Pfeiffer Partners Architects with offices in New York and Los Angeles, in association with Calgary-based Sahuri + Partners Architecture Inc., designed the center, which is part of the university’s six-phased expansion program. Upon completion, the expansion will better accommodate the growing Lincoln Park Campus student population.

The Taylor Centre serves the university’s music, theater and speech programs and also includes a wing dedicated to an early childhood program instructional suite. The Transalta Pavilion — a large elevated ensemble performance studio — and multiple ensemble rooms, individual and group practice rooms, and master classrooms provide a flexible learning environment, enhanced with breakout spaces for impromptu practice or socialization, according to Pfeiffer Partners. The most prominent feature of the new center is the Bella Concert Hall, designed with 10 theater boxes, an 89-seat choir loft and full multimedia capability.

Additional program components include an 800-seat concert hall, a multi-purpose rehearsal/performance studio for 85 musicians, ensemble studios, master classrooms, a recording studio, a percussion studio, flexible teaching studios and practice rooms, classrooms, a student lounge and meeting room, dressing rooms and a green room. A multi-level lobby and roof terrace also help to define the space.

Adjacent to the prominent East Gate campus entrance and the Roderick Mah Centre for Continuous Learning, the multi-tiered building serves as a new gateway for the growing campus, according to a statement by Pfeiffer Partners. An enclosed link between the two buildings allows for shared use of the lobby and other public spaces, enhancing potential synergies between the two programs.

The center’s design also offers a nod to its geographic location: The eastern foot of the Rocky Mountains, surrounded by rolling plains and farmland.

“A contemporary interpretation of the rural barn on the expansive prairie of Alberta inspired our choices in materials, structure, and color throughout the project,” said William Murray, principal with Pfeiffer Partners, in a statement. “Within the concert hall itself, the expressed structure echoes heavy timber construction, while the abstracted image of the Alberta Rose is the crowning feature in the design of the acoustical reflectors.”

Gili Meerovitch, the project’s interior designer, found inspiration in the story of Calgary as both a cosmopolitan city and a part of the prairie, crafting “grand, theatrical spaces that reveal their beauty at their own paces, with pronounced and distinct colors and quality of light,” according to a statement.

The facility is also designed to meet LEED Gold standards, with orientation and glazing placement that maximizes solar exposure to take advantage of natural lighting, according to a statement by Pfieffer Partners.

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The new dining hall makes similar amenities in the student union now available to students in the Worth Hills Village community, which will house 1,770 residents when complete. The 39,200-square-foot dining hall features 710 seats and four dining venues, including a Tex-Mex option, bistro, grill and healthy grab-n-go-market. A variety of seating options from tables and chairs to bar seating to a lounge-style area create a living room effect.

The dining area features a high, classical barrel-vault ceiling, creating an open feel. The high ceiling also has acoustical panels formed into folded origami shapes that descend throughout the space. Large windows create an abundance of natural light and provide students with a connection to the outdoors.

A balcony from the second floor juts into another double-volume space and connects visually to the second floor where a glass encased elevator and stair open to soft seating, Greek life offices and flexible space that can be used for dining, studying or socializing. All seating areas feature several power outlets and Wi-Fi access to support student connectivity needs. Large format televisions are also scattered throughout to encourage students to gather to watch sports games, movies or their favorite shows.

The exterior features a small amphitheater, which can be used for performances or speakers. A large-scale projector that can project images against the building wall is accompanied by built-in seating for audience members.

The project deadline posed a challenge when it was moved up by roughly eight months (from August 2014 to January 2014), and the team had to work hard to complete work in time, said Monica Roberts, senior associate, communications manager, KSQ Architects. “We have an established relationship with The Beck Group on TCU projects, and together we met the deadline,” she said.

Lindsay Reeds, LEED AP, associate, project manager, KSQ Architects, added, “There were standard project challenges such as how to build a building to meet the needs and to meet the budget at the same time. We redesigned the facility several times to provide more space and the special features the client wanted. There were also site restraints and requirements to save special trees. We accomplished both with careful design and construction care.”

As a result, the KSQ team achieved a perfect score in the Innovation and Design Process category for the LEED Gold certification. The team also received high marks for the use of recycled content and materials, water-use reduction, green power and energy measurement and verification, and offering public transportation access and alternative transportation incentives to students.

“The students love the space, and they use it for much more than just dining,” Reeds said. “The building offers several spaces to hang out and to study, and those spaces are very successful.”

In 2013, the university debuted the two-building residence hall, known as Marion and Clark Halls, the first of the three phases planned for the Worth Hills Village development. The residence hall offers 400 suite-style student beds designed for sophomores. KSQ designed all phases of the Worth Hills Village project, including the Greek housing project currently under development.

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Additionally, the hybrid quality of the program was a challenge that was turned into a driver behind the design, Bosch said. “It was a building turned into a community, a connector and a gateway,” she said.

Compared to other projects Bosch has worked on, the Academic Support Center is philosophically similar, but different in scale and use.

“I like to call it a testing philosophy with a different typology,” she said. “It utilizes the premise of modularity, standardization and a kit of parts, based on prototypical learning environments created for the system. It gives the building ultimate flexibility and adaptability. It was created to allow change and to allow evolution.”

The building was designed to give students control of their environment. They want to be given the freedom to create their own canvas for learning, gathering, researching and socializing, Bosch said.

“I learned that the design of the ‘space in between’ traditional program areas is as important or more important to the supporting informal learning and furthering the potential for collaboration and interaction,” she added. “Also, learning today and tomorrow is not static; it’s more dynamic and virtual. Thus, our spaces and our buildings need to respond to this new reality and future.”

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“University of Missouri Health Care is proud that our patient care tower has achieved LEED Gold certification,” said Mitch Wasden, chief executive officer and chief operating officer of MU Health Care, in a statement. “This recognition demonstrates our commitment to providing patient and family-centered care in a healing environment, as well as our dedication to our community by being good stewards of the environment.”

The tower includes six operating rooms, 25 pre-procedure rooms, 18 post-procedure rooms, 90 private patient rooms with smart room technology, a 7,000-square-foot inpatient pharmacy with robotics to automatically dispense medications, a 1,800-square-foot lounge for families of surgery patients and a new facility for Ellis Fischel Cancer Center outpatient services.

The north-south orientation of the patient tower maximizes scenic views and connections to nature, providing views to Missouri farmland. Additionally, more than 100,000 square feet of roof gardens are located on the north and south sides of the building. The 3,150-square-foot Brown Family Healing Garden, specifically designed to reduce stress in patients and staff, is visible from all floors and serves as a crossroads between the new tower and the main hospital.

“Medical research has shown that patients benefit from a healing environment that provides a comfortable environment with natural light and a connection to nature,” said Paul Dale, chief of surgical oncology at Ellis Fischel Cancer Center and medical director of Ellis Fischel, in a statement. “Our achieving LEED Gold certification is a testament to our efforts to provide our patients with a state-of-the-art facility that puts our patients at the center of everything we do.”

MU Health Care originally sought simply LEED certification for the 310,500-square-foot addition, but HOK was able to exceed that goal and achieve a LEED Gold rating incorporating several green building techniques. HOK tied environmental systems into the University of Missouri’s existing biomass boiler, replacing a coal-burning boiler with one that burns hardwoods and wood waste to reduce the fossil fuel use of the campus by 25 percent. HOK also used locally sourced material, used a high-performance building skin, provided more efficient fixtures to reduce potable water use by 46 percent, used low VOC-emitting finish materials, and optimized natural light using high-efficiency glass.

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According to the university, the new Honors, Scholars & Fellows House was created to promote a sense of community among the campus’ brightest, most hard-working students, and to provide those students with support as they reach new levels of success. In the new facility, students will be encouraged to share creative ideas; build lasting relationships; discover new ways of thinking; and utilize programs, academic services and mentorship opportunities like never before.

The new pre-certified LEED Gold Honors, Scholars and Fellows House, designed by Gould Evans Architecture of Kansas City, features a variety of offices, classrooms, reading rooms and collaborative spaces in a classic envelope. The brick exterior, complete with a rooftop terrace, was intended to have a cottage feel, while the interior offers plenty of natural light and a lofted, layered design.

The first floor of the annex has been open to the general student population since September, with two restaurants, a convenience store, and areas for both socializing and study. While the first floor was occupied, crews finished construction on the upper floors, receiving a certificate of occupancy in January. These upper floors, which also include a banquet hall, bring together honors undergraduate students with graduate students and fellows to foster intellectual exchange and collaboration. The Honors, Scholars & Fellows House will also be home to the Honors Program, the Office of Undergraduate Research, the Office of National Fellowships, the Fellows Society, the Office of Graduate Fellowships and the Program for Instructional Excellence.
“This will be a place for students to go to get special advising, meet with other students and to meet with faculty,” James Mathes, director of the University Honors Program, told the FSU News as construction commenced. “It is a home away from home.”

Construction on the Honors, Scholars and Fellows House required a high degree of coordination. Keeping construction on schedule while minimizing disruption to campus life in particular posed unique challenges in the midst of a busy campus of more than 40,000 students. To accommodate both academic life and budget constraints, the facility was completed in five different phases. Crews also paved a new roadway in the front of the building, and added new sidewalks and landscaping.

The $15.6 million Honors, Scholars and Fellows House, also known as the Johnston Building Annex, was completed by Peter Brown Construction, a division of Moss & Associates, in just 15 months. According to Vice President of Peter Brown Construction, Brad Will, the new facility will also help position the school as a magnet for high achieving students. "This is all about the academics, and is part of the university’s push to be one of the top 25 public research institutions in the country,” Will said.

The new building also compliments the recently renovated William Johnston Building, originally built in the early 1900s in the Jacobean architectural style seen throughout the FSU campus. Peter Brown Construction also served as construction manager for that $38 million renovation, modernizing the interior, bringing the structure up to code, and expanding it to 145,000 square feet.

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The initial goal of the construction project was to “upgrade the aging HVAC system in the 400,000-square-foot complex,” said George Metzger, AIA, senior principal at HMFH Architects. Opportunities to address additional problems presented themselves as work began, however, and the project team adjusted the goals to “create a healthier learning environment and one better suited to the school’s educational program,” Metzger said. The team wanted to keep the school, situated on a visible civic block shared with the main library, recreation center and city park, in the same location to solidify its status as a significant element of the community.

The construction team kept several details in mind when working on the renovations. They used sustainable materials that were economically sound, designed for the long-term and would increase the quality of indoor air. Public spaces were also made brighter and easier to navigate with the removal of internal partitions that took up space and blocked visibility. A colorful terrazzo floor echoes the deco details on the 1932 portion of the building as well.

The fact that the construction team was renovating an occupied building posed a major problem during the renovation project. Available space in the city allowed the ninth-grade students to move off-campus for two academic years while the renovation process was underway. “With only three-quarters of the student population remaining in the building, the project team was able to isolate specific portions of the building for construction, without disrupting learning or compromising the safety of students and teachers,” Metzger said.

Another challenge the team faced was incorporating sustainable materials into the existing building. Metzger commented on this, saying, “While renovation (rather than new construction) is sustainable simply because an existing building is being used, it required thoughtful and creative approaches to replacing much of the inefficient infrastructure with systems that could be introduced into an existing structure that included concrete walls and ceilings in some portions of the complex.”

HMFH worked closely with the project’s mechanical engineer to incorporate a chilled beam heating and cooling system. This efficient system was easily installed in a structural environment that was not ideal. New and significantly more efficient lighting and plumbing fixtures, flooring and wall finishes were installed in the existing building as well.

Additional sustainable renovation techniques included installing rainwater barrels by the playground for water collection, diverting more than 95 percent of the construction waste materials away from landfills, using recycled and low-VOC materials and sustainable rubber flooring and installing operable windows.

The combination of these techniques decreased the school’s operating costs by more than $335,000 annually and reduced energy consumption by more than 1.3 million KWh of electricity, 44,000 therms of natural gas and 1.3 million gallons of water annually.

The renovated school, which shares its urban site with two other city-owned LEED Silver buildings — War Memorial Recreation Center and the Cambridge Public Library — completes the civic campus of sustainable buildings and aligns with the city’s sustainability initiatives.

“The high school project marked the end of a decade that saw almost constant construction on this site. Bound by two major city streets, the site remained open and accessible throughout all three projects. Now, with the completion of the third and final project, the citizens of Cambridge now enjoy a popular civic gem,” Metzger said.
 

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The CU-ICAR campus is a 250-acre space focused on advanced-technology research. The campus provides opportunities for the university, industry and government organizations to collaborate. A master’s and Ph.D. program in automotive engineering is available at CU-ICAR as well through the College of Engineering and Science. The program conducts cutting edge research in key areas such as advanced product development strategies, sustainable mobility, intelligent manufacturing systems and advanced materials.

Five buildings are contained on the CU-ICAR campus; one received LEED Silver certification and three received LEED Gold. The Carroll A. Campbell Jr. Graduate Engineering Center, which received LEED-NC Silver, has 90,000 gross square feet and a footprint of 49,000 square feet. The innovation Place & AutoPark, which received LEED-NC Gold, contains 20,000 square feet of occupied space and 1,200 parking spaces.

The Koyo Jtekt building received LEED-CS Pilot Project Gold and the Center for Emerging Technologies received LEED Gold. The CET as a whole contains 35,000 square feet of office space on two upper levels and 25,000 square feet of high-bay space for research labs.

The CET, located in the heart of the CU-ICAR campus, was designed by LS3P, an architecture, interior architecture and strategic visioning firm based in Greenville whose mission is to engage clients and communities and design meaningful places with transformative results. The general contractor for the project was Sherman Construction, a commercial contracting company providing services throughout South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia.

Construction on the project began in June 2010 and was completed in July 2011. The total cost of the project was $6.5 million. Green building practices were utilized during the construction process, qualifying the CET for its LEED Gold certification.

Carbon dioxide monitors throughout the building monitor air quality, while adhesives, sealants, paints, coatings, composite wood products and carpets meet the standards set for low volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Highly efficient HVAC units are used to cool and heat the building. Additional energy conservation efforts are evident in the high-efficiency bulbs used in the motion-sensitive interior light fixtures. The CET saves up to 14 percent of its energy usage with these efficient design elements.

The CU-ICAR campus also utilizes alternative transportation, including public transportation that brings individuals within a quarter mile of the CET. Shuttles bring commuters from the campus to the Clemson Area Transit System and the City of Greenville public transportation system.

Water efficiency is another key component of the CET’s sustainable design. The use of native plants reduces the need for irrigation. The facility’s restrooms use low flow fixtures and have occupancy sensors that help reduce water consumption by 40 percent.

The final element of the CET’s innovative design is its comprehensive recycling center. Designated areas for the collection, separation and storage of recyclables helps better allocate specific materials. The contracting team also kept recycling in mind during the construction process, resulting in 20 percent of the finished product stemming from recycled materials and 75 percent of the waste materials diverted from landfills and incineration facilities.
 

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