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
| 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.
| Dec 28, 2010
Project of the Week: Community college for 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.
| Dec 17, 2010
Sam Houston State arts programs expand into new performance center
Theater, music, and dance programs at Sam Houston State University have a new venue in the 101,945-sf, $38.5 million James and Nancy Gaertner Performing Arts Center. WHR Architects, Houston, designed the new center to connect two existing buildings at the Huntsville, Texas, campus.
| Dec 17, 2010
New engineering building goes for net-zero energy
A new $90 million, 250,000-sf classroom and laboratory facility with a 450-seat auditorium for the College of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign is aiming for LEED Platinum.
| Dec 17, 2010
How to Win More University Projects
University architects representing four prominent institutions of higher learning tell how your firm can get the inside track on major projects.
| Nov 23, 2010
The George W. Bush Presidential Center, which will house the former president’s library
The George W. Bush Presidential Center, which will house the former president’s library and museum, plus the Bush Institute, is aiming for LEED Platinum. The 226,565-sf center, located at Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, was designed by architect Robert A.M. Stern and landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh.
| Nov 9, 2010
Just how green is that college campus?
The College Sustainability Report Card 2011 evaluated colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada with the 300 largest endowments—plus 22 others that asked to be included in the GreenReportCard.org study—on nine categories, including climate change, energy use, green building, and investment priorities. More than half (56%) earned a B or better, but 6% got a D. Can you guess which is the greenest of these: UC San Diego, Dickinson College, University of Calgary, and Dartmouth? Hint: The Red Devil has turned green.
| Nov 9, 2010
Designing a library? Don’t focus on books
How do you design a library when print books are no longer its core business? Turn them into massive study halls. That’s what designers did at the University of Amsterdam, where they transformed the existing 27,000-sf library into a study center—without any visible books. About 2,000 students visit the facility daily and encounter workspaces instead of stacks.
| Nov 3, 2010
First of three green labs opens at Iowa State University
Designed by ZGF Architects, in association with OPN Architects, the Biorenewable Research Laboratory on the Ames campus of Iowa State University is the first of three projects completed as part of the school’s Biorenewables Complex. The 71,800-sf LEED Gold project is one of three wings that will make up the 210,000-sf complex.
| Nov 3, 2010
Seattle University’s expanded library trying for LEED Gold
Pfeiffer Partners Architects, in collaboration with Mithun Architects, programmed, planned, and designed the $55 million renovation and expansion of Lemieux Library and McGoldrick Learning Commons at Seattle University. The LEED-Gold-designed facility’s green features include daylighting, sustainable and recycled materials, and a rain garden.
