Steven Brittan says Laguna College of Art + Design has had a major hurdle during its 64-year history—its campus has been spread out among five separate parcels along the narrow and winding Laguna Canyon Road.
“The experience for the student has been naturally fragmented,” Brittan, president of the college, told the Business Journal. “It’s been very siloed.”
The college is beginning a $100 million capital campaign to put its students on two campuses totaling seven acres. That vision led to the college’s single largest gift ever— $40 million, given by a donor who has known the college for a long time and wished to remain anonymous.
“This particular donor was very excited to see the greater plan,” Brittan said.
“When all this is in place within the next five years, we will be able to secure our future for the next 50 years.”
The Gaming Connection
The college has gained a reputation for training students to work in Orange County’s thriving gaming community that includes large players like Activision Blizzard of Microsoft, Obsidian Entertainment, Turtle Rock Studios and Amazon Games.
“We’re very aligned with the gaming industry here,” said Brittan, who estimated there are 40 such companies in a close radius to the campus.
“At a time when society questions higher education, we’re providing learning skills.”
Besides the gaming businesses, the college is also collaborating with entities like the John Wayne Airport and the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter at Caltech. The college is expanding into new innovations in color materials and finishes as well as fashion and transportation.
“We’re specifically aligning ourselves with key industries in the region that are providing innovation and places where our students can get jobs and play leading roles,” he said.
“What we’re training our students is to be designers for the future.”
The Consolidation
The gift will enable the college to launch the first step to consolidate LCAD academic classes to its main campus at its Big Bend facility on Laguna Canyon Road. In September, LCAD will break ground on its first phase of the development, a two-story, 22,000-square-foot Innovation Center, which will serve as the centerpiece of the new campus.
The facility will feature digital arts classrooms, the Roland Print Lab, which was provided by Roland DGA Corp., a 3,000-square-foot multipurpose exhibition space, climate-controlled art storage facility, indoor and outdoor event spaces, as well as a bistro café. The college said the center, which was designed by LPA Design Studios, will be fire-resistant and blend seamlessly with the surrounding canyon landscape. The construction is anticipated to be completed by 2028.
“As the demand for careers in art and design have been rising, we are embarking on the most ambitious project in our institution’s history,” Brittan said. “This project represents a pivotal step in LCAD’s long-term vision to enhance educational resources, expand capacity and improve campus infrastructure to ensure students have the tools and spaces they need to collaborate, thrive and succeed.”
The college, which has 750 students, said it’s ranked amongst the top art and design colleges in the nation by entities like the Princeton Review, Research.com and Niche Rankings.
“For more than six decades, LCAD has played an important role in fueling the creative economy and this development marks a bold investment in its future that will reshape the college’s presence in Laguna Beach and beyond,” said Board of Trustees Chair Jared Mathis, who is chief executive at the Moulton Company, an investment firm involved in commercial, industrial and residential real estate.
The college’s board of trustees includes long-time OC business executives: Hiro Kinoshita was a founding partner of KTGY, one of OC’s largest architectural firms, Justin Thavirat, a game developer who has been involved in several top Blizzard games like Warcraft and Diablo, and Kathryn Burton Gray, the founding principal of Seniors Capital LLC, which provides equity and debt to the senior housing industry.
The college also has a board of governors with well-known business ties: Richard Holbrook, a designer of furniture and other products, Lynn Jochim, the former president of the Irvine developer FivePoint Holdings LLC, and Bill Shopoff who is developing several large projects in Orange County.
