This state of the art graduate and research facility creates a new eastern edge to the core of the campus while simultaneously completing the terminus to a proposed north-south pedestrian corridor. The curvilinear mass of the structure is being built into a steeply sloping site at the base of a woodland preserve. Towers|Golde’s landscape design emphasizes the forms of the building and the ecology of the site, extending the vegetation of the hillside on to the campus and transitions the slope with a series of native stone walls interleaved with rain gardens/bio-swales which capture parking and surface runoff from pavements at the base of the building.
The plan also accommodates complex patterns of through-campus circulation for both pedestrians and bicyclists and provides handicapped accessible routes across the challenging terrain. Numerous plazas and gathering spaces provide respite on the through journey. Seeking LEED Gold.