Archinect - News

BIG shares images of science center progress at Claremont McKenna College

2024-12-09T09:35:00-05:00

A new higher ed project for Southern California’s Claremont McKenna College from BIG has been updated on the way to its previously announced completion next fall. The 135,000-square-foot design for the Robert Day Sciences Center targets LEED Gold certification while bringing better quality research spaces to trigger a key turn towards the liberal arts college’s "next chapter" of scientific research into neurology, genealogical studies, and climate change.

An updated rendering of the firm's 670 Mesquit residential project overlooking the Los Angeles River at the Arts District with Studio-MLA is also included at the end.

Caltech's new Resnick Sustainability Center gets scientific from the outside in

2024-11-13T16:58:00-05:00

Caltech’s new Resnick Sustainability Center (RSC) has opened after the completion of an 80,000-square-foot design produced by the LA-based Yazdani Studio of CannonDesign.

The project, which had been marketed as an interdisciplinary and cohesive "makerspace" for Caltech scientists and engineering students, stands out thanks to an innovative building envelope shaped by an "undulating glass skim" that's noticeably distinct from other academic buildings on campus.

Image courtesy of Cannon Design

A language of diagonal sunscreen frits covering a low-E coated glass curtain wall and its supporting mass timber "gridshell" in the facade contribute to the building's impugned profile against the presence of the aforementioned older structures. The use of timber as a structural and aesthetic component also blends the atrium and walkways with a concrete shell core housing suites of research laboratories and academic spaces to make an elaborate yet wholly scientific composition from the outside i...

Diller Scofidio + Renfro reveal updated CCAT design for the University of New Mexico

2024-10-11T17:05:00-04:00

An update has been provided for the Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R)-led Center for Collaborative Arts & Technology (CCAT) design at the University of New Mexico’s main Albuquerque campus.

The $65 million project is 60,000 square feet in total, establishing a new gateway to campus at Stanford Drive and Central Avenue.

DS+R is working locally with the firm ROMA Architecture on what is the sole new construction realized as part of Studio Ma’s 2021 master plan for the College of Fine Arts.

Image courtesy Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R)

Inside the building, a 600-seat multi-purpose performance hall serves students and faculty alongside supportive "dynamic collaborative workspaces." A transparent "Super Lobby" is created by slicing through the three floating volumes horizontally at Level 2. A new, state-of-the-art ARTSLab with an in-house fabrication facility takes its place above it on the third level. These spaces match the design brief...

Studio Gang transforms former warehouse space into new home for the University of Kentucky's College of Design

2024-09-23T15:14:00-04:00

The new home for the College of Design at the University of Kentucky (CoD) has been inaugurated after a two-year project led by Studio Gang.

Their makeover of the Gray Design Building turned a former tobacco warehouse at the edge of campus into a new hub for learning and collaboration. It is the first to consolidate space for all four CoD departments and the department of landscape architecture under one roof since 1965.

Image: © Tom Harris

The adaptive reuse project provided a unique teaching opportunity for students, retaining the existing masonry walls, foundation, timber columns and beams, and steel trusses used in the former Reynolds Building's original 1917 construction.

Image: © Tom Harris

Studio Gang was able to work multiple interventions into the 132,000 square foot volume, remaking the ground-floor with a large, double-height lecture hall, small art gallery, and flexible classroom while placing studio spaces above in the second level, connected to each other a via central...

Designs of TenBerke and Mahlum Architects-led University of Washington residence hall project unveiled

2024-08-22T18:55:00-04:00

TenBerke, alongside Mahlum Architects, has designed an all-electric, 230,000-square-foot residence hall and wellness center at the University of Washington. Called Haggett Hall, the facility stands nine stories and will house 800 students. The project finalizes a critical component of the University’s decade-long initiative to develop its North Campus and support more students living on campus.

Image: TenBerke

The U-shaped building is positioned dramatically on a forested ridge at the confluence of the campus and the surrounding woodlands. From east to west, the site experiences a 45-foot grade change. Its two primary blocks sit along the length of the ridge, organized north-south to maximize sunlight and fresh air.

Image: TenBerke

At the structure’s northern end, two parallel wings come together, outlining a verdant courtyard in the center of the complex. There are also new, accessible paths that wind through the site, connecting to pre-existing walkways on campus.

Haggett Hall is ta...

TenBerke and Ballinger design Yale's new quantum science center as a series of interconnected pavilions

2024-07-18T16:37:00-04:00

TenBerke, in collaboration with Ballinger, has revealed designs for a new center for quantum science, engineering, and materials initiatives at Yale University. Called the Upper Science Hill Development (USHD), the 611,000-square-foot complex will be one of Yale’s largest and most complex building projects ever undertaken.

Located in the Science Hill precinct, the complex will add a publicly accessible series of landscape spaces to foster pedestrian and cyclist circulation on the campus.

The structure is designed to fit the topography of its urban and natural surroundings. As detailed by the architects, vibration control is one of the primary design drivers for quantum science facilities. Therefore, USHD’s sloping site, which is close to bedrock, was chosen for its strong vibration stability.

Image: TenBerke

The complex is conceived as a series of interconnected pavilions that move upwards. The building houses a network of overlapping hubs, organized by research initiatives. Its faça...

Pratt SoA Dean Quilian Riano outlines plan to address space challenges with proposed new building

2024-05-30T14:43:00-04:00

In a new letter to faculty members at the Pratt School of Architecture, second-year Dean Quilian Riano has outlined the need for some $71 million worth of deferred maintenance and other upgrades to the 155-year-old Higgins Hall in keeping with the new Local Law 97 mandate for net zero operating capacity by 2050. This includes $57 million for maintenance and upgrades, plus an additional $14 million to increase the electrical capacity.

Local Law 97 requires new energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions limits, with a goal of a 40% reduction by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2050. Additionally, Higgins Hall has maxed out its Floor Area Ratio (FAR) and electrical capacity.

As a result, Riano said, the school must expand into a new building to accommodate its growing student body. A Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) will now be issued to developers. This process will explore leveraging Pratt Institute’s air rights to build housing, including affordable housing, and deliver ...

BIG’s new LA office tops out science center at Claremont McKenna College

2024-05-30T11:45:00-04:00

A topping-out ceremony was held recently for the new BIG-designed 135,000-square-foot Robert Day Sciences Center at Claremont McKenna College in California. The new campus gateway — one of the first projects of BIG's new Los Angeles office — seeks to enhance the college's research aims into neurology, genealogical studies, and climate change in preparation for an institutional turn towards its "next chapter."

Classrooms, lab spaces, and an open, column-free auditorium space are contained in each rotated rectangular block volume, complemented on the outside by rooftop terraces and public plaza areas "The Mall," "Art Square," and "Sciences Garden." BIG expects their design to be completed in 2025. It offers a worthy comparison to their previous Business Innovation Hub design at UMass Amherst and is on track for a LEED Gold certification.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group (@big_builds)

Ayers Saint Gross designs new Charlotte innovation district

2024-05-17T08:00:00-04:00

Ayers Saint Gross has shared renderings of its new design in Charlotte, NC. Phase 1, which is set to open in 2025, includes two new buildings totaling 685,000 square feet, two parking garages with 1,100 parking spaces, and a central plaza. The project is part of The Pearl; a planned innovation district that will total three million square feet at its full buildout, and is intended to aid the Wake Forest School of Medicine’s expansion and become a new civic hub for Charlotte.

Rendering courtesy Ayers Saint Gross and CO Architects

Located at the edge of Uptown, the program includes the anchoring 14-story, 393,000-square-foot Howard Levine Center for Education building and a neighboring smaller ten-story, 330,000-square-foot research facility, 905 Pearl Park Way, that is attracting major health science innovators, developed through the partnership between Atrium Health and Wexford Science & Technology. CO Architects and Neighboring C...

Herzog & de Meuron's FORUM UZH design moves forward in Zurich

2024-05-16T18:36:00-04:00

Herzog & de Meuron is advancing on the construction of its new FORUM UZH design at the University of Zurich following a permit issuance for the project whose bid was born out of a 2018 international competition.

Preparatory site work will begin in August for the new building, which replaces former gymnasium structures with a facility for research and education at a capacity of 6,000 people. Included in its program are over 700 individual workspaces, a central library, seminar rooms, and sports halls.

This is their first design for the university. The firm also recently broke ground on another academic building project, the new UCSF Health Helen Diller Hospital at the University of San Francisco, a 15-story hybrid healthcare facility and academic medical complex that is expected to be completed in 2030.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Herzog & de Meuron (@herzogdemeuron)

SOM's new Schwarzman College of Computing opens at MIT

2024-05-01T14:02:00-04:00

The new home for the recently established MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been completed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

What will be a research hub for AI and other disciplines in the computing sciences offers 185,000 square feet of labs, collaborative spaces, classrooms, and faculty areas inside a shingled profile that defines two eight-story pavilions.

Image credit: Dave Burk © SOM

The structure's design was limited by an existing railroad track running along the site’s north axis, creating the need for a 44-foot bridge that connects to either volume across three levels. After entering its oak-finished triple-height lobby from a central plaza area, engineers and researchers have space to explore flexible arrangements in the offices along its perimeter on Vassar Street.

Image credit: Dave Burk © SOM

The building includes social kitchens, a large 250-seat lecture ...

BIG teams up with University of Kansas students and faculty to deliver the new Makers’ KUbe design

2024-04-22T15:24:00-04:00

BIG in partnership with BNIM and the University of Kansas have unveiled plans for a new six-story creative academic space that will help consolidate formerly separate learning environments for students in the School of Architecture & Design. Comprising a diagrid frame, the Makers’ KUbe is a 50,000-square-foot mass timber cube structure connecting the school’s renovated Marvin Hall and Chalmers Hall buildings from 1908 and 1978, respectively.

Mahbub Rashid, the new Dean of the University of Kansas School of Architecture & Design, said: "BIG’s willingness to both listen to us and push us has conceived a project that celebrates our history and embodies the ambitious optimism that animates our academic mission."

Image by Kilograph

As Rashid mentioned, the design is the product of a collaborative effort that brought together students, faculty, and board members in order to create a hub-like embodiment of KU’s four primary principles: "to become an emblem of creativity; to create a connec...

KPF designs Columbia University's first purpose-built, all-electric research lab building

2024-04-10T18:28:00-04:00

Kohn Pedersen Fox has designed a new state-of-the-art research and academic facility that will deliver Columbia Universty’s first purpose-built, all-electric lab building for the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The project will augment Columbia’s Plan 2030 for achieving campus-wide net-zero emissions by 2050. It boasts a system of air source heat pumps (ASHPs) that manage the building’s temperature controls in unison with a high-performance facade that offers an optimized window-to-wall-ratio under 50%.

Credit: RGB, courtesy Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF)

“As an all-electric research lab building in a cold climate, the biomedical research building presented a particular challenge given high heating loads brought on by the ventilation requirements of the building’s program,” KPF’s Director and Head of Sustainability, Carlos Cerezo Davila, said in a project announcement. “This required us to design a building where the architecture and the mechanical systems work toge...

KPF presents Detroit's new University of Michigan Center for Innovation design

2024-04-05T15:15:00-04:00

A new project in Detroit from Kohn Pedersen Fox will deliver the University of Michigan's Center for Innovation (UMCI), a six-story academic research and teaching facility that is expected to open by the spring of 2027.

Construction has already commenced for the $250 million development, which will be delivered at 200,000 square feet in advance of two other “incubator” and residential structures that will follow at a later date on the four-acre site. The university says the UMCI will serve a host of purposes and is primarily intended for workforce development and different graduate degree programs.

Atrium view. Image credit: Kohn Pedersen Fox

KPF Design Principal Hana Kassem describes: “The UMCI is a catalyst for positive change and, as such, presents itself along Grand River Avenue as a ‘gateway for innovation. It proudly bears the University of Michigan spirit focusing on progress and inclusivity which is embodied in its dynamic forward-leaning form and the portal that cuts through...

Heatherwick Studio previews first South American project in Bogotá, Colombia

2024-03-21T16:45:00-04:00

Heatherwick Studio has made public details of a new project in Bogotá, Colombia, for a client in the higher education industry. The studio’s first South American design will be realized as a seven-story academic building and makerspace with a uniquely colorful facade composed of setbacks, free columns, planting, and small circular outdoor terraces.

The client is Bogotá’s Universidad Ean Design School, a 56-year-old private institution founded to provide "comprehensive training of people and stimulate their entrepreneurial aptitude so that its action contributes to the economic and social development of people."

Image: Heatherwick Studio/NOD

Traditional Werregue basket-making practices serve as the inspirations for the design, tipping off Heatherwick’s war on blandness and desire to elevate craft into a primary role in his building practice.

This homage to Colombia's Wounaan Indigenous community will serve as the new centerpiece of the campus, complementing the architecture of the su...

Harvard GSD details Gund Hall renovations

2023-12-21T12:06:00-05:00

Harvard’s Graduate School of Design has unveiled plans for a slate of renovations that will culminate next year and are aimed at improving the user experience for students and faculty at 51-year-old Gund Hall in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The project will help preserve the familiar John Andrews design for new generations while serving as a model for the sustainable redevelopment of midcentury structures, the school announced. Boston-based Bruner/Cott Architects will be leading the process, leaning on its past renovation and remodeling of the Harvard Holyoke Center with Hopkins Architects that was completed in 2019.

The first phase of construction will insulate the building envelope in order to reduce energy costs and increase occupational comfort. Gund Hall’s iconic ‘trays,’ the terraced glass structures covering studio spaces will be reglazed. The GSD is testing out prototypes in Gund Hall’s 'The Pit' multiuse area and says they are especially hopeful for a hybrid vacuum-insulated ...

Moody Nolan reveals design for $342 million research complex at Morgan State University

2023-11-17T13:11:00-05:00

Moody Nolan has shared an update to its previously announced Science and Research Complex project at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

The new, 246,000-square-foot complex comes equipped with the industry’s latest technological features and will be designed to achieve R1 (very high research activity) Carnegie classification, aiming to bolster the school’s STEM education offerings and national position as a research university.

New renderings released by the firm showcase the direction of the project, whose programmatic elements include Collaborative Teaching and Research Spaces, Information Technology and Computer Labs, Tutoring and Learning Centers, a 3,000-square-foot Environmental and Botanical Rooftop Greenhouse, and space for Remote and Hybrid Technology Integration.

Image courtesy of Moody Nolan

The building will house MSU’s School of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (SCMNS) and be constructed alongside pre-set minority business enterprise (MBE) goals of 47.75%...

Pittsburgh's Institute for Contemporary Art reveals ZGF-designed expansion at Carnegie Mellon University

2023-11-13T14:13:00-05:00

ZGF Architects has announced plans for an expansion of the Miller Institute for Contemporary Art at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

As part of the design, the soon-to-be-renamed Institute for Contemporary Art Pittsburgh will increase in size by three times its current operating capacity. Located near other important cultural institutions inside of the new Richard King Mellon Hall of Sciences at the edge of Carnegie Mellon’s campus on Forbes Avenue, the 29,000-square-foot space serves as an interdisciplinary “advocate for new ideas and an aggregator of communities” in dialogue with the neighboring Carnegie Museum of Art and a growing audience of scholars, students, and faculty.

Image: Atchain, courtesy Carnegie Mellon University

The program calls for a 338,000-square-foot complex of buildings to be divided into two components: a looping wing that contains the ICA and other university spaces, and a set-back tower that will be the new home of the CMU Mellon College of Science ...

EskewDumezRipple to deliver academic center for Georgia Tech in Atlanta

2023-10-30T14:29:00-04:00

EskewDumezRipple has announced plans for a new academic building for the Georgia Institute of Technology in midtown Atlanta.

The 416,500-square-foot Tech Square 3 will anchor Phase 3 of the newly created Technology Square, which links back to Georgia Tech’s main campus. The design calls for a “vertically-oriented quad” that directly engages the 5th Street corridor through a characteristically Southern ‘porch’ socializing space located at the ground level.

Rendering courtesy EskewDumezRipple

Two 14- and 18-story masses are combined into one building that supports the university’s Executive MBA program and H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering connected by a central shared core. A vertical rooftop garden element completes the project, situated on top of an architectural staircase that helps unify the building with an outdoor promenade.

Rendering courtesy EskewDumezRipple

EskewDumezRipple says...

A ‘textural and reflective building skin’ wraps the University of Washington’s new Health Sciences Education Building

2023-10-12T14:08:00-04:00

A team comprising The Miller Hull Partnership, The S/L/A/M Collaborative, and Lease Crutcher Lewis has completed the new Health Sciences Education Building at the University of Washington in Seattle. Designed using a ‘culture of care’ philosophy, the scheme seeks to provide a “shared physical space that sparks innovation and creativity among students.”

Image credit: Moris Moreno

Marking a new entrance to the university’s South Campus, the Health Sciences Education Building is the first project to be delivered as part of a wider campus master plan. While the existing campus prioritizes an indoor circulation system between buildings, the new scheme seeks to pull people outdoors and introduce a new network of accessible pathways, murals, and sculptural public art, as well as outdoor seating areas.

Image credit: Moris Moreno

The building is constructed of a hybrid system using steel, concrete, and cross-laminated timber. Inside, the incl...

Alejandro Aravena to deliver the new home of the School of Architecture, Art and Design in Monterrey, Mexico

2023-09-21T12:30:00-04:00

Pritzker laureate Alejandro Aravena and his firm ELEMENTAL S.A have been announced as the project leads to deliver the new home of the School of Architecture, Art and Design (EAAD) to the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM) in Mexico.

The scope of the new Classrooms 10 project entails a new building at the Avenida Junco de la Vega that will house the school’s Architecture, Design, Digital Art, and Urbanism programs, all of which are currently spread throughout multiple facilities at its Monterrey flagship campus. The university also operates 21 satellite campuses across Mexico, though no plans appear to be in development for any of their locations.

Aravena visited the campus in late August to workshop the idea with students and faculty at the university. Dean Rodolfo Barragán says the project will leave “a place with urban significance” that integrates ITESM’s presence with Monterrey’s Central Park while “highlighting and giving meaning to the activities that will be appropri...

TenBerke announces University of Washington residence hall project with Mahlum Architects

2023-07-28T12:25:00-04:00

TenBerke has announced a new dormitory project for the University of Washington in Seattle co-led with local mainstays Mahlum Architects, a leader in green building design.

The scope of the new Haggett Hall project encompasses a 200,000-square-foot residential hall with 800 beds and a fitness center located in the North Campus neighborhood of UW, which is currently undergoing a housing-focused transformation.

The firm’s first-ever West Coast project will incorporate its surroundings on an acre-and-a-half site on the periphery of campus and a woodland area. The project will be delivered using an “integrated design-build process” with Anderson Construction as its lead contractor and using the findings of a student engagement process that began in May.

Senior Principal Arthi Krishnamoorthy says it is part of TenBerke’s push to deliver a new generation of student housing marked b...

Inside three upgraded Columbia University science labs by Shakespeare, Gordon, Vlado: Architects

2023-07-24T11:52:00-04:00

Shakespeare, Gordon, Vlado: Architects (SGVA) has completed a series of research laboratories for Columbia University. Initiated in 2018, the project aimed to “modernize and repurpose” Columbia’s existing facilities to accommodate the expanding needs of the university's biological sciences, chemistry, and physics departments.

Physics Lab. Photo credit: Alexander Severin

The three projects centered on a chemistry lab at Havemeyer Hall, a biochemistry lab at Fairchild Center, and a physics lab at Pupin Hall. Each laboratory project involved the complete renovation of the existing spaces along with “innovative design concepts to facilitate the new and future goals for scientists and their teams in advancing their research.”

Chemistry Lab. Photo credit: Alexander Severin

Havemeyer Hall's chemistry lab was transformed into a state-of-the-art 2,800 square-foot research facility, outfitted with a Biosaf...

J. MAYER H. completes cantilevering pavilion for FOM University’s Düsseldorf campus

2023-07-05T11:13:00-04:00

J. MAYER H. has completed a new pavilion for the FOM University campus in Düsseldorf, Germany. The structure adds to a larger university building completed by the firm five years ago, bringing a new social space to the 86,000-square-foot campus on the site of a former cargo train station.

Image credit: David Franck

The pavilion features shaded outdoor terraces underneath a cantilevering floating roof. Described as an annex to the main building, the inside of the facility offers over 1,000 square feet of social spaces.

Image credit: David Franck

“The FOM Pavilion adapts to the amorphous green landscape that interweaves the various levels of access to the university building and as a soft soil sculpture covers the underground garage beneath,” the design team explained in a statement. “As an addition to the university building, the pavilion provides spaces for seminars and lectures, workshops and social gatherings.”

Image credit: David ...

Steven Holl Architects reveals design for UPenn's new Student Performing Arts Center

2023-06-16T16:57:00-04:00

Steven Holl Architects has unveiled renderings for their design of a new Student Performing Arts Center on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadephia.

The 37,300-square-foot structure will provide dedicated space for the performing arts at Penn and features a 300-seat proscenium theater, 125-seat studio theater, support spaces, and five rehearsal studios. The firm says they will pursue a LEED-silver certification for the project, which is sited on the northeast quadrant of the 1,085-acre campus as a new gateway between the university and city beyond.

“It is a great joy and honor to work on a performing arts center for the students of this historic university on such an important site,” Holl stated.

Image courtesy Steven Holl Architects

The design for the Center itself evokes the iconic nearby Fisher Fine Arts Library, repeating the use of red terracotta in its façade while separating the program into unique suspended trapezoidal masses that are meant to echo the move...

Toyo Ito completes work on the largest mass timber building in Asia

2023-05-23T18:00:00-04:00

Toyo Ito has shared photo and video updates at the conclusion of his firm’s monumental academic building project, titled "Gaia," for the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore.

The completed mass timber design is now reportedly the largest of its kind in Asia, topping out at six stories and a total of 468,000 square feet. It is the new home of NTU’s Business School and comes equipped with a 190-seat auditorium, 12 large lecture halls, seminar rooms, laboratories, graduate student and faculty offices, and multiple classroom spaces.

Image courtesy NTU Singapore.

Bricks held over from the former NTU Innovation Centre were also repurposed as a decorative wall inside the new structure. The design recently garnered the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore’s Green Mark Platinum (Zero Energy) building award for its impressive sustainable performance metrics, which led to over 2,500 fewer tonnes of carbon dioxide being used per year.

Ima...

Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects' latest adaptive reuse project takes center stage at Chapman University

2023-05-08T12:36:00-04:00

A new adaptive reuse academic project from Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects (LOHA) for Chapman University is getting students' feet moving following the completion of the Sandi Simon Dance Center this January.

The project remade an aging century-old former fruit packing warehouse space operated by the school’s namesake, the orange growing magnate C.C. Chapman, into a 72,000-square-foot educational and performance facility complete with new five dance studios, breakout areas, classrooms, and a lounge.

Photography by Eric Staudenmaier

Acoustic upgrades were paramount to the project, along with a full seismic retrofit and a new circulation strategy that reorganized the structure’s interior into three levels. An influx of natural sunlight is incorporated through a precise cut into the original floor, allowing for the introduction of new volumes that house separate programs and are connected by a multi-story central atrium.

Photography by Eric Staudenmaier

Phot...

Mass timber pedestrian bridge rises at Toronto's George Brown College

2023-04-28T14:26:00-04:00

Canadian construction company PCL Construction is celebrating a major milestone in the construction of George Brown College’s new Limberlost Place on Toronto’s waterfront, with the installation of a mass timber pedestrian bridge.

Standing 65 feet above street level, the structure connects level five of Limberlost Place to level six of the college’s Daphne Cockwell Center for Health Sciences. The 10-story Limberlost Place is reportedly set to be the first mass timber, net-zero carbon emissions institutional building of its kind in Ontario. It was designed by a team consisting of Moriyama and Teshima Architects and Acton Ostry Architects. The building is expected to be completed by 2024 and will be open for classes in January 2025.

Video via PCL Construction on YouTube

The pedestrian bridge stretches approximately 70 feet and is made up of two glue-laminated trusses and four cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels. Individual CLT pieces were prefabricated at an off-site location befor...

Deborah Berke Partners unveils completed adaptive reuse project for Harvard Law School

2023-03-07T15:35:00-05:00

A transformational new adaptive reuse project for Harvard Law School’s Lewis International Law Center has been completed recently by Deborah Berke Partners.

Meant to “holistically” meet the demands posed by modern legal education, the project remade the original 1957 Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson, and Abbott design into a “porous, open connector” located at the heart of HLS’ Cambridge campus.

Photo: Chris Cooper, courtesy Deborah Berke Partners

Existing limestone edifices were removed to add an influx of natural light into the structure, which retained 80% of its original concrete foundation, steel-frame structure, and most of its modernist envelope. Terraces were added to the fifth floor and rooftop. A slate of new or repositioned entrances now helps to define the project’s exterior renovations, with the end of enabling greater accessibility to a campus that is now addressed from all sides.

Photo: Chris Cooper, courtesy Deborah Berke Partners

Photo: Chris Cooper, courtesy Deborah Ber...

Perkins&Will begins construction on mass timber gateway to University of British Columbia campus

2023-01-04T11:15:00-05:00

Construction is underway on the $180 million Gateway Building at the University of British Columbia, designed by Perkins&Will and Schmidt Hammer Lassen. Intended as a “principal point of entry” to the UBC campus, the design of the six-story, 267,000-square-foot mass timber building seeks to balance sustainability, personal well-being, and Indigenous collaboration.

Image credit: Perkins&Will

The scheme comprises two five-story wings connected by a central naturally-lit six-story atrium, which includes a large interconnecting staircase and lounging spaces. The building’s mass timber structure is fully expressed in the interior; a decision driven by the importance of timber for the Indigenous Musqueam people on whose territory the UBC campus sits.

Image credit: Perkins&Will

“This was the first capital project where we did what we call ‘deep engagement’ with the Musqueam,” UBC’s director of planning and design Gerry McGeough told Canada’s Journal of Commerce. “We went through a whole seri...