Founded in 1930, the Art Center College of Design is a private institution delivering Undergraduate and Masters programs to its 1700+ students. Undergraduate majors offered are in Advertising, Entertainment Design, Environmental Design, Graphic Design, Product Design, Transportation, Film, Fine Art and Photography. Postgraduate streams are Broadcast Cinema, Industrial Design, Media Design and Art. Comprehensive stats on the schools programs, students and staff can be found here .
Art Centre College is currently ranked #1 in Industrial Design by U.S. News and DesignIntelligence. Ansel Adams taught here. Design alumni have come up with things like R2D2 and the Apple monitor.
Needless to say I was squeaking with excitement that ACCD Library Director Betsy Galloway opened her doors and showed off her collections and projects for the ArtLibraryCrawl.
The design of this design campus deserves a quick word.
Completed in 1976, this incredible building designed by architect Craig Ellwood is described mostly using words like 'masterpiece' and 'iconic'. And those words are appropriate.
Here are some excellent images of its construction, showing the Hillside Campus building long, new and nude on its mountainous perch.
The ACCD Archive maintains a major collection of material related to the site, the building and its construction.
The ACCD Archive maintains a major collection of material related to the site, the building and its construction.
What was most affecting for me, however, was driving beyond suburbia through the lush, green hills of Pasadena and then being confronted/awed by the spectacle of all this glass and metal, hovering like it does over the hills and amongst the trees. And then driving underneath its roost and along its length to park.
A bit surreal, a bit sic-fi, the somatic reaction it elicits has seen the building feature in many films, including one of my all-time favourites Escape from New York (1981). See a comprehensive list of all the ACCD locations for this dystopian cult classic compiled here. Snake Pliskin, I heart you.
None of the many photos I took of the buildings exterior adequately captured it's effect.
Luckily Google is out there doing what it does, and you can drive up the hill and under the structure here with Google Street View.
Virtual Art Library Tourism!
Nestled in all that beautiful construction is the James Lemont Fogg Memorial Library and Art Center Archives. I park and bustle everyone out of the car (my wee children and Husbando sternly instructed to frolic on the grass outside).
Adding to the delight of the visit is the fact that it is the day of the Undergratuate Degree Show- and a flurry of activity has exploded on campus. It feels as if every well lit wall has been employed to great effect by the exhibiting student body. And members of this student body are literally running around the building in focused/frantic attempts to make it all right on the night. I love Grad Shows.
