Planning, architecture, interior design and landscape architecture unite the campus, support a multitude of student and faculty functions, and embrace the climate that inspired the school’s persona – The Hurricanes.
The form embodies the concept of hurricanes, generating a logical curving and stacking of programmatic volumes which appear to pull apart and slip away, forming terraces, cantilevers, and triple-height atriums, with a glass skin that merges and separates interior and exterior volumes. Upper floors overhang the lower, creating a monumental colonnade that shelters student activity areas, allowing lakefront pedestrian flow under the building. Stage-like interior and exterior platforms encourage planned and unplanned interactions - conversation, study, meetings, and relaxing. Viewed from across the lake, this dynamic elevation appears to float above the water, an inviting, glowing lantern at night.
This multi-function building offers a 10,000 SF suite of offices for student groups, conference and computer centers, and a fully equipped media production facility for the university radio, yearbook and newspaper. Indoor and outdoor dining, lounge and gallery areas retain the spirit of the original beloved Rathskeller hangout. The building design takes advantage of the climate, flora, and fauna of South Florida, offering vistas of the lake and lush tropical campus. Advanced engineering and LEED features improve hurricane wind tolerance, solar shelter and energy efficiency.
The interior design complements the theme with terrazzo floors and furnishings that recall the mingling of sand and water, accented with bursts of school color. The conference room ceiling’s layered and lighted circular panels invoke swirling wind and clouds.
The innovative result is a dynamic Student Activity Center that encourages students and faculty to come together, pull apart, circulate around a shifting, yet solid core, in both vertical and horizontal space - embracing the nature of the periodic cataclysmic events of this tropical climate.
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