Oklahoma’s Francis Tuttle Technology Center, which provides career-specific training to adults and high school students, has completed its Francis Tuttle Danforth Campus—a two-story, 155,000-sf academic building. The project aims to fill the growing community’s rising demand for affordable education and training.
Designed by Bockus Payne, the project provides space for core classes and student support areas. Classes at Francis Tuttle Danforth Campus will cover subjects such as entrepreneurship, engineering, biosciences and medicine, computer science, pre-nursing, cosmetology, automotive service technology, and interactive media. The building also houses a business incubator, seminar and training spaces for conferences, continuing education, and corporate training.
The exterior materials include a mix of wood, concrete, and stone that flow into the building’s interior. Set back from the main road, the split-level building is located on a site that drops 55 feet between the northwest and southwest corners. This reduces the impact of the building’s height on the surrounding residential neighborhoods. Oklahoma-centered landscaping complements the building design.
Students and visitors enter the building under a glass canopy. A glass-railed bridge, overlooking the light-filled rotunda, offers views of the front landscape and ponds. The rotunda provides a space to work, connect, and enjoy the abundant natural light. It also encourages instructors to come out of their classrooms and use the grand stair for student seating and learning. The corridors’ glass exterior walls filter light into the classrooms and labs.
With its new building, Francis Tuttle wants to facilitate the design thinking process, which centers empathy, expansive thinking, and experimentation. To achieve this, the highly flexible design includes classrooms with several furniture layouts, fostering small group collaboration and individual learning.
Glass entries in all classrooms and labs reveal the activities inside. Classrooms are open to corresponding labs, so concepts can be quickly demonstrated. And nooks in the corridor provide space for small group discussion.
On the Building Team:
Owner: Francis Tuttle Technology Center
Design architect: Bockus Payne
Architect of record: Bockus Payne
MEP engineer: Allen Consulting
Structural engineer: KFC Engineering
General contractor/construction manager: T. Scott Construction
Related Stories
| Mar 11, 2011
Oregon childhood center designed at child-friendly scale
Design of the Early Childhood Center at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Ore., focused on a achieving a child-friendly scale and providing outdoor learning environments.
| Feb 23, 2011
“School of Tomorrow” student design competition winners selected
The American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) and Kawneer Company, Inc. announced the winners of the “Schools of Tomorrow” student design competition. The Kawneer-sponsored competition, now in its fifth year, challenged students to learn about building materials, specifically architectural aluminum building products and systems in the design of a modern and creative school for students ranging from kindergarten to sixth grade. Ball State University’s Susan Butts was awarded first place and $2,500 for “Propel Elementary School.”
| Feb 15, 2011
LAUSD commissions innovative prefab prototypes for future building
The LA Unified School District, under the leadership of a new facilities director, reversed course regarding prototypes for its new schools and engaged architects to create compelling kit-of-parts schemes that are largely prefabricated.
| 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.
| Feb 9, 2011
Gen7 eco-friendly modular classrooms are first to be CHPS verified
The first-ever Gen7 green classrooms, installed at Bolsa Knolls Middle School in Salinas, California, have become the nation's first modular classrooms to receive Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) Verified recognition for New School Construction. They are only the second school in California to successfully complete the CHPS Verified review process.
| 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
Virginia community college completes LEED Silver science building
The new 60,000-sf science building at John Tyler Community College in Midlothian, Va., just earned LEED Silver, the first facility in the Commonwealth’s community college system to earn this recognition. The facility, designed by Burt Hill with Gilbane Building Co. as construction manager, houses an entire floor of laboratory classrooms, plus a new library, student lounge, and bookstore.
| Jan 20, 2011
Community college to prepare next-gen Homeland Security personnel
The College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Ill., began work on the Homeland Security Education Center, which will prepare future emergency personnel to tackle terrorist attacks and disasters. The $25 million, 61,100-sf building’s centerpiece will be an immersive interior street lab for urban response simulations.
| Jan 19, 2011
Biomedical research center in Texas to foster scientific collaboration
The new Health and Biomedical Sciences Center at the University of Houston will facilitate interaction between scientists in a 167,000-sf, six-story research facility. The center will bring together researchers from many of the school’s departments to collaborate on interdisciplinary projects. The facility also will feature an ambulatory surgery center for the College of Optometry, the first of its kind for an optometry school. Boston-based firms Shepley Bulfinch and Bailey Architects designed the project.