Institutions of higher education are under more pressure than ever to demonstrate to students, their parents, and benefactors that a college diploma is worth more than the sheepskin it’s printed on.
To that end, a growing number of colleges and universities are aligning with the research, science, and business sectors that have more input into these schools’ programming, curricula, and even their built environments.
Case in point: In Ohio, Bowling Green State University’s recently opened Robert W. and Patricia A. Maurer Center, the new home for the school’s Allen W. and Carol M. Schmidthorst College of Business. This 50,000-sf building represents a new era for the college, an incubator for study and collaboration that resembles a modern workplace, with the goal of preparing students for real-world careers.
The 50,000-sf Maurer Center is designed to mimic a real-world work environment.
Bowling Green was a leader in this academic-business nexus even before Maurer Center was constructed, as more than 70% of its students have jobs by the time they graduate, says Jessica Figenholtz, AIA, LEED, Associate Principal and Higher Ed Lead with Perkins and Will, the design architect on this project. BD+C interviewed Figenholtz with P&W’s design principals Bryan Schabel and Joseph Connell.
The project’s Building Team included The Collaborative (AOR, construction administration, landscape), Mosser Construction (GC), Schaefer (SE), Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates (building envelope) ESA Engineers (CE), and JDRM Engineering (ME engineer, technology).
A VARIETY OF STUDY ENVIRONS
The building's classrooms and faculty offices are encased in glass for greater light and transparency.
The business school, which is currently in hybrid learning mode, had its ribbon cutting last September. It includes more than two dozen ways for students to work and study. There are meeting areas of different sizes and on different floors throughout the facility. The design team created a flexible kit of parts that can change as business needs change. Connell points out that the building’s first floor includes two maker spaces, one of which can expand to 2,200 sf, where students can pitch ideas to companies and investors within a combination lounge-conference room setting.
Classrooms with moveable walls and modular furniture allow students to work together easier. There are wall-less cut-out areas on each floor. Classrooms and faculty offices are enclosed by glass walls for greater accessibility and transparency. “The building is designed to create collisions and interactions,” says Schabel.
The biggest change was getting faculty out of their offices, “which required a change in mindset about thinking of offices as castles and places to hide,” says Connell. Figeholtz adds that College of Business Dean Raymond Braun, an attorney, “wanted to shake things up; he wanted the building to reflect the workplace.”
CENTER’S ATRIUM IS A MEETING HUB
A three-story light-filled atrium includes two maker spaces where students can pitch ideas to investors. One of the atrium's walls is a preservation of adjacent Hanna Hall (below) that contrasts the business school's past and future.
Among the prominent design features in the Maurer Center is its light-filled atrium, a hub that encourages a range of student interactions with peers, faculty and employers in stadium seating and terraced small-group meeting areas. The glazed north façade allows natural light to pour into the atrium.
On one side of the three-story atrium is the existing brick wall of Hanna Hall, an adjacent building that has been completely renovated. Connell says the wall was left standing as a “nod” to the school’ history and as a contrast to the Maurer Center.
The Center also features branding and imagery that tells Bowling Green’s story and its prospective future. “This storytelling is an important part of the recruitment experience,” says Connell. Central to the brand visuals is the business school’s focus on data analytics. A dynamic digital ticker embedded in the main stairway enclosure features the business school’s social media feeds and the latest business news.
This is a 24/7 building (first-floor Starbucks included, of course) that Figenholtz says students now perceive as “a place to be seen, day or night.”
Related Stories
| Sep 7, 2014
Behind the scenes of integrated project delivery — successful tools and applications
The underlying variables and tools used to manage collaboration between teams is ultimately the driving for success with IPD, writes CBRE Healthcare's Megan Donham.
| Sep 3, 2014
New designation launched to streamline LEED review process
The LEED Proven Provider designation is designed to minimize the need for additional work during the project review process.
| Sep 2, 2014
Ranked: Top green building sector AEC firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
AECOM, Gensler, and Turner top BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest green design and construction firms.
Sponsored | | Sep 2, 2014
Judson University’s Harm A. Weber Academic Center resembles copper, but its sustainability efforts are pure gold
The building’s custom-fabricated wall panels look like copper, but are actually flat metal sheets coated with Valspar’s signature Fluropon Copper Penny coating.
| Aug 26, 2014
Check out Case Western's stunning new university center [slideshow]
With its sloping grass-covered green roof, the two-story building is at the intersection of the two historic original Western Reserve University and Case Institute of Technology campuses, and includes a walkway that connects the campuses.
| Aug 25, 2014
Tall wood buildings: Surveying the early innovators
Timber has been largely abandoned as a structural solution in taller buildings during the last century, in favor of concrete and steel. Perkins+Will's Rebecca Holt writes about the firm's work in surveying the burgeoning tall wood buildings sector.
| Aug 21, 2014
Ranked: Top science and technology sector AEC firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
HDR, Affiliated Engineers, and Skanska top BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest S+T sector design and construction firms.
Sponsored | | Aug 16, 2014
Fire-rated framing system makes the grade at Johnson & Wales University Center
The precision engineering of TGP’s Fireframes Aluminum Series creates narrow profiles and crisp sightlines at Johnson & Wales University Center for Physician Assistant Studies
| Aug 16, 2014
The science of learning: Designing the STEM learning facilities of the future
New technology and changing pedagogies are influencing how to best teach a generation of learners who have never known a world without smartphones or tablets, writes HOK's Kimberly Robidoux.
| Aug 13, 2014
Campus UX: Why universities should be creating 'branded environments' on campus
When most colleges and universities consider their brands, they rarely venture beyond the design and implementation of a logo, writes Gensler Design Director Brian Brindisi.
