The Student Innovation Center design includes terraced seating areas alongside the open stairways, with views through glass walls that invite collaboration. Contributed schematics, KieranTimberlake and Substance architecture firms.
In 2020, the landscape on the west side of campus will include the Student Innovation Center. Situated on Bissell Road, south of Sweeney Hall, the eye-catching glass building will be a central hub for multidisciplinary student collaboration.
The building (about 140,000 square feet) will house an auditorium and some classrooms, but also will include:
- Meeting rooms and breakout spaces
- Fabrication areas (from electronics, to woodworking, to textiles, and more)
- Open study space
- Collaboration space (indoor and outdoor)
- Seating areas
- Administrative areas (for onsite staff)
- Student organization offices
- A test kitchen
- A store (selling products that are made at the center)
- A café
Nearly half of the $84 million project will come from state appropriations, with the balance made up of private gifts.
The glass-encased building gives passersby a look at collaboration in action (looking from the southeast).
A fourth-floor multipurpose room, with its view to the south and east. The building features four above-ground levels and one below-grade floor.
Open hallway space will include whiteboards and seating. An inner courtyard allows space for outdoor projects.
