Laguna College of Art and Design has big plans for its future, and thanks in large part to a $40-million gift from an anonymous donor, the canyon-based private school is preparing to proceed with a large-scale development.
Steven Brittan, president of LCAD, said it is the largest gift to have been given to the college, one that brings a $100-million capital campaign to its midway point. He added that the college was “incredibly honored and excited” to receive the donation from a person whose name will not be made public until the project is complete.
The college is now moving forward with the first phase of a major development designed to bring all of its academic offerings to its Big Bend location, something Brittan said will offer a “less fragmented experience” for students, who now attend classes in multiple sites along Laguna Canyon Road. He said he began considering ways to consolidate the campus shortly after becoming its 14th president four years ago.
Kicking off the transformational project will be a new Innovation Center, a two-story, 22,000-square-foot building that is expected to become the centerpiece of the main campus. A groundbreaking ceremony will take place on Sunday, Sept. 21, school officials said.
A rendering of the Innovation Center to be built on the Big Bend campus of Laguna College of Art and Design.
(Courtesy of Laguna College of Art and Design)
The Innovation Center, which is expected to be completed by 2028, will serve to foster creativity and generate new ideas, Brittan said, through various concepts. Activities in the building, as well as the layout of the classrooms, their proximity to each other and the technology within them will help create an environment of collaborative learning.
“The new building… will allow us to bring all the academic spaces together,” Brittan said. “Really, what is very much a part of our pedagogical philosophy and approach here is to break down as many of the silos between the majors, between the different disciplines, because this is where the future of practice and professional industries are going.
“Students can actually work in a much more fluid and dynamic way, and same with the faculty, and so all of our academic spaces will be now on our Big Bend campus.”
Steven J. Brittan became the 14th president of Laguna College of Art and Design in 2021.
(Xun Michael Chi / Courtesy of LCAD)
The Innovation Center will be equipped with digital arts classrooms, a print lab, indoor and outdoor event spaces and a climate-controlled art storage facility. It will also feature 3,000 square feet of exhibition space, as well as a bistro café.
“For more than six decades, LCAD has played an important role in fueling the creative economy,” Jared Mathis, chair of the LCAD Board of Trustees, said in a statement. “This development marks a bold investment in its future that will reshape the college’s presence in Laguna Beach and beyond.”
The college was founded in 1961 and has served an enrollment of approximately 800 students in recent years. School officials have also expressed interest in building housing for about 300 students.
Brittan looks forward to bringing the college’s maker spaces together. He called the capital improvements an “intensive plan” that will set the college up for decades to come.
“The plan is with the $100-million capital campaign that in the next five years, these two main campuses — main campus and Big Bend — will have been built out with the academic spaces, the support spaces, the expanded library, housing, all completed by 2030 to be able to support the growth… and allow us to really sustain ourselves for the next 50 years,” Brittan said.
