Galbraith Hall: A new life for a classic modernist building

Galbraith Hall auditorium by Kevin deFreitas. Photo ©Darren Bradley

Local San Diego architect, Kevin deFreitas, was recently asked by the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) to put a new auditorium into one of the first buildings on the campus, Galbraith Hall. What he created with a meagre budget has literally transformed the space - while still managing to respect its mid-century modernist roots -and almost makes me wish I was still a student.

The original exterior by Deems Lewis Martin, along with the new canopy entry by Kevin deFreitas. Photo ©Darren Bradley

Galbraith Hall, by Deems Lewis Martin Architects, was built in 1964 as the original library for the UCSD campus. It was named for the second chancellor of UCSD, John Galbraith.

There's even a photo by Ansel Adams, taken in 1966, showing students studying in the space. At the time, the waffle concrete ceilings and skylights made for a beautiful design with lots of natural light.

Photo by Ansel Adams of the original library interior of Galbraith Hall, taken in 1966.
This was two years after the opening.

If this space had remained the same throughout the years, perhaps the story would have ended right there. But it didn't. A new central library was built and opened in 1970 (by William Pereira). This space suffered from several modifications over the years, with a dropped ceiling added to cover up that waffle pattern, and many other changes. Here's a photo taken just before its closure.

CLICS was ostensibly a study hall that was open 24 hours for Finals Week. Of course, as anyone familiar with it will tell you, it was more of a social scene than a place for any sort of conducive studying.

It was called CLICS (for Center for Library and Instructional Computing Services) and was one of the few study halls on that side of campus. School officials made the unfortunate decision to close it for budget cuts just before finals a couple of years ago, and students broke in and forced to to reopen, just so they could study (only at UCSD, right?).

Photo ©Darren Bradley

Anyway, Kevin deFreitas was tasked with adding an auditorium to the central atrium space, and converting the perimeter spaces to study halls (24 hours!), a dance studio, a theater lighting lab, and offices.

Photo ©Darren Bradley

Photo ©Darren Bradley

The results speak for themselves. What I appreciate most is that Kevin respected the original design and its mid-century modern spirit, while creating something original.

Photo ©Darren Bradley

He got rid of the drop ceilings to expose the original waffle pattern, and clad the auditorium walls in a geometric pattern that is a modern riff on the shadow block from that time period.

Photo ©Darren Bradley

With the changing light, the walls of the auditorium transform throughout the day.

In fact, it seems that a driving force behind Kevin's design was to take the advantage of the natural light from those skylights in the ceiling, and bring that into as play as much as
possible throughout the rest of the space (including the restrooms!)