RCC/SOU Higher Education Center

Medford, Oregon

The Higher Education Center, completed in August 2008, is a new urban education facility and partnership between Rogue Community College and Southern Oregon University in the center of downtown Medford, Oregon.  The project, also a key element in a larger urban renewal effort, achieved LEED Platinum certification.  Covey Pardee worked with the design team, lead by SERA Architects, to design plaza and pedestrian spaces that are integrated with the streetscape and extend the building into dynamic public open spaces. CPLA also designed the storm water detention basins, which are planted with riparian species and filter all of the roof's rainwater runoff before it enters the city's storm sewer, as a prominent landscape feature adjacent to the public sidewalks.