portfolio images

erik sollom

98-99 cal poly san luis obispo

96-97 el camino college

san luis obispo grieving center

Created as a means to get away from the hustle of city life during a time of need, the San Luis Obispo Grieving Center is located on the rooftop of McCarthy's tavern. The SLOGC proposes a unique conflict: a secluded place located in the heart of the city. It's elusiveness is like that of our society's taboo attitude toward death. Death is right within our midst yet we choose to overlook it's reality. The center further calls attention to this attitude by tapping into the city's creek which has been unwillingly covered over by new city fabric.

The SLOGC seeks to respond to every individual's needs by addressing personalities and various ways of coping with loss. Contained within it's boundaries are five counseling residences: the meditator, the analyst, the inquirer, the socializer, and the ritualist. The central, womb-like atrium serves the function of a park: a free wandering of the soul from the earth (at the under ground creek) to the sky (in the form of an open terrace located at the top of the structure).