Starting another semester and my studio professor is hell-bent on finding some examples of student unions. Our semester project will be such a building and proposed to sit on a sliver of a strip of boulevard median.
I would also appreciate any examples of built work which are located either on, above or very close to a six lane boulevard and wisely deal with traffic pollution.
Any and all references are helpful. Thanks in advance.
the close-to-6-lane thing is very specific and hard to match up with. i'd say you could look at vince james architects' student center at tulane, but it's by a 2-lane.
You're kinda in luck... I used to do facilities benchmarking research for student unions.
However, as Steven pointed out, there are few if any American precedents next to 6-lane highways. Typically, the student union is located at the center of campus where the largest percentage of the student body can access it.
Try the following for reference:
Indiana University (older building, but a lot of square footage)
University of Arizona (one of the largest in the country)
UNLV (brand new student union and student recreation center)
University of Miami (great location on a lake with planned expansion)
Cleveland State University (check out the campus master plan - I think a new student union is planned)
UCSD (great central campus location and relationship to an urban plaza)
University of Vermont (planned campus master plan improvements, of which the student union is key)
CSU - Northridge (new facility)
University of Wisconsin - Madison (the campus actually has two union buildings - one overlooks a lake)
Wow, thank you DCA. That is very helpful- I will begin to look into those buildings today.
I guess my initial request for help was not clear enough. I am asking for references into student unions...
OR
...any building sited on or near a highway or smaller road.
I suppose another helpful category would be in the area of extremely narrow and long buildings- again any type of program will do. Think 30' wide and 300' long.
Indiana University's union is probably your best bet for a generally single-loaded corridor design. The building seems very long, and current wayfinding is difficult. (I was always embarassed to be late for lunch meetings because I got lost in the building...)
The contemporary thought for the organization of a student union building is to locate all of the major program elements adjacent (in a radial fashion, if you will) to the main lobby. A long, linear building presents a lot of challenges in both wayfinding and organizational efficiency (but this is a studio project, so hopefully you won't get too bogged down in the functionality of it.)
One final thought - quite a few of the typical student union program elements require large, square-shaped configurations - auditoriums, ballrooms, kitchens. With only 30' of width, these could be difficult to design appropriately.
The Disney building by Gehry (not the concert hall) in the OC is pretty nice. Its along the 405 (I think) and has an iridescent paint that changes color as you speed by.
silver lake,
I understood that the glass on the freeway side had a 3-M or similar coating that changes color/tone depending on the viewiing angle.
Not paint.
But I don't recall any acoustic value to the coating.
student union references
Hey everybody,
Starting another semester and my studio professor is hell-bent on finding some examples of student unions. Our semester project will be such a building and proposed to sit on a sliver of a strip of boulevard median.
I would also appreciate any examples of built work which are located either on, above or very close to a six lane boulevard and wisely deal with traffic pollution.
Any and all references are helpful. Thanks in advance.
besides the new one at IIT?
the close-to-6-lane thing is very specific and hard to match up with. i'd say you could look at vince james architects' student center at tulane, but it's by a 2-lane.
You're kinda in luck... I used to do facilities benchmarking research for student unions.
However, as Steven pointed out, there are few if any American precedents next to 6-lane highways. Typically, the student union is located at the center of campus where the largest percentage of the student body can access it.
Try the following for reference:
Indiana University (older building, but a lot of square footage)
University of Arizona (one of the largest in the country)
UNLV (brand new student union and student recreation center)
University of Miami (great location on a lake with planned expansion)
Cleveland State University (check out the campus master plan - I think a new student union is planned)
UCSD (great central campus location and relationship to an urban plaza)
University of Vermont (planned campus master plan improvements, of which the student union is key)
CSU - Northridge (new facility)
University of Wisconsin - Madison (the campus actually has two union buildings - one overlooks a lake)
Wow, thank you DCA. That is very helpful- I will begin to look into those buildings today.
I guess my initial request for help was not clear enough. I am asking for references into student unions...
OR
...any building sited on or near a highway or smaller road.
I suppose another helpful category would be in the area of extremely narrow and long buildings- again any type of program will do. Think 30' wide and 300' long.
Thanks again.
moneo's la cathedral - both building and siting- handled adjacency to the freeway very nicely.
Wow...30' x 300' sounds challenging.
Indiana University's union is probably your best bet for a generally single-loaded corridor design. The building seems very long, and current wayfinding is difficult. (I was always embarassed to be late for lunch meetings because I got lost in the building...)
The contemporary thought for the organization of a student union building is to locate all of the major program elements adjacent (in a radial fashion, if you will) to the main lobby. A long, linear building presents a lot of challenges in both wayfinding and organizational efficiency (but this is a studio project, so hopefully you won't get too bogged down in the functionality of it.)
One final thought - quite a few of the typical student union program elements require large, square-shaped configurations - auditoriums, ballrooms, kitchens. With only 30' of width, these could be difficult to design appropriately.
Good luck, and please keep us posted.
The Disney building by Gehry (not the concert hall) in the OC is pretty nice. Its along the 405 (I think) and has an iridescent paint that changes color as you speed by.
... and similar proportions to the 30' x 300'.
silver lake,
I understood that the glass on the freeway side had a 3-M or similar coating that changes color/tone depending on the viewiing angle.
Not paint.
But I don't recall any acoustic value to the coating.
Southpaw,
Look at some of Hardy Holzman Pfieffer (now 3 separate firms) for their work on Student Centers / Student Unions.
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