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The monumental stair is a statement piece within the larger building form, and a compelling backdrop to the activities in the central atrium. Intentionally designed to feel like an intimate gathering room, the central atrium is enclosed with solid walls punctuated by large wood framed openings to create a sense of intimacy and safety while maintaining connection to the spaces beyond.
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The Fireplace Lounge provides a warm and welcoming atmosphere directly accessible from the main building entry. In addition to being a student social lounge with tunable sound separation via the wood storefront, the space can be used as a welcoming lounge to receive guests attending events, student tours, or other public facing activities.
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The Library Lounge tucked away on the east end of the building offers those looking for a calming retreat a place for focused work. While the space is open to the corridor, the Lounge is a dedicated quiet space, providing the ability to concentrate while staying connected to the movements within the building, enhancing a sense of belonging and shared academic purpose.
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The Café on the ground floor adjacent to the atrium activates the north end of the central gathering space. Portions of the café can be secured with operable painted wood enclosures, while still offering grab-and-go options for those in need of after-hour nourishment.
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The large auditorium with high ceilings and exterior views serves departmental, cross-campus, and community lectures. Varying seat widths, enhanced ADA seat distribution, and sightline studies provide equitable engagement with the front of the room.
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Wood detailing at thresholds between experiences and program elements create a sense of procession throughout the building. In this view, circulation paths, private offices, and open and enclosed collaboration spaces flow from one into the next.
Project Name: Hope College North Campus Gateway Building
Project Statement: The Economics and Business Department has with historic significance at the Christian liberal arts college, yet the department has not had a dedicated building to call home on campus. The client engaged the design team to envision a new department building that embodies its legacy and the critical role it plays within the school’s academic community, while providing a forward-thinking academic environment that will inspire the students of today and tomorrow. The building will not only affirm the department’s historic standing within the school but also serve as a new cross-campus classroom and community hub, benefiting the broader college population. Additionally, it will function as an enterprise center, engaging with the wider world of commerce and business.
The Department has a unique vision for their academic approach – Grow It Smaller – signifying the desire for intentional growth without compromising resources, connections, and a sense of community. Fostering connections between faculty and every student is a priority. Open access faculty and advisor offices are immediately adjacent to the main building entry, communicating a sense of approachability and availability for those seeking mentorship and guidance. Further facilitating this is the stacking of offices across all three floors, keeping them in close proximity to classrooms and study spaces, encouraging frequent, in-person interaction between students and faculty. Visible just beyond the entry lobby is a three-story atrium with a monumental feature stair. The switchback staircase’s landings and the elevator lobbies coincide in the middle of the main North-South circulation on each floor, creating an equitable vertical circulation experience while providing clear visibility and wayfinding to key spaces on either end.
The building contains a diverse mix of programming, from classrooms and various small group collaboration spaces supporting different learning and engagement styles, to specially curated destinations such as the fireplace social lounge and the library lounge designed specifically for quiet study. To connect with a larger community, the multipurpose event space, auditorium, and boardroom on the second floor stand ready to host large departmental, cross-campus, or business community gatherings. A café and the new campus bookstore invite connection between the school and the neighborhood.
The client envisions a timeless building, anchored with gravitas to reflect the department’s historic significance, while creating a uplifting and forward-looking academic environment that fosters thought-provoking investigations into the future of business and economics. The exterior façade solidifies the building’s presence at the edge of campus with heavy locally sourced stone and rising gabled roofs, while the interior design expands on this character with a thoughtful blend of traditional design elements with rich and textured contemporary detailing. Wood detailing throughout conveys and sense of warmth and timelessness, while curved elements with subtle shifts in material and color palette express a wink of unexpectedness playfulness.
Intentional coordination between exterior forms and interior programming yields light filled destination spaces taking full advantage of carefully located exterior glazing. Perhaps the most heightened inside out and outside in experience is at the central atrium, where the ascending switchback stairs cladded provocatively with a plaster like finish in orange can be seen framed by gabled forms from the outdoor plaza, resembling a lantern guiding the way in the pursuit of academic elevation of knowledge. The atrium itself is intentionally designed to exude the atmosphere of an intimate and uplifting gathering room. Solid walls punctuated with wood framed openings on the upper-level atrium edges create a sense of enclosure yet maintain connection to the spaces beyond. Expansive glazing washes the space with natural light and provides sweeping exterior views. Various soft seating and tables and chairs throughout the space invite users to linger, relax, and meaningfully engage one another.
Hope College North Campus Gateway Building
Category
INconcept
Description
Project Name: Hope College North Campus Gateway Building
Project Statement: The Economics and Business Department has with historic significance at the Christian liberal arts college, yet the department has not had a dedicated building to call home on campus. The client engaged the design team to envision a new department building that embodies its legacy and the critical role it plays within the school’s academic community, while providing a forward-thinking academic environment that will inspire the students of today and tomorrow. The building will not only affirm the department’s historic standing within the school but also serve as a new cross-campus classroom and community hub, benefiting the broader college population. Additionally, it will function as an enterprise center, engaging with the wider world of commerce and business.
The Department has a unique vision for their academic approach – Grow It Smaller – signifying the desire for intentional growth without compromising resources, connections, and a sense of community. Fostering connections between faculty and every student is a priority. Open access faculty and advisor offices are immediately adjacent to the main building entry, communicating a sense of approachability and availability for those seeking mentorship and guidance. Further facilitating this is the stacking of offices across all three floors, keeping them in close proximity to classrooms and study spaces, encouraging frequent, in-person interaction between students and faculty. Visible just beyond the entry lobby is a three-story atrium with a monumental feature stair. The switchback staircase’s landings and the elevator lobbies coincide in the middle of the main North-South circulation on each floor, creating an equitable vertical circulation experience while providing clear visibility and wayfinding to key spaces on either end.
The building contains a diverse mix of programming, from classrooms and various small group collaboration spaces supporting different learning and engagement styles, to specially curated destinations such as the fireplace social lounge and the library lounge designed specifically for quiet study. To connect with a larger community, the multipurpose event space, auditorium, and boardroom on the second floor stand ready to host large departmental, cross-campus, or business community gatherings. A café and the new campus bookstore invite connection between the school and the neighborhood.
The client envisions a timeless building, anchored with gravitas to reflect the department’s historic significance, while creating a uplifting and forward-looking academic environment that fosters thought-provoking investigations into the future of business and economics. The exterior façade solidifies the building’s presence at the edge of campus with heavy locally sourced stone and rising gabled roofs, while the interior design expands on this character with a thoughtful blend of traditional design elements with rich and textured contemporary detailing. Wood detailing throughout conveys and sense of warmth and timelessness, while curved elements with subtle shifts in material and color palette express a wink of unexpectedness playfulness.
Intentional coordination between exterior forms and interior programming yields light filled destination spaces taking full advantage of carefully located exterior glazing. Perhaps the most heightened inside out and outside in experience is at the central atrium, where the ascending switchback stairs cladded provocatively with a plaster like finish in orange can be seen framed by gabled forms from the outdoor plaza, resembling a lantern guiding the way in the pursuit of academic elevation of knowledge. The atrium itself is intentionally designed to exude the atmosphere of an intimate and uplifting gathering room. Solid walls punctuated with wood framed openings on the upper-level atrium edges create a sense of enclosure yet maintain connection to the spaces beyond. Expansive glazing washes the space with natural light and provides sweeping exterior views. Various soft seating and tables and chairs throughout the space invite users to linger, relax, and meaningfully engage one another.