Butte College Science Building and Planetarium

Oroville, CA

Built in a central campus location, the new Science Building and Planetarium more than doubles science enrollment capacity at the college and puts student collaboration at the forefront. The building’s exterior circulation corridor provides a singular, unified path of travel connecting to the middle core comprising 21 laboratories, 35 offices, and 2 classrooms, as well as several themed collaborative spaces along the perimeter designed to foster interaction between peers and instructors.

The building was initially designed with a steel-frame structural system, however steel prices fluctuated greatly in the years following the pandemic. To provide the best value to the district, the project team studied alternatives and ultimately decided upon a cast-in-place system with concrete slabs, walls, and columns. This concrete system also provided the added benefit of severely dampening vibrations throughout the building, which in turn improves microscope usage by keeping objects still and facilitates more accurate measurements.

The district wanted the planetarium to be easily recognizable from the outside, so the project team designed the 60-seat theater to feature a true cast-in-place concrete dome. In addition to educating college students, the planetarium will serve as an outreach and teaching tool for local K-12 schools and the community.