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...

Studio Gang unveils a new 'creative ecosystem' for the California College of the Arts in San Francisco

2024-11-07T17:42:00-05:00

The wait is over for followers of Studio Gang’s campus expansion for the California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco. The project, which was first announced in late 2016, establishes an overlapping "creative ecosystem" inside the footprint of the school's existing campus located in the heart of the city’s Design District.

Image courtesy Jason O'Rear

The program adds a total of 82,305 square feet of space in the form of two hybrid mass timber pavilions set on top of a concrete slab base and sheltering both a makers yard area and other conditioned outdoor spaces used for fabricating and multidisciplinary design education.

Image courtesy Jason O'Rear

The first, 24,300-square-foot Hooper Pavilion includes 48 art studios worth a total of 5,300 square feet. Along with those, there is a new 2,100-square-foot gallery for the exhibition students’ work, small lounge, another classroom space, and a 1,100-square-foot lecture hall with seating for up to 60 people.

Image courtesy Jason O'...

Robert A.M. Stern Architects to author renovation of Austin’s historic UT Tower

2024-10-10T11:28:00-04:00

Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA) has signed on to a new higher education project for the University of Texas at Austin. The project to renovate the historic UT Tower (aka the 'Main Building') back to its original 1937 appearance will be completed by the end of summer 2027. Restoration of its exterior will begin next month. The listed budget for the project is $70 million.

Image: The University of Texas at Austin

TenBerke and Ballinger update plans for Life Sciences facility at Brown University

2024-09-16T10:56:00-04:00

An important project for Rhode Island’s largest city, TenBerke with Ballinger’s 300,000-square-foot new Life Sciences Building for Brown University in the downtown Providence Jewelry District, has been updated along with new renderings, project details, and expected 2027 completion date.

Image courtesy TenBerke

The William A. and Ami Kuan Danoff Life Sciences Laboratories will be a seven-story facility designed to host four major research programs near the university’s medical school.

Image courtesy TenBerke

One of the first all-electric buildings in the state will be run on 100% renewable electricity. Brown says it will have special hydraulic equipment that will help decarbonize other buildings connected to it around the site in the revitalized district’s urban grid. The design integrates with the street-level with a café and public patio. Wet labs will be situated inside a perimeter line of glass enclosures, while dry workspace for researchers will be protected from daylight deeper ...

The Cooper Union is starting to bring back free tuition

2024-09-03T17:02:00-04:00

In a surprising move, The Cooper Union has announced a return to tuition-free education for all undergraduate seniors within each of the next four years starting with its Class of 2025. The reversal comes ten years after school trustees formally voted to do away with its free mandate for the first time as a result of financial strain. The New York Times was first to report on the announcement, which follows a $6 million grant from three Cooper alumni.

The Cooper Union says it is on track to be free to all students by the 2028-29 academic year. Current costs for undergraduates hover at $44,550. However, the school is prioritizing the ten-year plan. Current first-, second-, and third-year students will receive full-tuition scholarships in their senior years under it. In a statement, outgoing President Laura Sparks said progress on the issue "[reaffirms] the ideals that have been foundational to this institution since Peter Cooper opened its doors in 1859."

Previously on Archinect: Coo...

Backed by SB4, church groups prepare to make housing their mission in LA

2024-08-20T11:17:00-04:00

The Archdiocese of L.A. announced Wednesday it will partner with a newly formed nonprofit called Our Lady Queen of Angels Housing Alliance to develop affordable housing in Southern California. Their first project — located on Archdiocese land currently used by Catholic Charities — will construct affordable apartments next to L.A. City College for community college students and youth transitioning out of foster care.

The transitional housing project at Los Angeles City College joins another for Pasadena City College that will enable better access to higher education for the 30,000 youths enrolled in L.A. County’s foster care system currently. Statewide there are 171,749 acres of developable land owned by nonprofit colleges or faith-based organizations, according to the UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation’s assessment from a year ago.

SB4, motivated by the national “Yes in God’s Backyard” (which began in San Diego, eases the process for churches and nonprofit organizations can build housing at sites that previously had been limited by lot size restrictions and the California Environmental Quality Act (or CEQA).

The article mentions a separate state report, which found that one-quarter of all community college students in California experience homelessness at some point during the school year.

Koning Eizenberg returns to its roots with the new Student Pavilion for the University of Melbourne

2024-07-03T18:33:00-04:00

A new higher ed project in Australia from Koning Eizenberg for the University of Melbourne has opened, bringing together student input on diversity, inclusion, and gender equity with the need for communal space. The design reference points pay credence to the institution’s progressive culture both past and future.

Image: Peter Bennetts

The firm's 27,000-square-foot Student Pavilion was inaugurated this past academic year and is meant to serve as a hub for commuter students. It is set within a newly created student precinct whose aim is to reinstate a "pre-colonial landscape" with respect and reconciliation to the Indigenous culture of the land's traditional owners.

Image: Peter Bennetts

The building's main circulation route is placed prominently on the exterior, adding a sense of exuberance while allowing for better socializing use of its projecting balconies and a series of mixed-use "informal" interior spaces by students.

Image: Peter Bennetts

From the outside, an exposed concrete s...

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)

Heatherwick's 'Humanise' campaign inspires 'joyful' architecture degree at UK university

2024-05-15T18:01:00-04:00

The UK’s Loughborough University has accepted Thomas Heatherwick's challenge to ‘humanize’ and create ‘joyful’ architecture with a new academic offering: A master's degree aiming to give students the opportunity to take part in a burgeoning movement created to solve a global “urban crisis” over the next decade. The 115-year-old university will become the first to affiliate itself with the Humanise campaign academically with new supplementary course content exclusive to its new Master of Architecture & Design program.

Courses will leverage research into architecture, neuroscience, and human psychology in accord with Heatherwick’s philosophy of design, which was recently the subject of a new treatise of the same title. The program's official launch is slated for the fall of 2025 and includes a series of lectures and workshops exploring the idea of emotion as a function of design, an announcement from the university read Tuesday.

Dr Robert Schmidt III of the School of Architecture, Bui...

Ennead and Dattner share first SPARC Kips Bay images ahead of 2031 completion

2024-05-13T17:01:00-04:00

Ennead and Dattner have shared preliminary project visuals to accompany the latest announcement of their winning bid to deliver the Science Park and Research Campus (or SPARC) Kips Bay to the East Side of Manhattan.

The project for the New York City Economic Development Corporation will culminate with a new 700,000-square-foot academic building to be used by three separate CUNY schools and a new high school for STEM careers. Close to two million square feet of educational spaces are being planned overall, and the project development will be complete with a new pedestrian bridge that fosters a connection to the East River waterfront.

Preliminary project visual. Image courtesy Ennead Architects + Dattner Architects

Ennead Partner Thomas J. Wong (the project's Design Lead) shared: “We bring a commitment to civic space, along with deep experience creating leading healthcare and education facilities to our work for SPARC Kips Bay, where, together with Dattner, we will develop an innovati...

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...

RAMSA’s new Raclin Murphy Museum of Art opens at Notre Dame this December

2023-11-17T18:34:00-05:00

The University of Notre Dame’s new Raclin Murphy Museum of Art from Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA) has announced an opening date of December 1st, completing the first phase of a multi-year plan that will advance research and foundational arts education offerings for students in South Bend, Indiana.

The design consists of a 70,000-square-foot neoclassical style building to house the university’s 31,000 object collection. A rectangular layout of 23 separate gallery spaces centers around a circular multi-story atrium and sculpture court, with the exhibitions of different world cultures stitched together into one “dialogue” connecting to an art historical timeline that totals approximately 4,000 years.

Image rendering courtesy of RAMSA

Notre Dame is, similar to Brown University, pursuing the project in the interests of re-affirming the role of arts education in its undergraduate curricula. The school says the new museum brings it on par with Yale, Stanford, and other comparable ins...

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%...

UK academics decry ARB's new annual fee for architecture schools

2023-11-13T19:22:00-05:00

The British Architects Registration Board (ARB) has announced a new £9,200 ($11,300 USD) yearly fee, which will begin being asked from all 60 accredited schools of architecture in the UK next year. The move has sparked criticism that they are “crippling” education efforts in the country’s smaller and underfunded degree programs.

The announcement was made at the beginning of November, just months removed from the organization’s proposal of “fundamental” overhauls to higher education that eventually drew criticism from RIBA and academic organizations.

The scheme is reportedly expected to haul in an extra £550,000 (around $675,500 USD) in funds annually. Fees of £3,000 will also be assessed for any new applications for qualification from schools, along with an annual £2,000 renewal fee requiring a “periodic review” of their credential.

The ARB has been hiking fees lately in addition to pursuing those educational reforms, though the latest news still comes as a “shock” to many, accordi...

ACSA issues joint statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion censorship in education

2023-09-21T17:39:00-04:00

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) has joined its sibling organizations in landscape architecture and planning in opposing the concerted efforts of far-right lawmakers to prevent the inclusion of race and racism topics into curricula in states including Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, South Dakota, and Virginia.

"This united declaration stands as a strong objection to the legislation that silences educators from sharing the histories of the architectural profession. Practitioners, educators, and students must be granted access to the complete narrative. Being privy to only a portion of the story significantly disadvantages us all," Mo Zell, the 2023-24 ACSA President, said in a statement.

"The boards of directors of the three organizations representing university programs and educators in architecture, landscape architecture, and planning — ACSA, CELA, and ACSP, — jointly communicate our opposition to any legislation that prevents educators from teaching and shari...

Town over gown: Local zoning holdups could be preventing the expansion of America’s elite colleges and universities

2023-08-09T17:59:00-04:00

[The] quintessential local issue of zoning squabbles ends up generating a national scarcity of elite college admissions slots, fueling zero-sum competition and ultimately reducing America’s ability to increase global “exports” of its best-in-class high-end higher education product.

The Washington Post has a useful primer on the zoning hangnail stimying elite American higher-ed institutions from expanding their enrollment in response to societal outcries and prospective applicants' increasingly high standardized test scores.

The issue dates to the mid-1990s when municipal planning began to disfavor most top-tier institutions. Author Matthew Yglesias then goes on to argue that officials in states like Massachusetts, Maine, New Jersey, and Connecticut ought to curtail their parochialism in deference to the overall economic betterment of the country.

This year was supposed to offer a turning point in the delivery of student housing nationwide, according to prognosticators looking at overall decreases in enrollment. The University of California and other state systems, meanwhile, are still very much in the throes of their own deepening crises despite the sector's reputation as a "bright spot" for investors.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro to design a new hybrid arts and technology center for the University of New Mexico

2023-08-08T16:48:00-04:00

Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) has been announced as the architects of a new $65 million arts and technology facility for the University of New Mexico’s main campus in Albuquerque.

Working alongside local practice ROMA Architecture, the firm expects to break ground next summer on the new Center for Collaborative Arts and Technology (CCAT) in line with the university’s two-year-old UNM College of Fine Arts Framework Plan.

DS+R’s Partner-in-Charge for the project, Benjamin Gilmartin, said it will be a "catalyst for the advancement of the arts in New Mexico." His team's collaborative design will reportedly meet the standards for LEED Silver certification while providing students with exhibition spaces, rehearsal areas, and a large concert hall.

The project will be enacted on a vacant site bordering the city’s Central Avenue, therefore creating a new gateway onto the 769-acre campus similar to several other recent arts-focused higher education projects at UPenn, Williams, and Dartmouth...

Incorporating Indigenous principles, Seneca College's new Health and Wellness Centre proposes an 'architecture of reconciliation'

2023-05-01T11:56:00-04:00

A new collaborative higher-ed project from Two Row Architect and DIALOG has been proposed for Canada’s Seneca Polytechnic College in Toronto.

The proposal calls for a new Health and Wellness Centre to be delivered at the eastern edge of the school’s Newnham Campus, transforming an aged sports center structure into a multi-level complex that serves the academic community of more than 30,000.

“There are a number of big ideas that have inspired this design. One is the idea that this building will be an intimation of what an 'architecture of reconciliation' could look like,” DIALOG Partner Craig Applegath said in a statement. “And such a wonderful way of not only connecting and reconciling Indigenous and settler cultures but also of providing a gateway for potential new Canadian students to imagine what the reconciled future Canada might look and feel like. Another is that this is intended to be a truly environmentally responsible building: with plans for net-zero carbon, and sustainab...

Ontario's first mass timber higher education building is taking shape at Centennial College in Toronto

2022-01-10T14:04:00-05:00

The first mass timber academic building in Ontario is taking shape at Toronto’s Centennial College. Located at the college’s Progress Campus in Scarborough, the A-Block Expansion Building will have the potential to be the province's first net-zero carbon, mass timber, LEED Gold higher education facility when completed in 2023.

Image: Dialog

First unveiled in February 2020, the $82 million building was designed by Canadian architecture firm Dialog, in collaboration with Smoke Architecture, and EllisDon as contractor. The design for the expansion was based on the Indigenous concept of “two-eyed seeing,” in which people view the world through an Indigenous lens with one eye or perspective, while the other eye sees through a Western lens. The new campus building aims to embody the college’s commitment to truth and reconciliation, Indigenous education, and sustainable design.

Image: Dialog

“The two perspectives amplified each other,” said Craig Applegath, Principal-in-Charge at DIALOG. “F...

ZAS Architects unveils design for new undulating learning oasis in Toronto

2020-08-14T11:48:00-04:00

ZAS Architects, in collaboration with Denmark-based CEBRA Architecture, has unveiled the design for a new student-centered learning and support hub at the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus (UTSC). The new facility is a "learning landscape" that encourages flexible education through an authentically complex arrangement of rooms and public space.

"We envisioned a truly flexible environment that broke down traditional pedagogies and instead, encouraged a fluid learning experience unconfined by the walls of the classroom," said Paul Stevens, Founder, and Senior Principal at ZAS Architects in a statement. "Peer-to-peer learning is emulated in all aspects of the design."

The design embraces an expansive use of multiple levels, with clear vertical views throughout the building, allowing users an interconnected sense of fluidity. The program consists of 21 classrooms of various sizes and configurations ranging from a 500-seat auditorium to more intimate 24-seat learning environments...

Leo A. Daly publishes white paper on returning to school post-pandemic

2020-06-09T13:56:00-04:00

In an in-depth exploration, a group of planners, architects, and engineers specializing in higher education led by Leo A. Daly have convened to study the facility impacts of physical distancing and work through possible solutions for faculty and students returning to school.

The group referenced the available guidelines provided by government health and academic institutions on reopening in Fall 2020.

Through that investigation, three key areas were addressed. First, the team looked at how exposure to the virus could be mitigated on the campus as a whole. Second and thirdly, the team conducted a detailed study of two building types: a general purpose academic building and a "traditional" residence hall with shared toilet and shower facilities.

Check out the full white paper here.

Grimshaw unveils design for new Santa Monica College arts complex

2020-06-05T12:27:00-04:00

Grimshaw, in collaboration with Little Diversified Architectural Consulting as architect of record has unveiled the initial designs of the new 21,000-square-foot arts complex for Santa Monica College (SMC) in Southern California. The building will replace an existing car park and serve as the western "gateway" for the school.

Grimshaw worked closely with SMC arts faculty to create an open program that encourages cross-disciplinary discovery and engagement. "Working alongside the arts faculty of SMC to design a building that bolsters their visionary take on the importance of the arts in an evolving entrepreneurial landscape has been inspiring and energizing," said Andrew Byrne, a Managing Partner at the Grimshaw LA studio in a statement. "We are excited to work with such a supportive college to create this landmark building for the community."

The design is composed of three distinctive volumes that are linked by overhead exterior shaded spaces. The external circulation of the comple...

Yazdani Studio's Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine in Pasadena set for July 2020 completion

2020-05-08T12:18:00-04:00

The new Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine building in Pasadena, California is nearing completion.

Back in February of last year, the medical giant released renderings and a virtual tour of the new structure, which was designed by Yazdani Studio. The four-story building is due to be completed in July of this year and, according to UrbanizaLA, is expected to start with an initial class of 48 students, eventually enrolling up to 192 students by 2022.

Introducing Architecture for Landscape: YACademy's higher education course

2018-05-14T08:00:00-04:00

YACademy’s higher education course offers 8 scholarships, and internships in internationally-renowned architectural firms.

110 hours of lessons, a 60-hour workshop, and special lectures from and internships in internationally-renowned architectural firms like JEAN NOUVEL DESIGN, EDUARDO SOUTO DE MOURA, SNOHETTA, HHF, DUQUE MOTTA & AA.

From Stonehenge to Greek temples, architecture is the signature of humankind on landscape, the artificial element that has always been connected to the natural environment. Architecture and landscape are linked by a fundamental continuity that is now starting to fade, damaging the quality of the space we dwell. More than ever today, landscape is a precious heritage that architecture can and must enhance, while protecting it to pass it on to future generations: architects must not give up on working on landscape, instead they should be able to design architecture that responds to each landscape’s specific feature and generates wonderful and unique space...