Makerspaces and interdisciplinary mashups are connecting students with each other—and with the outside world.
Students at the University of Utah can choose to live in an on-campus environment that’s immersed in discovery and entrepreneurship. The 400-bed Lassonde Studios residential hall features a 20,000-sf innovation space where residents can test ideas, build prototypes, and launch companies. Designed by CannonDesign’s Yazdani Studio, in association with EDA Architecture, the building reflects a broader trend toward hands-on spaces that encourage students to collaborate within and beyond the physical campus.
“Universities are increasingly interested in the commercialization of technologies or research that offer opportunities to partner with the private sector,” says Don Hensley, VP and Education Sector Leader (U.S. West) with Stantec.
The Center for the Sciences & Innovation at Trinity University, San Antonio, designed by EYP Architecture & Engineering, features “The Cube,” a high-performance makerspace with movable walls, mobile team stations, and gigantic garage doors to support entrepreneurial interaction among students and faculty.
“There’s increased demand for spaces that physically bring students together—across disciplines—to work collaboratively on a wide variety of creative projects,” says John Baxter, AIA, LEED AP, Higher Education Sector Leader at EYP. “These specialized makerspaces elevate hands-on, project-based learning and provide experiential opportunities within a structured, mentored environment.”
Today’s multi-functional buildings support a diverse range of academic programs, with transparent walls to foster interdisciplinary collaboration. “The idea is to literally and figuratively break down the walls between departments so that students and faculty are working together more consistently and organically,” says Hensley.
A nationwide focus on science and technology buildings is helping universities compete for researchers and grants, as well as to increase their enrollment of students pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math.
The new Yale Science Building is designed with flexible laboratories to accommodate interdisciplinary research in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology; molecular biophysics and biochemistry; and atomic, molecular, and optical physics. Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and Stantec collaborated on the seven-story, 300,000-sf building, which will be constructed in the campus’s Science Hill precinct.
Adorned with a biomorphic aluminum sunscreen that shades the curtain wall on the south side of the building, the 78,000-sf Stephen A. Levin Building at the University of Pennsylvania integrates psychology, biology, and behavioral sciences under one roof with research laboratories, teaching facilities, and collaboration and study spaces. Photo: Alan Karchmer.
experimenting with novel funding SOLUTIONS
Public and private universities are looking for money—and cost savings—anyplace they can. “Institutions are turning to external partners to deliver financial, construction, and operating solutions to their housing and other student life needs, and they’re also looking at public-private partnerships to meet their research and academic facilities needs,” says Eric Beattie, PE, LEED BD+C AP, Leader of the Higher Education Center of Excellence at Gilbane Building Co.’s Boston office.
The Agricultural Engineering Building under construction at Penn State University is the school’s first project to be delivered using integrated project delivery. Architect EYP, contractor DPR Construction, and the university are sharing equally in the project’s risks and rewards.
Prefabrication is proving to be an efficient, eco-friendly construction method. At the University of Virginia, Barton Malow is overseeing the renovation of a half-dozen four-story residential buildings originally constructed in the 1950s. “We’re collaborating with multiple trades to create modular prefab piping and mechanical rooms, which will help accelerate production and installation time and improve job site safety,” says Barton Malow Vice President Todd Ketola.
Advanced technology is also helping to optimize construction quality and efficiency at Washington University in St. Louis. McCarthy Building Cos. is using drones to take aerial measurements of the excavation site on the multi-building campus expansion; 4D scheduling technology will provide the construction crew and subcontractors with real-time progress of the concrete installations and MEP systems during the two-year project.
“While the project is comprised of multiple buildings and landscape elements that each have a unique design and function, it’s important that it function as a single project from a construction standpoint,” says McCarthy Project Director Ryan Moss.
Some universities are focusing on the renovation and reuse of signature buildings to enhance the functionality of the core campus while maintaining the institution’s overall character and identity. The University of Notre Dame Campus Crossroads project, the largest building initiative in the university’s 174-year history, is designed around the legendary Notre Dame Stadium, which is being renovated and expanded. Three new buildings will surround the storied football edifice, creating more than 750,000 sf of teaching, research, performance, meeting, and hospitality space.
ALSO SEE: BD+C GIANTS 300 UNIVERSITY RANKINGS
Top 110 university architecture firms
Top 55 university engineering firms
Top 95 university construction firms
Traditional higher education institutions are also facing growing competition from lower-cost alternatives, such as so-called MOOCs (massive open online courses) and other alternative models. “As universities compete with the convenience of online learning, there is great focus on finding ways to engage the student. Face-to-face interaction, hands-on learning, and hybrid learning offer an on-campus experiential element that students can’t get from the Internet,” says Stantec’s Hensley.
“The cost of education has risen much faster than the cost of living, and the current rate of increase is not sustainable,” says David Hatton, AIA, Director of Education, CannonDesign. “Creative entrepreneurs are starting to fill the gap with lower-priced, customizable educational platforms that provide an equivalent level of education. Traditional colleges will need to adapt in order to separate themselves from this new competition.”
SEE ALL 2017 GIANTS 300 RANKINGS
Related Stories
| Feb 23, 2011
The library is dead, long live the library
The Society for College and University Planning asked its members to voice their thoughts on the possible death of academic libraries. And many did. The good news? It's not all bad news. A summary of their members' comments appears on the SCUP blog.
| Feb 11, 2011
Sustainable features on the bill for dual-building performing arts center at Soka University of America
The $73 million Soka University of America’s new performing arts center and academic complex recently opened on the school’s Aliso Viejo, Calif., campus. McCarthy Building Companies and Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects collaborated on the two-building project. One is a three-story, 47,836-sf facility with a grand reception lobby, a 1,200-seat auditorium, and supports spaces. The other is a four-story, 48,974-sf facility with 11 classrooms, 29 faculty offices, a 150-seat black box theater, rehearsal/dance studio, and support spaces. The project, which has a green roof, solar panels, operable windows, and sun-shading devices, is going for LEED Silver.
| Feb 11, 2011
Research facility separates but also connects lab spaces
California State University, Northridge, consolidated its graduate and undergraduate biology and mathematics programs into one 90,000-sf research facility. Architect of record Cannon Design worked on the new Chaparral Hall, creating a four-story facility with two distinct spaces that separate research and teaching areas; these are linked by faculty offices to create collaborative spaces. The building houses wet research, teaching, and computational research labs, a 5,000-sf vivarium, classrooms, and administrative offices. A four-story outdoor lobby and plaza and an outdoor staircase provide orientation. A covered walkway links the new facility with the existing science complex. Saiful/Bouquet served as structural engineer, Bard, Rao + Athanas Consulting Engineers served as MEP, and Research Facilities Design was laboratory consultant.
| Feb 11, 2011
A feast of dining options at University of Colorado community center, but hold the buffalo stew
The University of Colorado, Boulder, cooked up something different with its new $84.4 million Center for Community building, whose 900-seat foodservice area consists of 12 micro-restaurants, each with its own food options and décor. Centerbrook Architects of Connecticut collaborated with Denver’s Davis Partnership Architects and foodservice designer Baker Group of Grand Rapids, Mich., on the 323,000-sf facility, which also includes space for a career center, international education, and counseling and psychological services. Exterior walls of rough-hewn, variegated sandstone and a terra cotta roof help the new facility blend with existing campus buildings. Target: LEED Gold.
| Feb 11, 2011
Chicago high-rise mixes condos with classrooms for Art Institute students
The Legacy at Millennium Park is a 72-story, mixed-use complex that rises high above Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. The glass tower, designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz, is mostly residential, but also includes 41,000 sf of classroom space for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and another 7,400 sf of retail space. The building’s 355 one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom condominiums range from 875 sf to 9,300 sf, and there are seven levels of parking. Sky patios on the 15th, 42nd, and 60th floors give owners outdoor access and views of Lake Michigan.
| Feb 11, 2011
Apartment complex caters to University of Minnesota students
Twin Cities firm Elness Swenson Graham Architects designed the new Stadium Village Flats, in the University of Minnesota’s East Bank Campus, with students in mind. The $30 million, six-story residential/retail complex will include 120 furnished apartments with fitness rooms and lounges on each floor. More than 5,000 sf of first-floor retail space and two levels of below-ground parking will complete the complex. Opus AE Group Inc., based in Minneapolis, will provide structural engineering services.
| Feb 11, 2011
Four-story library at Salem State will hold half a million—get this—books!
Salem State University in Massachusetts broke ground on a new library and learning center in December. The new four-story library will include instructional labs, group study rooms, and a testing center. The modern, 124,000-sf design by Boston-based Shepley Bulfinch includes space for 500,000 books and study space for up to a thousand students. Sustainable features include geothermal heating and cooling, rainwater harvesting, and low-flow plumbing fixtures.
| Jan 21, 2011
Primate research facility at Duke improves life for lemurs
Dozens of lemurs have new homes in two new facilities at the Duke Lemur Center in Raleigh, N.C. The Releasable Building connects to a 69-acre fenced forest for free-ranging lemurs, while the Semi-Releasable Building is for lemurs with limited-range privileges.
| Jan 21, 2011
Nothing dinky about these residences for Golden Gophers
The Sydney Hall Student Apartments combines 125 student residences with 15,000 sf of retail space in the University of Minnesota’s historic Dinkytown neighborhood, in Minneapolis.
