From the architect. Over seven years in the making, the EERC defines anewapproach toengineering education through the integration of undergraduate project-based learning and interdisciplinary graduate research, with state-of-the-art classrooms, large-scale labs, and maker spaces. It includes the 23,000 square footNational Instruments Student Project Center,designed to place the most advanced tools in engineering research into the hands of undergraduates, theJames J. and Miriam B. Mulva Auditorium and Conference Center, the Cockrell School's largest event space, theTexas Instruments teaching and project labs,and theCenter for Innovation, the school's first space dedicated to entrepreneurship and moving revolutionary ideas to market at a faster rate. The building's design, centered around the idea ofTransparency and Unification,defines a new paradigm for engineering education and research through the integration of undergraduate project-based learning, interdisciplinary graduate research, and a Center for Innovation focused on entrepreneurship. Given the school's strategic and programmatic needs, the building is organized into twonine-story limestone and glasstowers,acknowledging thesubstantially different requirements for labs, offices, and workspacesofthe Department of Electrical and Computer Engineeringand interdisciplinary graduateresearch. The two towers, withinwardly-oriented glass curtain wall facades,are connected by an enclosedthree-story atrium with a folded glass and steel roof, creating a vibrant, light-filled public space, which is the social heart of the building meant tofacilitate productive collisions between faculty, staff, students and campus visitors. Bridges and staircases create circulation paths throughout and join the different research environments. Prominently visible through floor-to-ceiling glass along the north wall of the atrium is the National Instruments Student ProjectCenter,dedicated to project-based interdisciplinary learning.Itshonest expression of raw concrete, fully exposed mechanical systems and glass walls from room to roomputsengineering,and engineering education, onfull display. Architectural gestures throughout the building weredesignedto elevate and celebrate engineering principles from the steel trusssystems spanning the towersto the intricate spiral staircase, from thedelicateV column underneath the staircase to the sky bridges connecting the floors.
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AuthorHis current project is a modern, yacht-inspired 15,000 square foot home to be built on Lido Beach, Sarasota. It will be a marvel of curvaceous, geometric precision. Mr. Stanbury is the founder of J. Stanbury Design Inc. in Lakewood Ranch, Florida. Archives
November 2017
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