VISITOR CENTER
Location: Sutro Baths, San Francisco, California, USA
Year: 2016
Type: Academic research
Status: Completed study
Institution: California College of the Arts
Role: Sole student designer
Outputs: Research, concepts, models, drawings, details, and renderings
Image credits: JJ Tan
Professional involvement: Not applicable to this academic project
Visitor Center explores how a prefabricated building system can respond to the steep terrain, ruins, pathways, and raw coastal character of the Sutro Baths landscape.
The proposal intersects an existing zigzagging stair route, allowing visitors to enter through several openings as they move across the site. Visitors can pass through the building, enter its programs, or pause within a terraced interior that creates framed views of the surrounding landscape.
Public areas include a botanical nursery and gallery spaces, while classrooms and environmental science laboratories occupy more controlled terraces. Their arrangement explores how public access, research, education, and privacy can coexist within a continuous spatial sequence.
A prefabricated steel structural spine supports a panelized envelope composed of perforated metal and structural insulated panels. Raised roof elements and strategically positioned openings respond to existing paths and frame selected views. The building skin continues the movement of the topography, allowing the proposal to read as part of the landscape rather than as an isolated object.