This discusses the environmental,
economic, and market pressures affecting facility planning for universities and
colleges.
The dance/rehearsal studio at Indiana University’s IU
Cinema, an example of high-performance reuse. The facility houses a
THX-certified movie theater. The Building Team: MGA Partners (architect),
Rowland Design (associate architect), Sony Electronics, and Media Vision (THX
contractor). Photo: Halkin Photography
Universities are in a bind, trying to deal with spiraling
costs and the rapidly changing demands of students and their parents. Tuition
and fees have been rising faster than inflation, even as the supply of new
enrollees has begun to shrink. The explosion in project-based learning methods,
cross-disciplinary collaboration, and online courses is turning academia upside
down. Mixed online and in-person offerings have emerged, such as one approach
known as “flipping the classroom,” in which students are required to view
lectures online before their classes for more focused group instruction.
Against this backdrop, competition for students to attend
four-year institutions is getting more intense, even as college enrollment
experienced its first decline (0.2%) in 15 years, according to the U.S.
Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics. With the
prospect of shrinking matriculations and with “plausible alternatives emerging”
to a traditional higher education experience, experts like Adam Newman, a
Managing Partner at Education Growth Advisors, say that colleges face
increasing pressure to enhance student academic and lifestyle expectations.
But how to offer higher-quality facilities without
significantly boosting tuition and fees? University officials must watch
project budgets carefully, but they’re also looking for creativity. Building
Teams are responding by using flexible classroom designs and repurposed
facilities whenever possible, rather than constructing new, purpose-built
spaces. Universities like this approach, as they feel compelled to reposition
or renovate for new uses or to add highly desirable features, notably common
areas for collaborative work and socializing.
Higher education has also long been at the forefront of
sustainable design. In the last five years, green building in higher education
has doubled in dollar volume to a total of about $16 billion, according to a
report by McGraw-Hill Construction. Sustainability is particularly essential to
any facility where design, engineering, forestry, environmental studies, or
related fields are taught. Many such buildings are being designed or retooled
for direct integration into the curriculum.
Colleges and
universities are looking for solutions to outmoded campus planning, changing
facility needs, and ineffective space usage and programming. Building Teams are
responding with breakthroughs in reorganizing campuses and repurposing existing
facilities. Sometimes the subject buildings are historic, or iconic, or simply
outmoded. New building projects are more rare, and for that reason take on
increasing significance. Yet a look at campuses across the country shows there
is no shortage of new and effective ideas for sustainable, high-performance
building design.
1. REORGANIZE AND RESTRUCTURE
Many institutions are faced with a growing demand for
usable, up-to-date space from students, faculty, administrators, and partner
institutions. Inside Higher Ed recently analyzed the results of an inquiry by
the Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission into spiking college
tuition rates. It turns out that “spending on auxiliary enterprises funded by
students was the largest driver of these spending increases.” Among the top
cost factors, according to the commission, was housing.
With that in mind, colleges and universities are
reorganizing their residence halls to raise admission and retention rates and
possibly improve student performance. One such campuswide revamp took place
over several years at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., as
part of a sweeping master plan to organize student residences and some academic
spaces into college “house systems,” similar to the models used in England’s
Oxford and Cambridge universities and later adopted at some Ivy League
colleges.
Using a comprehensive master plan, a project team led by MGA
Partners (www.mgapartners.com) planned a rollout of new, low-cost improvements
to be staged over several years that would include existing buildings and
grounds and about 1,000 student beds, as well as 150,000 sf of new
construction. The master plan resulted in four “commons” buildings that became
the entrance, identity, and student activity spaces for each of the newly
minted college houses, according to the Philadelphia-based firm.
The modern, low-key buildings are all about 5,000 sf in size
and share a fresh, recognizable architectural vocabulary, but all are different
in order to reflect their unique place in the school’s original quad; for
example, one of the new commons buildings links two adjacent residence halls.
Yet all of the “insertions” are intended to unite the students and enhance
residence life by including a living room, kitchen, seminar room, faculty
master office, small library, trophy case, and fireplace. Each has a large hall
for gatherings, studying, and presentations. A sole secure entrance for
students and a number of new, handicapped-accessible entrances also enhance the
student experience. The project cost totaled about $65 million.
According to Franklin & Marshall, the move to the
college house system has contributed to an increase in applications—up 27% in
2012—as well as to greater enrollment and retention of freshman and sophomore
students.
Other colleges and universities are strengthening student
engagement, enjoyment, and educational success by concentrating on their campus
centers. A few, such as those at Colorado State University and the University
of Cincinnati, are high-profile architectural statements, while many more
employ incremental improvements.
Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., first expanded its
historic landmark building, known as “Main,” in the 1970s. Its College Center
complex, designed by Shepley Bulfinch (www.shepleybulfinch.com), added
much-needed space and a modern touch to James Renwick’s original 1865 design.
More recently, the college’s Department of Buildings and Grounds engaged Sloan
Architects (www.sloanarch.com) to assess how the 60,000-sf multipurpose
building has fared in meeting the “continuously changing needs and the wear of
time,” according to Alexandra Sloan, AIA, Principal.
“Due to the scale of this renovation, and the need for the
building to remain in continuous operation, it has been broken down into a
multi-phase project that spans over the course of three years,” says Sloan. As
a first step, the Building Team considered the glass-enclosed cube volumes that
are now occupied and managed by a national bookstore chain. While the glass
boxes clearly marked the entry and served as a welcoming gateway to College
Center with good retail visibility, the project team recommended a bridge
structure to provide better connections between the old building and the new.
The plan also sought to enhance the utilization and
efficiency of the dual complex. “One of the main goals for this renovation was
to increase student activities on the upper floor, and to reorganize the
functions within the building to better utilize the space,” says Sloan. The
design connects the two floors with an open, central stairwell and adds new
offices for relocated staff so that student services could be closer and more
visible to students. Alterations to other interiors, HVAC and restroom
upgrades, ADA accessibility improvements, and a full exterior renovation
complete the plan for getting more out of Vassar’s College Center.
2. ADDRESS EXISTING DEFICIENCIES
According to the Delta Cost Project
(http://www.deltacostproject.org/resources/pdf/Trends-in-College-Spending...),
public community colleges added the most students over the last decade. Yet
many such systems have been saddled with woefully inadequate facilities, many
of them built in the 1970s with relatively poor aesthetics, circulation,
visibility, and adaptability.
At West Valley College in Saratoga, Calif., a new student
center building cut off two outdoor plazas from each other, blocking traffic
and pedestrian circulation. The college called in BFGC-IBI Group
(www.bcfg-ibigroup.com), which introduced broad spans of opening glass walls
and door systems to the main floor of the student center structures. The
thermally broken aluminum system replaced existing single-glazed, bronze-finish
storefront windows. One of the installations reconnected the two separated
plazas, creating a new channel for foot traffic, restoring the plazas to
regular use by students and faculty, and improving wayfinding by providing new
sightlines.
The high energy performance of the glass system improved the
building’s sustainability, reduced its heating and cooling load, and increased
the penetration of natural daylight. It also reduced solar heat gain by virtue
of the low-e glass specified for the fenestration, helping the project move
toward LEED certification.
Established private universities in well-developed areas,
especially urban locales, face a different problem: surrounded by
development-averse neighborhoods, they often have little or no room to expand.
Princeton University faced such a town-gown dilemma in
trying to find suitable office space on campus for its Department of Public
Safety and, ironically, its Office of Physical Planning. With square footage at
a premium, the administration began to look at existing unused and
underutilized built space on campus.
The school settled on an adaptive reuse plan for its former
boiler house. Built in 1928 to house heating infrastructure, the facility was
marred by a 1959 addition that obscured the original Collegiate Gothic façade.
A design team led by Clarke Caton Hintz (clarkecatonhintz.com) and University
Architect John Hlafter, along with Westcott Studio, set out to make the most
economical use of the interior space, while simultaneously restoring and
preserving the boiler house’s idiomatic character. After demolishing the
addition, construction began on the insertion of new floor levels within the
boiler house.
To make the best use of the increased available area—about
26,000 gsf—the team convinced the university to abandon its traditional use of
gypsum wallboard and stud walls in favor of a modular wall system for the
two-story atrium and office fronts, according to Marlyn Zucosky, IIDA, formerly
of Westcott Studio and now Partner and Director of Interior design for JZA+D.
“Princeton University typically doesn’t use this type of product,” she says.
But proposing a modular wall system proved a relatively easy
sell. First, the “floating system elements” did not require precise field
measurements before fabrication, which speeded up delivery and shortened the construction
schedule. Second, the systems provided flexibility for changing needs, allowing
walls, partitions, and sliding doors to be moved, removed, or added to with
only minor disruption to operations, making the facility one of the most
adaptable office buildings on campus.
Third, and most important, the use of glass partitions
increased the penetration of natural daylight throughout the interiors. They
even provided a bonus, in the form of a tax benefit for accelerated
depreciation. The result is a preserved traditional façade in keeping with the
university’s architectural character, containing a high-performance campus
office facility. “The boiler house interior produces a dialogue between the
building’s original industrial character and the crisp, modernist aesthetic of
the new offices,” says Zucosky.
Princeton is hardly alone in looking for innovative ways to
make its administrative offices more efficient. Some institutions of higher
learning are adopting shared services, a private-sector model for centralized
administration and operations that serve multiple departments. To make the leap
to this proven and cost-effective setup, a growing number of universities are
seeking facility renovations that will accommodate the changes. Offsetting the
construction budgets is the promise of reduced operational costs as well as
soft benefits like enhanced interdepartmental collaboration, thanks to a
supportive workplace design.
“Shared services is practically a standard in the private
sector, but it is making headway among institutional organizations,” says Ronn
Kolbash, Assistant Vice President of Shared Services at Yale University, who
helped implement the concept for the state of Ohio. “The model applies
differently in higher education, as universities have more diverse needs,” he
says.
For the design of its shared-services facility, Yale
enlisted local firm Svigals + Partners (www.svigals.com). The plan called for
an administrative services facility to be carved out of a business services
center located in a New Haven redevelopment area known as Science Park. The
designers undertook an analysis of shared-services staff work habits. If a team
member used a workstation less than 60% of the time, the standard workstation
would be replaced with a “touchdown space.” The shared-services workplace would
have no enclosed offices, thereby reinforcing the university’s “80-20” mandate:
80% open offices and no more than 20% traditional walled offices in any given
workplace interior. Saved space in the planning process would roll over into
collaboration areas, alternative workspaces, and even “recreational zones.” As
Kolbash notes, “You want to maximize space to be the most productive for the
whole, not just one person or some people.”
Most intriguing is the solution for the central hallway,
which the design team envisioned as an area for informal collaboration.
Programmed as an egg-shaped circulation area, “the design process focused on
how to create a sense of place, a space that helps you clear your mind and find
a connection with someone else,” according to Chris Bockstael, AIA, Associate
Principal with Svigals and Project Architect for Yale Shared Services. The
space provides comfortably furnished zones, such as an Art Niche, a Living Room
(with 80-inch LCD screen), and a Meeting Space (with oversized whiteboard). The
bright yellow oval room and modernist furnishings bring intensity and scale to
the otherwise relaxed workspaces.
Its unique ceiling treatment, a bold arrangement of
vertically hanging acoustical panels, serves to disguise the open plenum and
attenuate noise levels—and is a work of art in its own right. “The environment
affects the task,” concludes Kolbash, “and the innovation space has
demonstrably improved collaboration at YSS.”
3. RENOVATE FOR IMPACT
Another way that universities are reinventing their campuses
is by reconfiguring departments that appeal not just to students and faculty
but also to the public at large. The obvious example is the college athletic
program; less obvious are academic programs in the sciences, fine arts, and
performing arts and music. A university’s museums, galleries, and events are a
valuable cultural draw for their local and even regional communities. In some
university towns, the scale of the changes is significant enough to help create
entire new cultural districts.
This was the case at Indiana University, where a performing
arts center revamp to incorporate a major film studies department changed the
local arts dynamic as it advanced capital planning. As part of a master plan
conceived more than 15 years ago, the Bloomington campus is now home to a
300-seat, high-fidelity movie theater. The so-called IU Cinema—an art house and
repertory theater with holdings topping 50,000 reels—occupies what was an
obsolete 1930’s WPA-built theater, complete with 176,000 cubic feet of
stagehouse and fly loft space. Renovated facilites serve not only the Film and
Media Studies program but also the Department of Theatre, Drama &
Contemporary Dance.
The design, by MGA Partners, is a high-performance example
of adaptive reuse, preservation, and economical reorganization. Partner and
Director of Design Daniel Kelley, FAIA, proposed an insertion into the massive
backstage and vaulted fly loft. This created space for a studio theater and a
dance/rehearsal studio at a fraction of the cost of building a new structure.
And by retaining as much as possible of the working character of the original
space, the rough brick, catwalk stairs, and original rigging helps connect the
students visually to a unique part of American theater history.
The design scheme also made significant changes to the
theater to transform it into a top-flight venue for film art. IU Cinema is one
of a very small number of renovated theaters equipped with THX-certified sound
reproduction, a widely recognized standard for high-fidelity audiovisual
reproduction that applies to movie theaters, screening rooms, computer
speakers, and similar equipment. Certification standards are stringent; many of
the 22 speakers required for surround sound had to be inserted into
chandeliers, which had to be skinned with acoustically transparent material.
The fixtures had to be built and installed to resist swaying that might result
from the vibrations.
The speakers could not be mounted on many parts of the
theater walls because the walls are arrayed with Thomas Hart Benton murals
dating back to the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. The project included restoration
of the murals, in cooperation with the Indiana University Museum. When a film
is being presented, ceiling-mounted masking obscures Hart’s pictorial representations
of Indiana history.
This painstaking work has made Indiana University’s IU
Cinema a breakthrough on two levels. The design and construction amounted to a
highly successful, if radical, intervention in a valued historical building.
And IU Cinema’s Director, Jon Vickers, believes that the project will put
Bloomington on the cinéaste’s map, making it “one of the best-recognized
cinémathèques in the country.”
On a somewhat smaller scale, colleges and universities can
reposition built assets to better serve departmental focus in the arts. “For
universities with performing arts majors, we see increasing need to allow for
multipurpose spaces that also support varied performance needs, with better
audiovisual capabilities, lighting, and reconfigurable furniture systems,” says
Andrew Franz, RA, LEED AP, Principal of Andrew Franz Architect
(www.andrewfranz.com). “This helps for the impromptu and site-specific
performances that many department heads believe activate the campus.”
Sloan Architects’ Michael Sloan, AIA, sees the integration
of technology—for both Web access and expanding audiovisual requirements—as a
primary feature of the renovations. At Vassar College, Sloan employed adaptive
reuse and historic preservation techniques along with the careful introduction
of new technologies to update facilities.
For Vassar’s Rockefeller Hall, the renovation incorporated
friendly educational technologies into the lecture rooms, while restoring these
spaces to their original and historical beauty, says Sloan. The retrofits
included a user-friendly lighting and control system, complete with appropriate
period light fixtures and modern energy efficiency. Antiquated wood seating was
refurbished and upholstered, and stretched acoustical panels were set into the
dome ceiling to achieve optimal acoustics. “We were also able to provide the
rooms with a new fresh-air and cooling system, while maintaining superbly low
sound levels,” he says.
The college’s Blodgett Hall auditorium was redesigned to
show movies. At the same time, the Building Team saw an opportunity to restore
much of the old auditorium’s architectural grandeur inexpensively and simply
through the application of new finishes and by adding comfortable, durable
seating “in the appropriate style,” according to Sloan.
For improved acoustics, the team devised a fabric-wrapped,
floating acoustical panel system between the ceiling beams, which improves the
film appreciation experience while also minimizing undesirable sound
transmission. Behind the scenes, a new projection room was specified to allow
for the showing of a wide variety of film types, including 35mm, 16mm, and
digital video projections.
The vertical acoustical panels enclosing the outer walls
reflect the same Gothic Revival style of the building, while absorbing unwanted
acoustical reverberation. “The newly implemented accessibility provisions,
along with an ultra-quiet HVAC system, a new projection screen, and an
authentic theater appeal, make this the ultimate place to enjoy a movie,” says
Sloan. He adds that the key to these highly technical projects is close
coordination among facilities and AV personnel, acoustic consultants, MEP
engineers and critical equipment suppliers.
4. CREATE INTEGRATED SYSTEMS
Integrating the mechanical, electrical, and AV systems in
collegiate performing arts projects is equally crucial to the success of
reconstruction projects for engineering buildings, laboratories, and medical
school facilities, where technical obsolescence and end-user flexibility are
never-ending concerns.
At Yale University, cross-disciplinary research has demanded
a variety of facilities strategies to support breakthrough research and
continuously groom and recruit the next generation of top scientists and
principal investigators. The Yale Medical School is relocating some of its
newer research centers, including several highly focused institutes, to the
West Campus, an assemblage of properties and existing buildings about seven
miles from the main campus and Yale–New Haven Hospital.
“At West Campus, there is extensive laboratory space where
experts from diverse disciplines are working side by side using innovative
technologies to address important issues in science, art conservation, health,
energy, and the environment,” according to the university. The expansion also
houses facilities for archiving museum and library overflow collections and is
the new home of the School of Nursing, the oldest university-based nursing
school in the world (established 1923).
One of the facility strategies employed at West Campus has
been the tactical reconstruction of a 136-acre property with laboratory and
office buildings formerly occupied by Bayer Pharmaceutical. After Yale acquired
it about five years ago, the site was transformed into W-B 24, a scientific
research core of the Integrated Science & Technology Center. Designed by
Svigals + Partners, the 460,000-sf complex hosts scientists in biophysics, cell
biology, and nanobiology. DNA sequencers, cell culture stations, and microscopy
suites are complemented with bright, colorful offices and ample conference
spaces.
In a unique take on the facility type, the designers
employed environmental graphics and university branding to enliven the space
and enhance camaraderie. Such symbolic elements, logos, and typeface applications
are believed to enhance competitiveness, productivity, and esprit de corps.
Window films, signage, paints, and fritted glass partitions patterned to recall
a molecular structure enliven the scientific work setting. “Our approach was to
strategically combine existing resources with key enhancements and a bright,
fresh new look that would attract the leaders of these brand-new scientific
institutes,” says Robert Skolozdra, AIA, LEED AP, a Partner with the firm.
“This reduced costs by as much as 50% as compared to a total gut renovation,
yet W-B 24 also has been instrumental in helping recruit directors and
principal investigators.”
Another key to making the lab spaces work was providing
generic solutions for the many unknowns of scientific research. The nature of
emerging scientific institutes and their research programs is constantly in
flux, so Building Teams must focus on adaptable uses and space allocation
models that can change easily over time, according to Skolozdra.
Typical solutions include reconfigurable casework,
plug-and-play MEP systems, rolling cabinets, and other modular, pre-engineered
solutions. Existing fixed lab benches in the Bayer buildings were refurbished
using electrostatic painting and fitted with new wood shelves and wood-faced rolling
cabinets, adding a warm look while remaining flexible, economical, and durable.
New welded seamless floors were spliced into the existing floors, and epoxy lab
bench surfaces were cleaned and brought back to like-new condition by the
construction team. The original recessed fixtures were replaced with pendants
that provide both ambient uplighting and direct downlighting, while meeting the
latest LEED standards.
University lab reconstruction projects also need to focus on
ways to create comfortable, uplifting, and fresh interiors. Recent projects at
major research universities in Maryland, Michigan, and California have used
retrofit strategies to add daylight—through the use of glass furniture and
partition systems, for example—as well as ample wood surfaces and wood-grain
floors and casework. Brightly colored walls, lightweight furnishings, and
nature-inspired textiles further reinforce the friendly, welcoming appearance
of today’s new university research centers.
At 22,000 sf, Yale’s new Nanobiology Institute is an example
of this growing trend. The spaces “unite scientists from engineering and
biological sciences to explore the relationships of synthetic and living
molecules at the nanoscale,” according to Yale. In addition to private offices,
ample new amenities and break zones will help keep scientists comfortable and
energized, with several modern, glass-walled meeting areas just off the lab and
two remote conference rooms, including a large seminar room.
Glass alcoves that look out onto the naturally landscaped
campus are a noteworthy feature of the interiors. The architects also designed
work carrels for post-doctorate and lab researchers, and located them where the
building originally had perimeter offices, opening up outdoor views and daylight
for dry bench areas and generic support zones deeper in the floor plates.
Required customization and redesign tweaks accommodate specific types of
equipment, such as the latest technologies in high-powered microscopy,
including confocal and fluorescence microscopes that utilize floating tables,
darkroom curtains, overhead racks for equipment storage, clean air walk-in
chambers, and specialty lighting.
“This is a new opportunity for Yale to recruit for this and
other new institutes,” says Jay M. Brotman, AIA, Laboratory Studio Director at
Svigals + Partners.
5. RAISE THE SUSTAINABILITY QUOTIENT
At most universities today, cap-ex planning strategies put a
heavy emphasis on the reuse of existing assets coupled with the latest in
environmentally preferable building methods. “Green building techniques do more
than make universities more efficient and healthier. They also improve many of
the measures that students use to describe their satisfaction with the college
experience,” says Franz. Many architects in higher education have also begun to
incorporate sustainable design elements as a pedagogical tool.
For Lehman College, a City University of New York school in
the Bronx, Perkins+Will New York delivered a LEED Platinum science facility for
research and teaching. The facility embodies a new academic typology whereby
the structure functions as a tool for active learning, in this case supporting
the college’s strength in plant sciences.
Students and faculty have access to the rooftop greenhouse
and a rainwater collection system used for irrigation and toilet water, so that
they can control variables as needed for instruction and experimentation.
Another interactive system supplies graywater to the central courtyard framed
by the new building and the existing Gillett Hall. This water supply regulates
the wetland system constructed within the courtyard and features planting beds,
retention tanks, and an outdoor laboratory. This “open lab” serves double duty
as a learning space and as an urban oasis for the surrounding community.
The 300,000-sf facility offers both research labs and
instructional space. Teaching labs are constructed flexibly to serve as
research labs when programmatic demands, or research methodologies, change.
Likewise the facility’s seminar rooms can easily be modified to serve as
graduate assistant bullpens. The design also focuses on 24-seat lab/lecture
rooms, which improves overall utilization rates.
For the University at Buffalo’s new School of Engineering
and Applied Sciences (SEAS), Perkins+Will’s design brought the Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science & Engineering Departments under one roof,
while supporting the institution’s goal of net-carbon neutrality by 2030 and
LEED Gold certification for new building projects.
The building’s energy performance exceeds ASHRAE 90.1-2004
by 33.8% above the baseline, through such features as enhanced insulation,
high-performance glazing and fenestration, energy-efficient lighting systems,
and plentiful natural daylighting. The SEAS building also employs stormwater
capture for water-efficient landscaping, waterless urinals, and
high-performance HVAC systems.
The SEAS design recognizes the importance of casual
interaction and spontaneous collaboration to scientific research. SEAS is
nominally programmed as two separate “blocks”—one for computational research,
the other for applied (hardware) research—but the blocks are joined at the
facility’s core by a multistory, glass-enclosed gallery.
This atrium serves as a science commons, with broad
sightlines and open stairs to encourage spontaneous interaction among staff and
students. The gallery also offers windows into the research being performed in
the adjoining labs.
Source: BDCNetwork.com
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