Los Angeles, California, USA

Michael W. Bischoff and Henry N. Cobb of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and Gensler have collaborated for creating the new 4-story addition to UCLA’s Marion Anderson Graduate School of Management that will provide sophisticated teaching, administrative, and event space in a sustainable form that integrates visually and functionally with the existing school while revitalizing the campus with a bold new presence.

The Marion Anderson Hall at UCLA has recently been awarded a 2022 International Architecture Awards Honorable Mention by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.

Transforming a condition long considered an unsightly barrier between the school and the core campus, the design sites the building atop an existing parking structure east of the original complex, framing a new pedestrian plaza and cascading grand stair to the south and providing a second entry and landscaped vehicular arrival plaza on the north.

The result is a new primary entrance to the school that also serves as a dramatic gateway to UCLA’s North Campus.

Care was taken to match the four-color blended brick and buff-colored cast-stone masonry banding of the original building, creating a seamless transition from old to new, while the crisp volumes and transparency of the new facade energize the entire ensemble and present an open and welcoming face to the surrounding community.

Inside the building, state-of-the-art, acoustically optimized spaces are designed to support evolving models of business education.

In addition to offices and classrooms, the facility includes a double-height event space and shaded terrace overlooking the plaza, and a dynamic indoor-outdoor environment at the lowest public level.

At the heart of the building, a luminous, five-story stepped atrium houses a rich array of interactive social and learning spaces.

High-performance low-E glazing, operable windows in offices, and green roofs are just a few of the sustainable features that earned the building its LEED Platinum certification.

Project: Marion Anderson Hall UCLA Anderson School of Management
Architects: Pei Cobb Freed & Partners LLC.
Lead Architects: Michael W. Bischoff and Henry N. Cobb
Associate Architects: Gensler
General Contractor: Nordic PCL Construction, Inc.
Client: University of California, Los Angeles
Photographers: Paul Turang Photography and Ferrari Images