As the latest addition to Florida's State University System, the new Florida Polytechnic University will formally open to the public on August 16 in Lakeland, Florida and welcome its first students when classes begin on August 25.
Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava designed the 170-acre campus and its main Innovation, Science, and Technology Building — which the firm proudly announces was finished on schedule and under the $60 million budget. The 200,000 sq.ft structure dons Calatrava's signature futuristic style and has already captured local attention, including appearing in the backdrop for a Chrysler Ram truck commercial that aired earlier this year.
Read on for more details about the IST Building, provided by the firm:
"Located on the north side of the central lake it is designed around, the exterior of the 200,000 sq. ft. building is made up of aluminum, aluminum cladding, concrete and glass. The interior is made of concrete flooring and columns, plaster, steel and glass. It will function as the primary campus facility - housing classrooms, laboratories, offices, meeting spaces and even an amphitheater for larger events."
"On the second floor, offices and meeting rooms are arranged around the 'Commons', which is a large meeting space under the vaulted skylight. The building has a pergola of lightweight aluminum trellis wrapping its exterior. The pergola not only adds character, but reduces the solar load on the building by 30%."
"It also has an operable roof, made of two sets of 46 aluminum louvers, which use the power of hydraulic pistons to move in relationship to the sun, and which can be fitted with solar panels. The operable roof helps to shade the skylight of the Commons from direct sunlight and to maximize daylight to the space."
"When designing the campus’ master plan, Calatrava made the most of the unique topography of the central Florida area. The campus lake offers dramatic views and serves as the primary storm water retention facility and as a storage vessel for site irrigation. The campus is connected by a series of pedestrian causeways and walkways, as well as a road circling the lake buffered by trees and greenery."
Project partners included:
Structural Engineer: Thornton Tomasetti
MEP Engineer: TLC
Civil Engineer: Anderson Lane, Inc.
Architect of Record: Alfonso Architects
Lab Consultant: RS&H
CM/GC: Skanska USA
The on-campus ceremony will take place from 9:30-11:30 a.m. and will be free and open to the public. For more info, click here.
All photos © Alan Karchmer for Santiago Calatrava
16 Comments
I'd like to dislike it, but how can you hate a FLW Michelangelo Calatrava threeway bastard love child?
Beautiful building, terrible urban planning.
Related article by Richard Reep: http://www.newgeography.com/content/004432-what-college-gowns-bring-towns
This building will look better when it's in ruins, covered in vegetation and with holes throughout the roof.
from the linked article above:
Our bookshelves are crowded with titles about the urban future, but in all of this furious scribbling it seems no one has noticed that sidewalks have all but emptied out in many of our cities. Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and a few more still march to the pedestrian beat. But a fairly thorough survey of peninsular Florida yields few sidewalks with any kind of street life — and the few that still operate as shared, social space all belong to our college towns.
Students, with one foot in childhood and one in adulthood, still walk on sidewalks. They shop online, too, but they still patronize businesses for the sake of the social interaction, and still have use for the physicality of the street… for a street life that seems to be endangered.
College towns, living on today in a shadow of their former bohemian selves, will be reinvented, just as education systems will. But for now, deprived of street life, we breed a different sort of citizen and thinker than an old college town once did. This new digital citizen will construct social space in ways yet to be foreseen.
...So, if the sidewalks are emptying, where exactly is the "digital citizen" constructing her social space? Is it not digitally? There is something that seems close to a contradiction in the author's ending; an inkling to inch towards pessimism with the guarded semblance of being positivistically objective and attentive. Too cautious in sounding like a critical "old fart"?
Personally,i find calatrava buildings rather awkward; how his always beautiful structure (or seeming structure) touches or interfaces with the envelope and how the discrete nature of arranging spaces sometimes breaks out of this mould of engineering perfection. of course, a photographer can go crazy over the opportunities a calatrava building affords - no doubt about that, it is ultimately a staged structure, a theatre of structure, this is calatrava's domain, no? but sometimes don't you think he is much too apollonian for a discipline that benefits greatly from dionysian moments: discontinuities, ruptures, differences?
how beautiful are his sculptures, where everything falls into a structural-visual narrative. How about his architecture...not a little more awkward?
They are having an open house on Saturday and I am going! (I live about 20 minutes away).
Tammuz,
I think perhaps the author is still thinking (or failing to distinguish between) physical spaces and virtual spaces. What I think he is getting at is - What kind of physical spaces does this shift to technology enable or require - what types of spaces will young people demand?
----
Yes, I would love to see a hybrid architect-engineer pursuing beautiful structures with a non-conforming floor plan or section - as if Calatrava designed the structure, then Lebbeus Woods came back through and designed the program, the spaces, the circulation.... would be very nice.
If anything, the digital shift puts a greater premium on physical spaces of pride--you can fill your Instagram feed with nothing. Younger people are all moving to cities that value social interaction via physical space... That's why even in poorly designed cities, people still flock to the mall and movie theaters.
The sad thing is most of the best cities were built in the 1930s. In the end it comes to a question of good design. It is good design if it is successful and full in ten years, a hundred years from now.
Darkman,
actually if you look at The Urban Institute, US Census, HUD, or other statistics, you will see that there are drastically more "millennials" moving to the suburbs and exurbs than to cities. This is what is driving the growth of the so-called "Sun-belt". (Houston will be the 4th largest city in the US by 2040)
That is why this campus is in the middle of nowhere - 100% commuting school for young people living in suburbs and exurbs.
I know it can be quite a shock when literally EVERY news organization is talking about the "millennial shift to residing in cities" but it is totally made-up. A big source of this is Richard Florida, who is just completely full-of-shit and gives terrible advice to cities, then masks it with PR campaigns to convince these same cities, via media and press, that young people really are moving to the city.
I really don't find his structures all that interesting. I think Bans structural tectonics are far more interesting and innovative. To me if your goal to express structure them the structural physics and integrity need to be more pronounced like the gateway arch. His bridges seem far more clear.
They are beautiful from a distance though.
Archan, you are probably right about that... Texas is growing rapidly, but I would add that by saying there is probably a shift within Houston and Texas to live closer to the urban core.... yes people are pragmatic, and not everyone can afford to live downtown but there is certainly more interest in doing so. So both are true... More people in the burbs, more people downtown, more people everywhere. Young people move downtown, then back to the burbs out of necessity (and prob switch from liberal to conservative in the process).
as for the building, it's all about context. I like Calatrava as an antidote to classical structures but rarely see it in the middle of nowhere. Has an uplifting but airport feel.
actually if you look at The Urban Institute, US Census, HUD, or other statistics, you will see that there are drastically more "millennials" moving to the suburbs and exurbs than to cities.
not true - they aren't moving there - they're just not leaving.
toasteroven,
They are both moving to suburbs and not leaving suburbs. No one article can sum up the entire picture, but these are some good options to give context.
(If you can't tell, I really like newgeography.com - they do an excellent job of covering diverse issues and perspectives in issues of urbanism, and promote articles and writers who use data to back up their claims)
Darkman,
Houston is doing good work and trying to densify, but that will take much longer than it has to build out and rapidly increase the city's area.
http://www.newgeography.com/content/004457-millennial-boomtowns-where-the-generation-is-clustering-its-not-downtown
http://www.newgeography.com/content/004453-urban-cores-core-cities-and-principal-cities
http://www.newgeography.com/content/004431-a-tale-273-cities
@mj100 I'd be interested to read a report back!
I'm planning on attending as well. Had the chance to visit during construction and want to see finished building.
I applaud the folks who had the courage to do something this forward thinking in Florida. It marks a new era for FL. The photography being inspired by this building is worth a second look.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.