Umass Amherst’s new 70,000-sf Business Innovation Hub combines a new expansion with the partial renovation of the Isenberg School of Management. Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) designed the building with Goody Clancy as the architect of Record.
The building doubles the school’s current space and introduces new facilities for more than 150 staff and 5,000 students in undergraduate, master’s, and PhD programs. The exterior is wrapped in straight, vertical pillars that gradually slope downward, creating a domino effect and a triangular glass entrance. The exterior’s copper cladding will naturally weather from a dark ochre to a patina with long-term exposure to the elements.
Photo: Laurian Ghinitoiu.
Students and faculty will enter into the naturally-lit, 5,000-sf Learning Commons. This will be a place for learning, networking, and dining. The Learning Commons can also double as a venue for guest speakers, ceremonies, banquets, and career fairs.
See Also: 17-story Data Sciences building to rise on Boston University campus
The Business Innovation Hub extends directly into the existing 1964 building from the north and east sides in a wide circular loop. The loop consolidates Isenberg’s faculty and staff under one roof and creates a circular place of arrival. Various conference rooms and breakout areas are distributed throughout the loop.
Photo: Laurian Ghinitoiu.
“The new Business Innovation Hub at the Isenberg School of Management is conceived as an extension of both the building and the campus mall,” said Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Creative Director, BIG, in a release. “The linear structure is bent to form a full loop framing an internal courtyard for the life of the students. The façade is pulled away in a domino effect to create a generous invitation from the Haigis Mall to the Learning Commons. The mall and the courtyard – inside and outside form a forum for the students, the faculty and the profession to meet, mingle and mix society and academia.”
Photo: Laurian Ghinitoiu.
Innovation labs, advising spaces, and faculty offices are located on the second and third floors. Classrooms are equipped with integrated technology for distance learning and can be easily transformed for theater-style lectures or small group work.
The inner spaces of the extension face a circular courtyard that connects back to the campus via two pathways between the original Isenberg building and the Business Innovation Hub. Two bridges above these paths fuse the buildings.
Photo: Max Touhey.
Photo: Laurian Ghinitoiu.
Photo: Max Touhey.
Photo: Laurian Ghinitoiu.
Photo: Laurian Ghinitoiu.
Related Stories
| Nov 3, 2010
Dining center cooks up LEED Platinum rating
Students at Bowling Green State University in Ohio will be eating in a new LEED Platinum multiuse dining center next fall. The 30,000-sf McDonald Dining Center will have a 700-seat main dining room, a quick-service restaurant, retail space, and multiple areas for students to gather inside and out, including a fire pit and several patios—one of them on the rooftop.
| Nov 1, 2010
John Pearce: First thing I tell designers: Do your homework!
John Pearce, FAIA, University Architect at Duke University, Durham, N.C., tells BD+C’s Robert Cassidy about the school’s construction plans and sustainability efforts, how to land work at Duke, and why he’s proceeding with caution when it comes to BIM.
| Oct 13, 2010
Editorial
The AEC industry shares a widespread obsession with the new. New is fresh. New is youthful. New is cool. But “old” or “slightly used” can be financially profitable and professionally rewarding, too.
| Oct 13, 2010
Campus building gives students a taste of the business world
William R. Hough Hall is the new home of the Warrington College of Business Administration at the University of Florida in Gainesville. The $17.6 million, 70,000-sf building gives students access to the latest technology, including a lab that simulates the stock exchange.
| Oct 13, 2010
Science building supports enrollment increases
The new Kluge-Moses Science Building at Piedmont Virginia Community College, in Charlottesville, is part of a campus update designed and managed by the Lukmire Partnership. The 34,000-sf building is designed to be both a focal point of the college and a recruitment mechanism to get more students enrolling in healthcare programs.
| Oct 13, 2010
Residences bring students, faculty together in the Middle East
A new residence complex is in design for United Arab Emirates University in Al Ain, UAE, near Abu Dhabi. Plans for the 120-acre mixed-use development include 710 clustered townhomes and apartments for students and faculty and common areas for community activities.
| Oct 13, 2010
New health center to focus on education and awareness
Construction is getting pumped up at the new Anschutz Health and Wellness Center at the University of Colorado, Denver. The four-story, 94,000-sf building will focus on healthy lifestyles and disease prevention.
| Oct 13, 2010
Community college plans new campus building
Construction is moving along on Hudson County Community College’s North Hudson Campus Center in Union City, N.J. The seven-story, 92,000-sf building will be the first higher education facility in the city.
| Oct 12, 2010
University of Toledo, Memorial Field House
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Memorial Field House, once the lovely Collegiate Gothic (ca. 1933) centerpiece (along with neighboring University Hall) of the University of Toledo campus, took its share of abuse after a new athletic arena made it redundant, in 1976. The ultimate insult occurred when the ROTC used it as a paintball venue.
| Oct 12, 2010
Owen Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Officials at Michigan State University’s East Lansing Campus were concerned that Owen Hall, a mid-20th-century residence facility, was no longer attracting much interest from its target audience, graduate and international students.