Poly Canyon

Poly Canyon is located adjacent to the main Cal Poly campus. A portion of Poly Canyon encompasses a nine-acre outdoor experimental construction laboratory that has been the host site of several structures designed and built mostly by the College of Architecture and Environmental Design (CAED) students for over four decades.

Design Village is held each spring in Poly Canyon during Cal Poly's Open House. Cal Poly, community colleges, high schools and other visiting students design and build structures and spend a weekend living in their projects. See the latest design village competition highlights here. Thinking of visiting? Check out a few designs below, and visit Poly Canyon for a full list of structures

The following images show some of the structures that can be seen in Poly Canyon.

Image of the tensile stucture

The Tensile Structure

Completed in October 2002 as three students' senior project. Various departments, corporations, and individuals donated materials, labor and funds. The structure provides shelter to Canyon visitors and will serve as the community center during Design Village.

 

View of the Cantilever structure from below

Cantilever Structure

In this particular structure, nothing touches the ground. The load is transferred by cables up to the mass and then back down to the ground plaque on the base. The structure's mass was built by only one female and one male architecture student at the sport shop, however, others helped with the welding. The deck uses strong anchors to demonstrate the use of a cantilever.
 

View of the Fratessa Tower from below

Fratessa Tower

Five architectural engineering students designed and built the as a senior project in memory of Paul Fratessa S.E., the late department head of the Architectural Engineering Department from 1995 to 2002. The structure was dedicated on October 16, 2004.

The team included Rachel Martin, Justin Wei, Michael Braund, Eric McDonnell and Tanya Worotko. Manufacturing engineering senior Adam Stagnaro created the spiral staircase leading to the raised deck's center.

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