The Housing Dining Hospitality Building is the administrative home of the University of California San Diego’s Housing Dining Hospitality group and the campus’ central catering kitchen. Everything to do with food or housing on campus is handled here.

The project site is in the southwestern corner of the UCSD campus along its western edge. The building overlooks North Torrey Pines Road, which is a major thoroughfare. The neighborhood across this road to the west is a mix of small-scale housing and a church. On campus, the immediate neighbors are classrooms and laboratories to the north, a student dining commons to the east and a new residential complex now under construction to the south. The site was chosen in part because the catering operations could share the loading/drop-off space with the student dining commons. Recent dramatic growth of UCSD’s self-supporting catering program, its existing facilities’ inability to keep up with demand, and the need to relocate the Housing & Dining Services (HDS) administration offices led to the proposal to combine these uses in one facility. The 43,400-square-foot Housing Dining Hospitality Building contains an 8,000-square-foot catering kitchen, lobby and break room on level 1. Office space for HDH administrative staff, catering sales, and support are located on the remaining floors. An event space and terrace are also on level 4. The total construction cost, including site and infrastructure work, was $18.9 million.

Challenges & Solutions

The site, while well positioned for service and access for the catering operation, is hemmed in by development on all sides and has a narrow pedestrian window to the rest of the campus to the east. A second challenge was the western exposure. While the site has Pacific Ocean views starting at the second level, it is also exposed to the setting western sun and the glare and heat-gain problems that come with it. The university has tried a host of solutions, from lathing screens to fritted glass, on recent buildings to address this problem with minimal success. Compounding the problem was the request from the building user to have an open and transparent building that was inviting to the community, which is an important market for their catering business.

The design resolves a series of highly specific responses to the project’s program and coastal setting. East-west circulation on the building’s south side includes a ramp between Revelle Commons and a level 2 overlook and terrace. The western orientation allows sunset views into terrace areas while confronting intense solar gain. A high-performance, glazed, west-facing screen-wall — designed to evoke the colors and shimmer of Pacific Ocean swells — passively controls direct solar gain and serves as a wind block for the terrace above.

The coastal condition is further evident in the building’s board-formed concrete base, the west stair winding up a bluff face, and the ramp ascending from the landscape culminating in a sheltering pierlike overlook. Level 2, which houses the high-contact program areas that serve student and catering sales customers on a day-to-day basis, is easily accessed, welcoming and open yet sheltered by the exposed concrete structure, glass walls and metal railings of the upper levels.

Sustainability Considerations

The building is LEED Gold certified and achieves this rating through a number of measures including:

· A glazed, ventilated double façade to protect the building from the harsh setting western sun;
· Careful placement of openings and appropriate shading depending on orientation;
· Significant daylighting;
· High-performance insulated glazing;  
· A highly efficient displacement air conditioning system that reduces energy use by 25 percent from           conventional air conditioning;  
· An efficient radiator heating system; and  
· Fly ash added to the concrete.
· The building performs 21 percent above California Title 24 requirements