The Ted and Jean Scripps Marine Conservation and Technology Facility at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography breathes new life into the last standing structure of four that comprised the iconic Southwest Fisheries Science Center by Frank L. Hope and Associates, and includes a new multi-purpose lecture, conference, restaurant, and event space.
Three buildings were razed and the nearby hillside reinforced in 2014, making way for a modernized and enhanced facility that both enriches SIO’s renowned educational and research programs and capitalizes on its coastal location. Through careful placement of the new structure, the facility’s program has broadened from one of research and education to include a gathering place for SIO and the community at large.
The “Building D’ renovation honors Hope’s original design while functionally contemporizing the modernist structure with eight new teaching and research labs. The adjacent addition adds classrooms, lecture and conference spaces, a rooftop café, and a stepped terrace accommodating outdoor dining and special events, while providing shade and shelter to an existing parking garage. The organization of space celebrates the building’s history and embodies the sense of ocean, earth and atmospheric science research and education that SIO is celebrated for.
