Golden West College
In 1962, the board of trustees of the Orange Coast College District bought 122 acres of farm land in Huntington Beach from Wilford B. Lewis, owner of Golden West Farms, for a new community college campus. Architect William L. Pereira, who designed much of the University of California, Irvine (UCI) campus, was hired the next year to design the new Golden West College, with change and growth factored into the design. Every building was conceived as an element that fits into a great interlinked network or grid. It is a megastructure concept grid of concrete columns and beams that form building structure, portals, and vine covered shade structures. District trustees approved the GWC master plan in early 1964, construction began in 1965 and doors opened to 1,600 day students and 3,000 night students on September 12, 1966.
Huntington Beach, Orange County
Photographer: Andrew Schmidt