A distinctive new architectural landmark, the Judy Genshaft Honors College, will serve as a centerpiece of the University of South Florida’s Tampa campus when it opens in 2023. Previously distributed across three separate campuses, the College’s select group of students will be connected in one modern facility for their interdisciplinary, experienced-based education. The 80,000-square-foot building is being designed by Morphosis and FleischmanGarciaMaslowski Architecture and will feature a transparent ground floor that anchors more opaque floors above. A fluid and asymmetrical façade of prefabricated, coated aluminum panels will be suspended from the building’s steel and concrete structure and will appear to peel away from the building as a welcoming gesture to enter.

Walter P Moore has a long-standing relationship with the University, having worked on multiple projects on multiple USF campuses, and is serving as structural engineer, enclosure consultant and steel and concrete rebar detailer for this Honors College Building. Such a sophisticated and unique design vision, with geometries that shift along the building’s façades, require precise planning and careful coordination to ensure that the varied design elements and materials will come together effectively and efficiently and make that vision a reality.

Walter P Moore’s integrated team of engineers came together to develop a fully coordinated 3D model using the firm’s propriety collaborative digital process, ConnecTID. The model – released at the 90% construction document phase – is reducing risk by being openly shared with steel and concrete contractors. This process has enabled shop drawings to be developed in 3D, detailing all structural steel connections and rebar. It has compressed the shop drawing timeline and reduced the number of RFIs as the LOD400 fabrication level model helped to address questions and constructability challenges earlier in the process.

Projects of this scale and scope often come with big risk during construction when different contractors and their materials must intersect. It has been critical, therefore, to have an accurate and detailed model, especially given the building’s elaborate façade where steel, concrete, glass, aluminum panels and more would all come together. By detailing each unique connection in advance, ConnecTID has helped to illuminate potential conflicts between the façade panel anchors and the proposed superstructure that would have caused costly schedule and budget issues if the conflicts had been discovered later in the field. Walter P Moore’s model also has enabled the development of a custom structural steel solution to support the panels’ peel-away feature and provided the façade contractor with a single point of truth documenting the structure that would be supporting the building’s skin.

The integrated workflow and detailed modeling process has empowered each contractor with the details they need for high-quality implementation and has preserved the architects’ design vision and intent for the Honors College building. ConnecTID not only ensured this complex project would proceed and be achievable, but that it would stay within budget and on schedule as a result of the digital model’s clarity and precision.