q1 2023.
University Buildings | Apr 11, 2023
Supersizing higher education: Tracking the rise of mega buildings on university campuses
Mega buildings on higher education campuses aren’t unusual. But what has been different lately is the sheer number of supersized projects that have been in the works over the last 12–15 months.
Contractors | Apr 10, 2023
What makes prefabrication work? Factors every construction project should consider
There are many factors requiring careful consideration when determining whether a project is a good fit for prefabrication. JE Dunn’s Brian Burkett breaks down the most important considerations.
Smart Buildings | Apr 7, 2023
Carnegie Mellon University's research on advanced building sensors provokes heated controversy
A research project to test next-generation building sensors at Carnegie Mellon University provoked intense debate over the privacy implications of widespread deployment of the devices in a new 90,000-sf building. The light-switch-size devices, capable of measuring 12 types of data including motion and sound, were mounted in more than 300 locations throughout the building.
