The five-story, $80-million buildings that front Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles are a sharp contrast to most of the other campus structures, many of which were erected in the first half of the 1900s.

Trade Tech is the oldest of the nine, public two-year colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District. LACCD is the largest community college district in the U.S.

The general contractor for the project was Cypress-based Taisei Construction Corp. The executive and design architect was Culver City-based MDA Johnson Favaro. Los Angeles-based Gruen Associates served as associate architect.

Aspen and Juniper halls were built and designed with BIM technology, and the facades feature waving bands of curved steel and metal-stud frameworks, some covered in brick tile that extend beyond the elevation, giving the playful appearance that they are peeling off the structure. Other unusual architectural features include a three-story-high ornamental column that is affixed to a two-story glass curtain wall. One building has ground-level to roof-high fins that frame the corner of two elevations. The other building has a portly, white rounded corner. And the lower edge of its four-story-high, brick-tile exterior amusingly curves away from its facade.

The halls’ numerous sustainable and energy-efficient features are expected to earn the project a LEED silver certification.