flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

Institute for young innovators breaks ground at the University of Utah

Institute for young innovators breaks ground at the University of Utah

The Lassonde Studios will open to students in fall 2016. 


By The University of Utah | October 20, 2014

The University of Utah’s Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute is one step closer to becoming an international destination for student entrepreneurs, innovators, and “makers,” as it breaks ground on the Lassonde Studios.

The five-floor, 148,000-sf building will merge more than 400 student residences with a 20,000-sf “garage” open for any student to attend events, build prototypes, launch companies, and more.

“This is a new type of building focused on experiential learning,” said Troy D’Ambrosio, Executive Director of the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute, an interdisciplinary division of the David Eccles School of Business. “The Lassonde Studios is the culmination of more than a decade of growth and achievement. We are already a nationally-ranked university for entrepreneurship. This remarkable building will make a great program even better and allow us reach many more students.”

The Lassonde Studios will open to students in fall 2016. 

In conjunction with the groundbreaking, the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute released new details about the building, including living options (modular pod, loft, and traditional), elaborate architectural renderings, and amenities in the “garage.”

The Lassonde Studios is designed to be as innovative as the students and activities that will be inside. The Institute is working with an internationally-recognized architectural and design team to create a space that will define a new type of university environment and inspire entrepreneurs for decades to come. Partner companies include EDA Architects, CannonDesign, and ARUP. Gramoll Construction is the general contractor.

“Everything about this building has been unique and different, even our design process,” said Mehrdad Yazdani, of Yazdani Studio of CannonDesign and the lead designer for the Lassonde Studios project. “We started by challenging our assumptions about student housing and exploring the boundaries between where students live and work. The result is an entirely new campus building typology.”

The heart of the Lassonde Studios will be the “garage” on the first floor. It will be a mostly open space with moveable furniture to accommodate a wide range of activities. It will feature co-working space, private offices for startup companies, a cafe, lounge space, and a prototyping area with 3D printers, sewing machines, hand tools, and a laser cutter.

The garage space will be open to all student at the university, and it intended to function like a student union for entrepreneurs and innovators.

 

 

“We want to accelerate the time it takes for students to see their ideas become a reality, and we want to give them a place where they can meet and form interdisciplinary teams,” said Taylor Randall, Dean of the David Eccles School of Business. “The University of Utah already has a vibrant community for entrepreneurship. The Lassonde Studios will galvanize that community, and it will give every student the opportunity to pursue their dreams.”

The four floors above the “garage” will provide three types of housing, as well as additional co-working, study, and “maker” space. The living options include:

  • Moveable “living pods” – Designers invented this type of housing exclusively for the Lassonde Studios. The pods will be 7x7-foot, private living areas with beds, shelving and storage. The pods will be moveable within a larger, multi-use suite. Each suite will contain bathrooms, a kitchen and community “maker” space.

  • Loft rooms – Groups of students will be able to live together in a large, open space where they share creative space and a kitchen. These rooms will provide students with an urban lifestyle in the middle of campus.

  • Single and Double rooms – Students can choose standard rooms for individuals or to share with one other person. Groups of these single and double rooms will share creative space and kitchens.

 

 

 

The Lassonde Studios is made possible through the vision and support of Pierre Lassonde, a successful entrepreneur and MBA alumnus of the David Eccles School of Business. In addition to founding what is now the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute with a $13 million donation, he gave $12 million more to build the Lassonde Studios and support the activities inside. The remainder of the building costs will be paid for by other donations and rents from those living there. No taxpayer money is being used.

“Pierre Lassonde has a vision to make the University of Utah the best place in the country to study entrepreneurship,” D’Ambrosio said, “and the Lassonde Studios is helping make that dream come true.” 

 

Related Stories

Wood | Jul 16, 2021

The future of mass timber construction, with Swinerton's Timberlab

In this exclusive for HorizonTV, BD+C's John Caulfield sat down with three Timberlab leaders to discuss the launch of the firm and what factors will lead to greater mass timber demand.

Multifamily Housing | Jul 15, 2021

Economic rebound leads to record increase in multifamily asking rents

Across the country, multifamily rents have skyrocketed. Year-over-year rents are up by double digits in nine of the top 30 markets, while national YoY rent growth is up 6.3%. Emerging from the pandemic, a perfect storm of migration, enhanced government stimulus and a hot housing market, among other factors, has enabled this extremely strong growth.

AEC Business Innovation | Jul 11, 2021

Staffing, office changes at SCB, SmithGroup, RKTB, Ryan Cos., Jacobsen, Boldt, and Adolfson & Peterson

AEC firms take strategic action as construction picks up steam with Covid openings.

K-12 Schools | Jul 9, 2021

LPA Architects' STEM high school post-occupancy evaluation

LPA Architects conducted a post-occupancy evaluation, or POE, of the eSTEM Academy, a new high school specializing in health/medical and design/engineering Career Technical Education, in Eastvale, Calif. The POE helped LPA, the Riverside County Office of Education, and the Corona-Norco Unified School District gain a better understanding of which design innovations—such as movable walls, flex furniture, collaborative spaces, indoor-outdoor activity areas, and a student union—enhanced the education program, and how well students and teachers used these innovations.

Multifamily Housing | Jul 7, 2021

Make sure to get your multifamily amenities mix right

​One of the hardest decisions multifamily developers and their design teams have to make is what mix of amenities they’re going to put into each project. A lot of squiggly factors go into that decision: the type of community, the geographic market, local recreation preferences, climate/weather conditions, physical parameters, and of course the budget. The permutations are mind-boggling.

Industrial Facilities | Jul 2, 2021

A new approach to cold storage buildings

 Cameron Trefry and Kate Lyle of Ware Malcomb talk about their firm's cold storage building prototype that is serving a market that is rapidly expanding across the supply chain.

Multifamily Housing | Jun 30, 2021

A post-pandemic ‘new normal’ for apartment buildings

Grimm + Parker’s vision foresees buildings with rentable offices and refrigerated package storage.

Architects | Jun 30, 2021

Perkins Eastman joins forces with MEIS

MEIS’ work on stadiums and entertainment centers spans the globe with state-of-the-art designs in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Architects | Jun 25, 2021

AIA announces Small Project Award recipients

Now in its 18th year, the AIA Small Project Awards program recognizes small-project practitioners for the high quality of their work.

Architects | Jun 24, 2021

Post-pandemic, architects need to advocate harder for project sustainability

An AIA-Oldcastle report looks closer at the coronavirus’s impact on design and construction

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category

Warehouses

California bill would limit where distribution centers can be built

A bill that passed the California legislature would limit where distribution centers can be located and impose other rules aimed at reducing air pollution and traffic. Assembly Bill 98 would tighten building standards for new warehouses and ban heavy diesel truck traffic next to sensitive sites including homes, schools, parks and nursing homes.




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