Last summer, a small team of Sacramento State architecture students collaborated with the President’s Office to create conceptual renderings for the upcoming Capital Campus development.
The team divided work among architecture design and interior design students to render the announced boutique hotel and student housing buildings, both set to be located on Capitol Mall and 8th Street.
Architecture students senior Kristel Yee and alumnus Prashana Maharjan worked on the student housing design and rendering, while alumnus Jeremy Consunji, junior Yezenia Gutierrez and senior Mariia Gryshko worked on the boutique hotel design and rendering.
A conceptual render of the boutique hotel’s aerial exterior. The hotel is anticipated to provide accommodation to visiting students, families, research partners and university guests, according to Sacramento State.
Carloyn Gibbs, an architecture professor, faculty adviser for the project and Sac State’s faculty senate chair, said she was tasked by the President’s Office to work with students to conceptualize a visual for the Capital Campus project.
“This was something for the President’s Office, so that they could provide experience for students, number one,” Gibbs said. “Number two, [to] have a way to help the community understand what could be in that space.”
As a licensed architect who has been teaching at Sac State since 1997, Gibbs said the students learned important lessons about architecture throughout the process. This included learning details such as how to incorporate different materials and perspectives when creating exterior designs, otherwise known as a building’s façade.
A conceptual render of the east exterior perspective of the student housing building. The building is designed to be across from the boutique hotel, also cornering 8th street.
Yee, the team’s project manager, said the team gained valuable insight into how their studies can contribute to career skills outside of college.
“I think all the students that participated really got the experience of working on a real-life project,” Yee said. “Although this is still in a conceptual phase, we really dug into: the students are going to be using the space, the community is going to be seeing this, so how do we make this building in a sense that it represents both Sac State and the community?”
Yee is expected to graduate this spring and said she feels grateful to have had the chance to give back to her peers by leading them in an impactful extracurricular project. She said the project incorporated both technical skills and client communication, allowing them to receive and utilize client feedback to learn from their mistakes.
“I have been an advocate for students to do extracurricular activities. So when professor Gibbs presented this opportunity, I just couldn’t pass it up,” Yee said. “Even if it’s a conceptual design, not only would it help students gain experience, but they would have to talk to the client.”
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Gibbs said that the team periodically met with Sac State’s Chief of External Relations and Interim senior AVP for University Communications Michelle Willard, who served as the client. They also met with two staff members in Real Estate Services from the Chancellor’s Office, Eric F. Anderson and Julia Rogers.
“The president and Michelle Willard knew that I like to create campus projects for students to imagine how to rethink their campus buildings,” Gibbs said. “I’ve always been committed to reimagining what this campus might look like, and I try to bring in students to the conversation.”
Willard, who initially approached Gibbs with the idea of collaborating on the project, said she finds importance in reaching out to the campus community to gauge their ideas.
“I think it’s really important to partner with faculty and students when you’re working on this large of a project,” Willard said. “We were fortunate and lucky enough to have a faculty senate chair who is an architect.”
Willard said she emphasized free reign for the project, encouraging the students to get creative without strict parameters. She said the designs are primarily aesthetic jumping-off points, but will be shared with the construction company Sac State ultimately decides to work with.
“I think having the students be a part of the process moving forward is important,” Willard said. “Whether they want to shadow, learn or understand the master planning process – we’re going to make sure they’re a part of this.”
The students used a modeling program called SketchUp to design the buildings, with Lumion being used for the 3D rendering.
Yee said that although the team faced challenges, she looks forward to sharing these images with the public so their hard work can be put on display.
“Being able to do a schematic design for the school is such an accomplishment that I don’t think other schools have given to their department or to their students,” Yee said. “I really appreciate professor Gibbs and the whole department for providing us with the opportunity to work freely on what we think represents Sac State and the community.”