University of California, Riverside Plant Research 1
The University of California, Riverside (UCR), is a campus deeply and historically linked with the agricultural and natural sciences, since 1907 when the Citrus Experiment Station of the University of California was founded in the city of Riverside. This heritage is academically and physically represented in the University with a district of greenhouses on the main campus, just blocks from the central University mall. These greenhouses, built in the 1960s, create a unique plant research campus district.
This state-of-the-art plant research facility continues this campus tradition with a new greenhouse and research building sited in the existing greenhouse district. The design is driven by the planning and organizational module of the greenhouses. Inspired by the pragmatism of the historical greenhouses, the module organizes the façade, the planning, and the landscape.
Located at a significant crossroads on the campus, the facility represents the importance of plant research to the culture and character of UCR by placing a utilitarian research facility in a visible and approachable location. The result is a design that puts science on display—placing the glass greenhouses above a concrete base so that students, faculty, and researchers can see and experience the research happening on campus.
Through planning and design studies, the design-build team was able to propose a new planning concept that increased the research space of the greenhouses by more than 15%.
