By Jorge Casuso

November 5, 2025 -- Santa Monica College (SMC) showcased its new cutting-edge $125 million Mathematics + Science Building at an open house on Saturday.

The 110,000-square-foot LEED Gold-Certified building -- which includes 22 classrooms, 11 labs and a state-of-the-art planetarium and observatory -- was constructed with voter-approved bonds and State funding.

Opened late last year, the building brings together for the first time four departments under one roof that were previously scattered across the campus -- Earth Sciences, Mathematics, Life Sciences and Physical Sciences.

The building was designed by Yazdani Studio "to inspire and to represent SMC’s vision of education: the striving toward a better, more sustainable future while staying true to a shared past,” said SMC Superintendent/President Dr. Kathryn E. Jeffery.

The design features "a seamless integration and restoration of the Memorial Clocktower," which was dedicated shortly before Memorial Day in 1955 and commemorates SMC student veterans who lost their lives in World War II and the Korean War.

Yazdani Studio in Downtown Los Angeles designed a structure "lifted on columns, creating open-air pathways that invite movement through and around the site," according to the firm's web site.

"A channel glass facade floods learning spaces with natural light and connects students to the outdoors -- a design move that supports wellness and fully embraces the Southern California climate."

Photo by Amy Williams courtesy of Santa Monica College

The building features interactive classrooms and state-of-the-art science labs that "spiral around a central courtyard, with curving wings that extend into the campus to shape a new science quad and a series of outdoor gathering spaces."

The building also features SMC's new Planetarium and rooftop Observatory that will open this month ("New SMC Planetarium Opens Next Week," November 4, 2025).

The new building brings together departments that were housed in four locations on the Main Campus, including in a temporary facility occupied by the Math Department.

The old buildings prevented "effective communication and sharing of resources among faculty, students and staff" and failed to provide even lab space for programs with "heavy laboratory components," College officials said.

Math Professor and Assistant Department Chair Brian Rodas, who has been teaching for a quarter century at SMC, noted that the new building provides more rooms with Hyflex capabilities that allow classes to be held in-person and online at the same time.

“To say that this space has transformed the teaching-learning experience is truly an understatement,” Rodas said.

The new Mathematics + Science Building was funded with the support of Santa Monica and Malibu voters who approved Measure AA, a $295 million bond measure in 2008, and Measure V, a $345 million measure in 2016.

“Each community member who voted for bond measures AA and V demonstrated their belief in SMC’s lifechanging mission, and that the opportunity to innovate, to shine, and to pursue the best-possible higher education should be open to all,” said SMC Board of Trustees Chair Dr. Nancy Greenstein.