- Firm: Robert Coffee & Associates, Inc.
- Photo Credit: RMA Photography
- Product(s) Used: CMU – 8x6x16 Burnish NW Natural Gray, Split Face NW Black 500
- Awards: CMACN Grand Award for Public/Civic Design
About the Project
When architect Robert Coffee and his firm Robert Coffee & Associates (RCA) was selected by the City of Ontario’s Community Development Department to design the Anthony Munoz Community Center, it marked the beginning of a journey that would span nearly six years, navigating shifting municipal priorities and even a global pandemic. Despite the challenges RCA faced, the end result is a thoughtful and inviting civic space that goes beyond the ordinary.
Project Origins and Timeline
Coffee’s background in civic and municipal architecture, honed through decades of competitive RFPs for community centers, positioned RCA as a natural fit for the project. While the project got underway in 2014, the design process was interrupted in 2016 when city priorities shifted towards key advancements in the city’s international airport and world-class convention center. The project resumed in 2017 and reached completion in March 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered public spaces. Despite the delay in its public debut, the center now serves a vital role for neighborhood’s Latino community, offering programs for youth and seniors anchored around the community pool, an ever-changing rotation of classes, and state-of-the-art recreation rooms for vibrant gatherings.
Coffee recalls that while CMU was widely used in recreation centers of the 1970s and 1980s, in his view, the aesthetic option often lacked the warmth you’d hope for in a place intended to foster learning and community-building. RCA reimagined their relationship with CMU in 2008 during a refurbishment project in Mission Viejo. The project called for exposed CMU, and the firm experimented with unique block configurations, including incorporating contrasting textures into the same run of wall block. Later projects in Buena Park and elsewhere combined CMU structural walls with natural wood veneers and accents, establishing RCA’s signature style that juxtaposes the industrial with the organic.
Why Choose CMU?
For the Anthony Munoz Community Center project, CMU was not just a structural choice, but a design statement as well. The firm utilized the rugged banding of split face block to provide depth against the neutral precision block and interspersed protruding blocks to further enhance depth. The raked joints and the narrow block height profiles give the key walls a sleek, brick-like appearance. 6-inch tall units were used to evoke midcentury modern influences from places like Palm Springs.
Among the most celebrated features of the Community Center is its interplay of materials and form to fit the landscape around it. The contrast between CMU and cedar wood creates a tactile and visceral exchange between the manmade and the natural. The building’s sloped rooflines are intended to echo the silhouette of nearby mountain ranges, grounding the structure in its geographic context. A community art mural mounted on reliable CMU visible from the community pool further reinforces the center’s role as a cultural and social hub for Ontario.
