In 1993 southern California State University Cal Poly Pomona completed construction on what is called the CLA Building (classrooms, laboratories and administration), or more often referred to on campus as “The Pointy Building”. The building is an eight story triangular tower with the top of the triangle pointing at LAX airport as the crow flies. Attached to the tower is a seven story, traditional rectangular building with classrooms inside. New Mexican architect Antoine Predock, http://www.predock.com/, won a design contest for the $24M building, which is regarded by some as an iconic building on campus and is part of the skyline looking towards Los Angeles from Interstate 10 and the 57 Freeway and has been featured in Hollywood productions. Below is a frame from the 1997 movie Gattaca.
Eyesore! Over the past 17 years people would say the building is ugly, the small windows are prison-like and it is difficult to navigate inside. Some say it contains a large amount of wasted space, such as the rooftop “amphitheater” which, reportedly, is so windy and echoes so much it didn’t take long to become a large, unused open space. Of course politics needs to come into this just a little. A handful of the campus community say the building was conceived by a previous campus president, Hugh LaBounty, and built as a monument to himself and is coupled with rumors the current President, Michael Ortiz, doesn’t approve of this “monumental” idea and is looking for ways to get rid of it.
Since completion, water intrusion and ongoing multiple operational and mechanical problems have been big issues in addition to the CSU Seismic Review Board adding The Pointy Building to it’s list of seismically hazardous buildings with risk of potential collapse (despite surviving two major southern California earthquakes). All these led up to a $13.3 million CSU Board of Trustees lawsuit against the architect and several contractors in 2005. The Board won and the suit was settled out of court. The current cost to completely repair the existing building is a reported $80 million, probably three times the cost of demolishing and rebuilding a safer, more usable structure.
In September 2010 the CSU Board of Trustees approved a plan to fund a new student services building in place of the CLA Building using state construction bonds. “The board action on Tuesday, Sept. 21, sets in motion a process that will start with design proposals next year, move to the construction phase in 2013 and conclude 18 to 24 months later with a student services building that is much easier to navigate than the CLA,” Lynch says. “The CLA will be razed once the new student services building is up and running.”
So, what is really going on here? How could a 17 year-old building be failing to the point of demolition? Is nearly $100 million in construction costs really the best use of construction funds as deemed by CSU Leadership? How will replacing the building help advance the student’s education other than freshman being able to more easily navigate through it?
Now where is the part about what building industry professionals say in all this? That’s right, there isn’t, because there’s nothing wrong with The Pointy Building.
