STUDIOS designed the renovation and expansion of the 1960s De La Guerra Dining Commons to meet a growing demand for a variety of dining styles, allow the campus to remain competitive with outside food sources, and provide higher quality products and services.
The new Commons provides a full spectrum of dining environments—from solitary to intimate to communal—and takes advantage of the location’s year-round temperate climate with outdoor seating available both under a canopy and in full sun.
Perimeter window areas allow natural light to filter into the interior of the building’s wide, deep L-shaped footprint. In the main dining area, space between the ceiling beams is elevated to follow the roofline and create more volume. The new entrance structure serves as an orientation marker, linking two sides of the building that had been separated previously. At night, the glassy volume shines like a beacon, making wayfinding easy and creating a new community center for this precinct of student residence halls.
STUDIOS also replanned UCSB’s Ortega Dining Commons.
The new Commons provides a full spectrum of dining environments—from solitary to intimate to communal—and takes advantage of the location’s year-round temperate climate with outdoor seating available both under a canopy and in full sun.
Perimeter window areas allow natural light to filter into the interior of the building’s wide, deep L-shaped footprint. In the main dining area, space between the ceiling beams is elevated to follow the roofline and create more volume. The new entrance structure serves as an orientation marker, linking two sides of the building that had been separated previously. At night, the glassy volume shines like a beacon, making wayfinding easy and creating a new community center for this precinct of student residence halls.
STUDIOS also replanned UCSB’s Ortega Dining Commons.
