Pomona Millikan Building: Math, Physics & Astronomy

POMONA COLLEGE
Millikan Laboratory & Andrew Science Hall

2 ehdd. POMONA COLLEGE MILLIKAN LABORATORY & ANDREW SCIENCE HALL

EHDD’S design of the new Millikan Laboratory
at Pomona College in Claremont, California
was deeply informed by a collaborative design
process that encouraged the input of many of
the building’s stakeholders including faculty,
students and staff across its three departments;
math, physics and astronomy. This inclusive
process allowed the vision and aspirations of
the departments to be realized collectively and
independently, and has resulted in a rich weave
of spaces to support student learning.
Central to this effort was an assessment and
quantification of new teaching methods and
programs. Together we looked at what was
and wasn’t working in the old building and
investigated cultural aspects of department life
that wanted to be retained. We toured peer
institutions together to help us think outside
the box and to distinguish what was uniquely
Pomona. Fueled by these observations and
criteria, the design evolved through multiple
iterations over many months.
The outcome of this process is a new building
that while meeting ambitious sustainability
and user comfort goals, also:
 Accommodates the school’s 21st century
teaching aspirations with active learning
and collaborative classrooms,
 Creates central community hubs
and breakout spaces,
 Reinforces the accessibility of faculty
to students with the location and layout
of offices,
 Provides infrastructure required of physics
labs, shops, and an immersive planetarium
and innovative physics courtyard.
Location
Claremont, CA
Completion Date
June 2015
Size
75,000 sq. ft.
Construction Cost
$38 million
Sustainability
LEED Platinum
Certified
Awards
Sustainable
Innovation Award
from USGBC-LA
Departments
Maths, Physics
and Astronomy
ehdd. 3POMONA COLLEGE MILLIKAN LABORATORY & ANDREW SCIENCE HALL

Campus Planning Principles
Science District Context
The Millikan building is situated in the center of the
Science District in an area that departed from the
elegant site planning principles for which the Pomona
campus is known. The science buildings were built
close to the street edges, leaving the interior of the
blocks undeveloped with great potential for pathways
and courtyards. However, the pedestrian walkways
were interrupted by parking lots, building entries were
misaligned from circulation patterns, the outdoor space
was dominated by the roar of an adjacent cooling
tower and connective pathways between buildings
were blocked by an accretion of building additions.
This project sought to amend these deficiencies and
bring the science district on par with the elegance of
the surrounding campus.
This Science District has a consistent character of red-
tiled gable roofs and cementious walls with punched
openings that set the basic palette for the project.
The Planetarium Dome was located on the corner of
College Way to announce the function of the building.

New pedestrian spine connecting the Science District
Courtyard
Millikan Courtyard—Before
Millikan Courtyard—After

 South Facade with
deep overhangs
and window shades
prevent overheating.

Pomona College is located inland southern
California with mild winters and hot summers in
the triple digits. It is subject to poor air quality
due to its valley location east of Los Angeles.
A key strategy was to manage solar gain to
minimize cooling while optimizing daylight.
The thin east-west building massing allowed
for effective shading on the south using the
roof overhang and external sunshades. The
west façade minimizes glazing and shades it
with exterior horizontal shades.
 In the large colloquium lecture hall, an often windowless
space type, north facing windows provide views up his-
toric College Avenue. And west facing clerestories reflect
daylight off a sloped soffit onto the teaching wall.
 For the frequent evening events, the transparency of the
colloquium lobby provides a welcoming glow for arriving
visitors and opens seemlessly to the couryard.

Physics interactive elements are woven
into the landscape and are designed to
be sculptures when not in use.

Courtyard
A key design goal was to create a social heart and active
pedestrian connection between the eight buildings in the
Science District. A new courtyard replaced the existing
parking lot and mechanical yard with landscaping, an outdoor
classroom, physics interactives, and social spaces spilling out
from the Colloquium and collaborative spaces.
 Outdoor classrooom
 The comfort of shade is a welcome relief in the Pomona’s hot climate

Colloquium
One of the central challenges to the design was the
replacement of the existing Colloquium, an important
campus-wide space that was rarely used due to its
windowless, inhospitable design and insurmountable
ADA limitations. In contrast to its origins, the new
Colloquium is a gracious, daylit space with an adjacent
reception and courtyard that support special events.
Designed to create a sense of intimacy, the room’s
proportions allow close proximity between instructor
and student and supports interaction and collaboration
with flexible furniture and good sightlines.

Colloquium Design Features
 Campus-wide space for lecture + collaboration
 Adjacent reception and courtyard support special events
 Shallow room depth and tiered seating ensures close
proximity and eye contact between instructor and students
 Curved rows allow students to see one another across the
room to aid in discussion
 Shallow steps between tiers allow for collaboration
from one row to next
 Widely spaced aisles and rows allow faculty
to circulate amongst students
 Careful selection of moveable chairs allow for ease
of access behind them—no arms or wide bases
 Daylight and views to the north provides a visual release
from the classroom aiding in alertness and focus of students
 Overhead rigging to support physics demonstrations
(students as pendulum, etc)
 Tall windows and a skylight at the rear of the room provide
views and ambient daylight to offset the need for electric lights.
Acoustic and AV Features
 Fixed continuous desks with power and data
 Ceiling mounted cameras to film a lecture or
demonstration
 Two large screens for projection
 Vertical-sliding white boards—three boards high
and three boards wide
Seating Capacity
 85-100 seats

Collaborative Spaces
An Active Hub and Student Collaborative spaces create a
portal at the access to the department, that reinforces the
Math Department’s culture and identity. It was important
to augment a critical cultural aspect into the project, as the
existing math lab was identified as the best student lounge
on the campus, and was available to students 24/7.
Math had an extremely close knit department and took
great pride in their constant availability of their offices
and collaboriative lounges, offering help to students
whether it be with departmental logistics, or emotional
support. These important spaces had been embedded
somewhat anonymously in the original building and are
now prominently.
 Active Hub adjacent
to student lounge
and department
office
 Math Student Lounge 

Classrooms
Classrooms are designed to support the unique
pedagogy of teaching and learning for the physics
and math departments.Physics preferred tables of
three students—the optimal size for group work.
 Math encourages in-class student participation
and group problem solving with easily moved and
reconfigurable furniture and access to blackboards
located on three sides of every classroom.
 Blackboards are preferred by math while Physics
prefers whiteboards.
 All classrooms are designed to maximize daylight and
views so most classrooms are on north side with high
window heads and views to the adjacent courtyard.
 Screens are located so that boards and projection
can be used simultaneously.

Research
Faculty research includes
nanotechnology and lithography,
scanning probe microscopy,
experimental condensed matter
physics, materials science and optics.
Nine faculty research labs were
designed with a consistent research
support infrastructure and a double
lab-bay width for future flexibility.
This consistent footprint was tested
to ensure it would accommodate a
wide range of possible future layouts.
These labs were then fit out to the
specific research needs of the current
faculty. The research labs were
located in the basement due to their
strict vibration requirements and to
provide a stable, tight temperature
range environment.
In addition, there is a dedicated
sophomore lab, a student projects
lab, and supporting full machine
shop, metal shop, electronics
shop, and wood shop. The
Astronomy faculty have a Remote
Observing Room for convenient
access to the Pomona College
Table Mountain Observatory and
are working with undergraduate
students in an intensive effort to
develop and deploy a low-cost,
remote-access, natural guide-star
adaptive optics system for that
observatory.

Landscape
The landscape design transforms the
original courtyard that was formerly
covered by an asphalt parking lot and
reflects the “College in a Garden”
planning ideals that were established
by Myron Hunt and Ralph Cornell in
the 1930s, and reintroduces a native
plant palette that is contextual to the
surroundings and is drought resistant.
Stormwater is distributed throughout
the site and provides irrigation for the
associated courtyard gardens.
The design provides flexibility for a variety
of uses, including programmed events,
academic study and daily lounging for
students and faculty. observatory.

“…the beautiful and functional
outdoor interactive sculpture
elements make our courtyard a place
to experience physics. The project
distinguishes our department and
our college as a home for innovative
science education.”
—Dr. David Tanenbaum
Chair, Department of Physics
and Astronomy Pomona College
Physics Interactives
The outdoor interactive sculpture garden was
a long awaited vision of the Physics faculty at
Pomona College.
The courtyard houses a series of Physics
Interactives that are used to let students tangibly
experience physics principals. So instead
of just reading or hearing about things, they
demonstrate them. These interactives include a
Linear Accelerator for experiencing a constant
rate of acceleration, a Turntable for experiencing
centripetal force and a spinning frame of
reference, a Lever Arm, and Parabolic Acoustic
Mirrors to experiment with sound focusing. The
courtyard and interactives are open to the public,
as is the planetarium which regularly hosts school
groups to introduce them to astronomy.

 A steel frame supports
three swings with different
lengths of rope; the short
one swings fast and the
long one slow.
 The Linear Accelerator is designed
to let students feel what a constant
rate of acceleration feels like.
 The Carousel is used to demonstrate centripetal force.
 The Lever Arm is a bench that can be converted into a lever (like a see-saw) to explain the concept of
leverage. The fulcrum point can be shifted to various points. Note how one skinny man out-leverages
two heavy construction workers.

Pomona College
Millikan Laboratory
& Andrew Science Hall
Owner
Pomona College
Architect
EHDD
Contractor
Matt Construction
Consultants
Structural Engineer Rutherford & Chekene
Landscape EPT Design
Mechanical, Electrical & Plumbing Engineer Integral Group
Lighting Consultant JS Nolan + Associates
Daylighting Consultant Integrated Design Lab
Telecom, Audio Visual & Security Consultant TEECOM Design Group
Acoustical Consultant Charles M. Salter Associates
Theater Consultant The Shalleck Collaborative
Vibration Consultant Colin Gordon & Associates
Civil Engineer Stantec
Cost Estimator Oppenheim Lewis, Inc.
Wayfinding & Environmental Graphics GNU Group
Laboratory Consultant HKS / Earl Walls Associates
Photographer
Jim Simmons Photography

ARCHITECTURE INTERIORS PLANNING URBAN DESIGN
500 TREAT AVE. #201 SAN FRANCISCO CA 94110 USA
T +1-415-285-9193 F +1-415-285-3866
WWW.EHDD.COM

Pomona Millikan Building: Math, Physics & Astronomy

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