flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

First look: University of Utah's ‘teaching hospital for law’

First look: University of Utah's ‘teaching hospital for law’

University breaks ground on law school building designed to facilitate new approaches to legal education.


By BD+C Editors | June 7, 2013
The University of Utah broke ground today on its cutting-edge College of Law building, which will facilitate new approaches to legal education based on more hands-on learning and skills training.
 
“With this new building, the College of Law will advance its mission to establish a ‘teaching hospital for law’-- an innovative vision for the future of legal education,” said University of Utah President David W. Pershing. “Expanded and improved facilities will enable a variety of educational tracks aimed at improving the human condition, including global justice and the evolving field of biolaw.”
 
Designed by VCBO Architecture (architect of record) and SmithGroupJJR (design architect), the facility will feature a library integrated throughout the building, state-of-the-art training facilities, spaces for collaborative research, advanced but flexible learning technology, practice courtrooms and a top-floor conference center. By providing a wide array of flexible spaces for small group training, the building efficiently provides more space-per-student, bringing it in line with peer institutions.
 
 
 
All images © VCBO/SMITHGROUP JJR Architecture and the College of Law
 
 
 
“This building will fulfill the educational needs of tomorrow’s lawyers while serving the broader Utah legal community and the community at large,” said Bob Adler, interim dean of the S. J. Quinney College of Law. “We are committed to using the facility in ways that will better prepare skilled attorneys and problem-solving leaders.”
 
The College of Law faculty plans to use the new building to expand its already substantial commitment to community service and community-engaged learning. University of Utah law students provided almost 50,000 hours of volunteer pro bono and clinical service during the 2012-13 academic year. The new building will enable the school to continue this tradition by providing facilities for direct client interaction.
 
The new building is designed to achieve LEED platinum certification, the highest designation using Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards and will provide accessibility for a full range of disabilities. Located at the southwest corner of campus across from the Stadium TRAX station, the building will establish a welcoming gateway for visitors to the campus.
 
To date, the building has received generous support from the S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney Foundation, the University of Utah, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Alternative Visions Fund of the Chicago Community Trust as well as a growing number of law firms and individual donors.
 
 
 
The $4.5 million donation from the Alternative Visions Fund is dedicated specifically to taking the facility’s sustainable features to the next level. Among the attributes made possible through this donation are an innovative cooling system using groundwater from near the building site, recycling and reuse of building grey water to flush toilets and for other non-potable uses, on-site and off-site solar power generation, electric car charging stations and more.
 
Big-D Construction will begin work on the new, 155,000-square-foot building on June 17, and the building is expected to be ready for the 2015-16 academic year.
 
All plans courtesy VCBO Architecture

Related Stories

| Mar 15, 2011

What will the architecture profession look like in 2025?

The global economy and the economic recession have greatly affected architecture firms' business practices. A Building Futures survey from the Royal Institute of British Architects looks at how these factors will have transformed the profession and offers a glimpse of future trends. Among the survey's suggestions: not only will architecture firms have to focus on a financial and business approach rather than predominantly design-led offices, but also company names are predicted to drop ‘architect’ altogether.

| Mar 15, 2011

Passive Strategies for Building Healthy Schools, An AIA/CES Discovery Course

With the downturn in the economy and the crash in residential property values, school districts across the country that depend primarily on property tax revenue are struggling to make ends meet, while fulfilling the demand for classrooms and other facilities.

| Mar 14, 2011

Renowned sustainable architect Charles D. Knight to lead Cannon Design’s Phoenix office

Cannon Design is pleased to announce that Charles D. Knight, AIA, CID, LEED AP, has joined the firm as principal. Knight will serve as the leader of the Phoenix office with a focus on advancing the firm’s healthcare practice. Knight brings over 25 years of experience and is an internationally recognized architect who has won numerous awards for his unique contributions to the sustainable and humanistic design of healthcare facilities.

| Mar 11, 2011

University of Oregon scores with new $227 million basketball arena

The University of Oregon’s Matthew Knight Arena opened January 13 with a men’s basketball game against USC where the Ducks beat the Trojans, 68-62. The $227 million arena, which replaces the school’s 84-year-old McArthur Court, has a seating bowl pitched at 36 degrees to replicate the close-to-the-action feel of the smaller arena it replaced, although this new one accommodates 12,364 fans.

| Mar 11, 2011

Temporary modular building at Harvard targets sustainability

Anderson Anderson Architecture of San Francisco designed the Harvard Yard childcare facility, a modular building manufactured by Triumph Modular of Littleton, Mass., that was installed at Harvard University. The 5,700-sf facility will remain on the university’s Cambridge, Mass., campus for 18 months while the Harvard Yard Child Care Center and the Oxford Street Daycare Coop are being renovated.

| Mar 11, 2011

Holiday Inn reworked for Downtown Disney Resort

The Orlando, Fla., office of VOA Associates completed a comprehensive interior and exterior renovation of the 14-story Holiday Inn in the Downtown Disney Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The $25 million project involved rehabbing the hotel’s 332 guest rooms, atrium, swimming pool, restaurant, fitness center, and administrative spaces.

| Mar 11, 2011

Renovation energizes retirement community in Massachusetts

The 12-year-old Edgewood Retirement Community in Andover, Mass., underwent a major 40,000-sf expansion and renovation that added 60 patient care beds in the long-term care unit, a new 17,000-sf, 40-bed cognitive impairment unit, and an 80-seat informal dining bistro.

| Mar 11, 2011

Research facility added to Texas Medical Center

Situated on the Texas Medical Center’s North Campus in Houston, the new Methodist Hospital Research Institute is a 12-story, 440,000-sf facility dedicated to translational research. Designed by New York City-based Kohn Pedersen Fox, with healthcare, science, and technology firm WHR Architects, Houston, the building has open, flexible labs, offices, and amenities for use by 90 principal investigators and 800 post-doc trainees and staff.

| Mar 11, 2011

Blockbuster remodel transforms Omaha video store into a bank

A former Hollywood Video store in Omaha, Neb., was renovated and repurposed as the SAC Federal Credit Union, Ames Branch. Architects at Leo A Daly transformed the outdated 5,000-sf retail space into a modern facility by wrapping the exterior in poplar siding and adding a new glass storefront that floods the interior with natural light.

| Mar 11, 2011

Historic McKim Mead White facility restored at Columbia University

Faculty House, a 1923 McKim Mead White building on Columbia University’s East Campus, could no longer support the school’s needs, so the historic 38,000-sf building was transformed into a modern faculty dining room, graduate student meeting center, and event space for visiting lecturers, large banquets, and alumni organizations.

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category

Great Solutions

41 Great Solutions for architects, engineers, and contractors

AI ChatBots, ambient computing, floating MRIs, low-carbon cement, sunshine on demand, next-generation top-down construction. These and 35 other innovations make up our 2024 Great Solutions Report, which highlights fresh ideas and innovations from leading architecture, engineering, and construction firms.




halfpage1

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021