Palomar College to offer class inspired by famed artist James T. Hubbell

Starting next fall, Palomar College will offer a new architecture and design course inspired by the work of influential San Diego artist James T. Hubbell, who passed away in May of last year.

Offered through the college’s first ever four-year bachelor’s degree program, the course was planned in partnership with the Ilan-Lael Foundation, an arts-education organization created by Hubbell and his wife Anne in 1982.

The nonprofit honors Hubbell’s legacy by partnering with artists, local communities and educational programs to promote art that celebrates nature and the aesthetic of the built environment, according to Executive Director of the Ilan-Lael Foundation Marianne Gerdes. 

The foundation also supports public arts projects, seminars and exhibitions locally in San Diego, as well as all across the world. 

Hubbell was best known for his “organic-style” structures, which combined locally sourced materials like adobe clay and cedar wood with artistic features such as stained glass and other handcrafted details to represent harmony between architecture and the natural world.

Many of his famous works can be seen across public spaces in San Diego, including the Pearl of the Pacific in Shelter Island and Sea Passage Fountain in Coronado.

“He wasn’t painting pictures of trees and rocks, but he was inspired by the way sunlight would come through – filtered through leaves – or how the wind would blow through the grasses or the sound of crickets in the night,” Gerdes said. 

“These sorts of things created visual pictures to him that he then turned into works of art.” 

He and his father applied this same sustainable approach to build the Ilan-Lael Center in Santa Ysabel, where students in the class will work out of the center’s studios. 

According to Gerdes, Palomar College reached out to Ilan-Lael last year with the idea of creating a class that taught Hubbell’s design techniques and philosophy to students studying architecture and interior design.

The new course will encourage students to incorporate sustainable, organic practices into their designs, allowing them to gain hands-on experience with materials like wood, metal, adobe, mosaic and stained glass. 

“Young people are hungry for that connection to the world that we’re a part of, that we’ve lost touch with, but James never did,” Gerdes said.

“His art and its message seem to be something that people are drawn to, because it speaks to your whole, your core, your soul.” 

The course will be available for enrollment in the fall of 2026, launching in conjunction with Palomar College’s new bachelor’s program in Building Performance and Environmental Design.