Project Description
Overview
Situated within the music and movie industries, Silicon Valley and “.com” communities, is the home of a new educational facility, Ex’pression College for Digital Arts. The 65,000 square foot facility can be found across the bay from San Francisco, in Emeryville, California.
Ex’pression is a new media arts college, where the unique teaching philosophy of Total Immersion is instilled in its students. The creation of Ex’pression came from the idea of building an atmosphere where passion and enthusiasm are triggered by the artistry of technology. Students are exposed to the best technology with hours upon hours of experience and the expertise in sound and visual media. WSDG provided all the architectural master planning and acoustic design for the digital media and sound arts teaching environments.
Program
In developing the design for Ex’pression, it was very important to keep in mind who the customers would be — tuition paying students. WSDG created an environment that fosters true collaboration. One of the features of the design included the Hexagon Studio, which featured an innovative concept and design: six fully wired studios circled around a single live room where students can record a project simultaneously. In another control room ajacent to the live room, an instructor can monitor any or all of the signals at a time.
The program also included three classrooms suitable for 36 students apiece. Each classroom is very high tech, with full surround sound and monitoring capabilities. In addition to the classrooms, an A/V performance/assembly space accomodates 200 + people in an authentic, professional video production environment.
Located within reach to downtown San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland, Ex’pression College for Digital Arts is within reach to both cultural and intellectual surroundings.