Mississippi State University commissioned Belinda Stewart Architects, PA to create a new multi-purpose classroom building with parking deck as an inviting, welcoming, student oriented facility. They expected this non-departmental education building to fit into the traditional campus environment as well as draw people in. The site is located at a main public entry to the central historic core of campus adjacent to the Student Union, Cafeteria and other core campus facilities, and as such, is intended to act as a gateway to campus. Through a series of massing and site studies BSA demonstrated that setting the building back from the street, with a landscaped front lawn, serves to create the necessary sense of entry as well
as manage the scale and volume of the building within the existing historic fabric. The site development incorporates a new transit bus hub, master plan coordination and expansion with campus energy loop, exterior student learning spaces, amphitheater and ADA vertical site circulation carved into the existing grade to mediate a 40’ grade change and interconnect the new building with the existing historic core of campus. The two lowest levels of parking accommodate 150 parking spaces, and the three upper levels house 90,000 square feet of classroom space. The parking deck is partially below grade, taking advantage of site topography while still being open on two sides for fresh air and daylight. The classroom levels contain a range of flexible classroom sizes to accommodate the teaching and learning requirements for approximately 2,000 students and associated faculty. This non-departmental classroom building houses undedicated classroom space, equipped with advanced technology to meet multiple teaching styles and learning environments, from small group study rooms to large lecture and auditorium spaces.
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