New Palm Springs Extension Campus

An artist's rendering of College of the Desert's West Valley campus to be built at the intersection of Tramview Road and Indian Canyon.

College of the Desert officials said that they hired a Santa Monica-based architecture team to design the school's environmentally friendly West Valley Campus.

The Board of Trustees hired HGA, which will be partnering with several local firms and architects. Local architect Lance O'Donnell of o2 Architecture is among that group, as are RGA Landscape Architects, MSA Consulting Inc. and Sundt Construction Inc.

A major focus on selecting the designers of the new Palm Springs extension campus was that they are all well-versed in creating self-sustainable, energy-efficient buildings, COD President Jerry Patton said.

''The self-sustainable vision and approach we've set for the West Valley Campus requires an integrated architectural design team that has the expertise, collaboration, creativity and leadership to turn this project into reality,'' Patton said.

The campus is scheduled to open September 2014. It will stretch over 119 acres on the northwest corner of Tramview Road and North Indian Canyon Drive.

Plans call for the campus to be operated by a 60-acre ''GreenPark'' of solar panels, and the school's overall design will reflect that, said Edwin Deas, COD vice president.

''One of the key guiding principles for the architectural integrated design team is to design a holistic operating campus that is compatible with desert ecology, is a net zero energy project, and one that produces more energy than we need,'' Deas said.