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University of Kentucky Gray Design Building
University of Kentucky Gray Design Building
Lexington, KY, United States
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Other Projects by Studio Gang
University of Kentucky Gray Design Building
Lexington, KY, United States
Firm
Type
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2004
SIZE
100,000 sqft - 300,000 sqft
BUDGET
Undisclosed
At a time when it is essential to conserve resources and decarbonize, the work of reinventing existing buildings to serve new purposes has never been more critical. This project for the University of Kentucky College of Design (CoD) demonstrates how the insertion and subtraction of architectural elements can bridge between old and new to transform a century-old tobacco warehouse into a 21st-century, cross-disciplinary learning environment.
The original warehouse building—with its open interior floors, repetitive structural grid, and distinct moments of sectional variation—offered a promising framework for uniting all of the CoD’s departments for the first time and accommodating future growth. To maximize interaction among people and disciplines, and expand opportunities for making and experimentation, the design both harnesses these existing conditions and bends them in a new direction.
Through the fabrication of new elements and their strategic insertion into the structure, including a multi-directional steel stair and voids at different scales, the design provides gathering areas, as well as abundant daylight, sightlines, and physical connections between levels. The floor plan uses the original timber columns, along with mobile pin-up walls, to demarcate each studio while its flexibility and openness invites students to collaborate and self-organize. Shared spaces, including a flexible classroom, student gallery, and double-height lecture hall, are clustered near the building’s center to encourage students, faculty, and visitors to mix.
Outside, a new fabrication dock allows students and faculty to try out new forms of large-scale making while putting design on display to the wider University community. New trees and a structural canopy with subtly anthropomorphic steel members provide shade while also diminishing heat gain and contributing to passive cooling. A geothermal well system further lowers the building’s reliance on the energy grid.
The design conceives of the building and landscape jointly as a teaching tool, visibly demonstrating to students that reconciling past and future isn’t simply a matter of environmental necessity, it can also be a satisfying creative act of design and making.
The original warehouse building—with its open interior floors, repetitive structural grid, and distinct moments of sectional variation—offered a promising framework for uniting all of the CoD’s departments for the first time and accommodating future growth. To maximize interaction among people and disciplines, and expand opportunities for making and experimentation, the design both harnesses these existing conditions and bends them in a new direction.
Through the fabrication of new elements and their strategic insertion into the structure, including a multi-directional steel stair and voids at different scales, the design provides gathering areas, as well as abundant daylight, sightlines, and physical connections between levels. The floor plan uses the original timber columns, along with mobile pin-up walls, to demarcate each studio while its flexibility and openness invites students to collaborate and self-organize. Shared spaces, including a flexible classroom, student gallery, and double-height lecture hall, are clustered near the building’s center to encourage students, faculty, and visitors to mix.
Outside, a new fabrication dock allows students and faculty to try out new forms of large-scale making while putting design on display to the wider University community. New trees and a structural canopy with subtly anthropomorphic steel members provide shade while also diminishing heat gain and contributing to passive cooling. A geothermal well system further lowers the building’s reliance on the energy grid.
The design conceives of the building and landscape jointly as a teaching tool, visibly demonstrating to students that reconciling past and future isn’t simply a matter of environmental necessity, it can also be a satisfying creative act of design and making.
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