Modesto Junior College Science Community Center and Great Valley Museum
Yosemite Community College District
At the heart of the design for the Modesto Junior College Science Community Center and Great Valley Museum was the decision to put science on display in all public areas of the building to encourage scientific study and incidental learning, while promoting interaction between students, facility, and museum visitors.
The result is a four-story building which integrates science at nearly ever turn. A scale solar system model suspends over the entry lobby. A 65-foot DNA double helix sculpture rises four stories along the circulation stair, with sequence lettering on the treads and landings below. A Foucault pendulum marks the Earth's rotation within the observatory tower. Constellation artwork designed by an Art Department faculty member lines the planetarium exterior — line work by day, LED-lit at night. Bronze sculptures of a Tule Elk and Mountain Lion anchor the entry plazas, the result of a collaborative fundraising effort between the Zoology Department and the Museum Foundation. An interactive Table of Elements, a Science on a Sphere display, and a water feature demonstrating Bernoulli's principle, parabolic flow, and travelling wave physics complete a building where every surface has something to say.
Inside, laboratories for biology, anatomy, physiology, microbiology, botany, zoology, geology, earth science, chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, and astronomy support 1,192 students. A 120-seat full-dome planetarium and rooftop observatory with direct projection capability bring real-time astronomical observation into the curriculum.
