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Art breaks the rules” is an idea Pomona College’s art faculty hoped its new building would convey, recalls department chair Michael O’Malley. In that spirit, Studio Art Hall—completed by wHY in late 2014—departs strikingly from the Spanish Mission architecture around it. Unlike the stuccoed, terracotta-roof-tiled buildings with which architect Myron Hunt shaped this Claremont, California, campus in the early 20th century, the new facility is sculpturally exuberant. Its long, extroverted front stair draws you in under a broad, gestural roof that hovers over a cluster of indoor and outdoor art and gathering spaces.