The design approach to the Matador Success and Inclusion Center (MSIC) emphasizes inclusivity, functionality, and community-building, while honoring CSUN’s history and student aspirations. We view this project as an architectural loom, interlacing threads of activities and bringing together different entities to create stronger and more enlightened wholes. Looms weave together materials that serve practical, cultural, and artistic purposes, playing a key role in storytelling, cultural identity, and even tracing familial heritage across generations. This project will serve the same function for students, staff, and faculty.

The building’s design strategically places student activities in prominent ground floor locations to enrich the campus experience for passersby and encourage student engagement with the outreach programs of the MSIC. The IBRC collaboration space and Multipurpose Room are situated at the southwest and northwest corners, respectively, featuring extensive glazing to connect the vibrant interior life of the building with the public realm of the campus.

Generous colonnades at these locations ensure that the western glass remains shaded, minimizing reflections and enhancing transparency. Additionally, a raised terrace on the southwest corner, linking the Lobby and IBRC programs, is shaded by both the building and street trees. This veranda-like space extends the building’s functionality to the street level, activating a crucial intersection of the campus and fostering an inviting environment for student interaction.

To deeply understand the experiences of CSUN students and faculty, we engaged with department leaders to explore the campus’s past, present, and future, focusing on the socio-cultural aspects of its people, places, and stories.

We maximized the time with university leaders during both preliminary meetings. From the outset, we aimed to empower each department to take ownership of curating a sense of belonging within the workplace and student services program of the building.

In our initial engagement with CSUN leadership, we developed four unique discussion topics tailored to each department’s design basis. Our approach centered on identity and well-being, fostering spatial awareness to enhance the project’s design in celebrating and preserving the university community’s narratives. By creating a safe space for open and honest dialogue, we gathered qualitative insights into how their spaces function both socially and physically.

After completing the initial ground-setting phase, we translated the gathered information into four key design justice approaches, emphasizing connectivity and co-authorship. This process ensured that the building design would authentically reflect and support the stories and work of the students and faculty. With this information the project team is equipped with the tools to create applicable design tactics to create equitable spaces throughout the building.

The intuitive wayfinding design of the MSIC building is centered around a double-height lobby located on the west side, featuring a portal window oriented towards the primary southwest corner. This lobby seamlessly integrates with the external colonnade, with soffits extending through the space, creating a public character that connects to all suites. The CHIP and MAC suites have windows that connect to the upper void, enhancing the sense of openness. A prominently located interconnecting stair, bathed in daylight from a skylight above and highlighted with bold CSUN red, metaphorically extends the Matadors’ cape from level 3 Athletics into the lobby, encouraging stair use over elevators. The ES for Race, positioned away from the entry doors due to security concerns, remains intuitively accessible. The terrazzo tile floor extends the public nature of the lobby to levels 2 and 3, featuring welcoming, highly glazed suite arrival spaces and views of the campus, effectively orienting visitors.

The intersectionality of identities and programs found in the IBRC creates a rich diaspora of cultures that will be amplified in the design of the space upon arrival. Prioritizing the social cohesion of all students was a need expressed by the leadership of IBRC. Strategically located adjacent to the entry of the building as a steward of the buildings mission, all students are welcomed to an open work area and kitchen that facilitates social gatherings, collaborative study, and the supportive structure of staff at the periphery in private offices. The IBRC holds space for the expression of identity through artwork and curation of bookshelves that allow students and faculty to co-author, create a space that prioritizes their agency, and develop programming that belongs to them. The suite is designed to support the elevation of activities that allow students to convene and build a community that supports their culture. The IBRC is connected to the ES for RACE suite by proximity and a historical graphical timeline that grounds the success of CSUN and identity of their work in the space for all that visit the space to experience. The departmental connection of ES for RACE with the IBRC is facilitated by a continuous historical timeline that will be co-created with faculty and student to amplify their lived experiences in the past, present, and future.

To create a cohesive department for three distinct groups, the design of the suite prioritizes developing a social cohesion around shared resources and work areas. Upon arrival, students are greeted with graphical branding that reflects the mission of CHIPS’s three community-centered and research-based groups. To create an environment for open collaboration, the space is designed to feel like a living room, with furniture and work surfaces that accommodate a variety of working styles. This area welcomes visitors into a learning community that promotes the health and wellbeing of users through art integration, warm lighting, and clear access to staff of CHIP.

Embracing the department’s mission to support and empower student athletes, the MAC suite is designed to unify all staff, faculty, and student-athletes into a space that fosters a sense of community where they will thrive. Affirming the arrival of student athletes, who carry a dual identity on campus, is created by holding space for them in during the arrival sequence and reaffirming their presence in the building. The MAC mission is expressed through wall graphics, with a seating area and existing scrolls placed adjacent to the entry, so that student athletes are reminded that they belong here as soon as they enter. Key sayings and graphics will be strategically placed throughout the suite to elevate the collaborative meeting rooms and highlight spaces that students are encouraged to use.

The Athletics suite embodies the identity and branding of the school’s pride with visible reminders of the program’s success are strategically placed throughout the suite. This acknowledges and elevates the goals of the programs through the use of graphical wall art and embraces a diversity of student athlete accomplishments and identities. Light wells bring an abundance of natural light into the open office space, highlighting wall art that anchors the mission of the department. In addition, a well defined waiting area displays past trophies and accomplishments of the programs, grounding the visitors in the rich history of CSUN athletics and supporting their commitment to success and progress.

The portal windows articulate the orthogonal mass of the building, showcasing feature programs and framing views of the surrounding context. These windows are created by the facade ‘peeling open’ at each corner to reveal large, full-height glass walls. They are distinguished from typical windows by their size and directionality, each pointing towards a different mountain range or campus feature. The programs behind these windows are the highlight spaces of each suite, ensuring they have the best views. Additionally, these spaces animate the building facade at night, as they are used late into the evening.