Community college’s hillside learning center

The Earl E. and Dorothy J. Dellinger Learning Resource Center at Southwest Virginia Community College in Richlands, Va., is the centerpiece of this mountainside school. Designed by Arlington, Va.-based The Lukmire Partnership, the 50,000-sf, two-story building connects the upper and lower campuses, which are separated by a 70-foot vertical grade change. The complex houses a 15,000-sf library, a fireside student activity area, the distance learning department, and the school’s television and radio studios. The center’s extensive windows capture views of the surrounding landscape, and an interior waterfall that adds to the indoor-outdoor feel.