Form, Function & Narration

About 5 years ago the San
Bernardino Valley College campus was found to be straddling a seismic fault line. Architect Steven Ehrlich was brought in to master plan five new buildings -- to replace five that are being demolished. The new buildings will be situated further from the fault line and engineered to withstand four-times the force required by code.

But Ehrlich is as much a story teller as he is an architect. The design of the new buildings is to be a reminder of the campus' former vulnerability -- and how education is the fortifier. Cleverly, cross beams hold up triangulated metal roofs, the forms of which are a metaphor for tetonic plate movement, best seen by an aerial view.

"We did not want to bury or hide our systems," explained Ehrlich, "but to display them." Form, function -- and narration.