Located on the University of South Florida’s (USF) Tampa campus, a new purpose-built facility for the Judy Genshaft Honors College has broken ground.
The five-story, 85,000-sf building will provide a new home for the Honors Program by providing flexible spaces that foster and enhance interdisciplinary exchange between students, faculty, staff, and the broader USF community.
Highly visible from USF’s central campus and accessible via multiple entry points, the new building’s design emphasizes spaces that promote community engagement, collaboration, and creativity. A centrally located atrium anchors the building. The atrium connects all user into a single spatial experience and is lined with learning lofts that encourage interaction and collaboration.
Flexible spaces adjacent to the atrium on the ground floor can be opened and combined to accommodate large-scale events. The second floor features an exterior, shaded terrace that is accessible from the inside and outside of the building and serves as an outdoor study and meeting space.
The lower-form of the five-story building promotes greater pedestrian activity, which in turn increases the frequency of casual encounters and informal meetings critical for interdisciplinary collaboration.
The building also includes classrooms, labs, study areas, offices, and a publicly accessible cafe. The new, purpose-built facility will not only provide the Honors College with a free-standing building tailored to its program and strategically woven into USF’s campus, but will also allow it to accommodate an additional 600 students, bringing its total number of students to 3,000.
Construction on the facility is slated for completion in late fall 2022.
Related Stories
| Nov 15, 2013
Metal makes its mark on interior spaces
Beyond its long-standing role as a preferred material for a building’s structure and roof, metal is making its mark on interior spaces as well.
| Nov 13, 2013
Installed capacity of geothermal heat pumps to grow by 150% by 2020, says study
The worldwide installed capacity of GHP systems will reach 127.4 gigawatts-thermal over the next seven years, growth of nearly 150%, according to a recent report from Navigant Research.
| Oct 30, 2013
15 stellar historic preservation, adaptive reuse, and renovation projects
The winners of the 2013 Reconstruction Awards showcase the best work of distinguished Building Teams, encompassing historic preservation, adaptive reuse, and renovations and additions.
| Oct 30, 2013
11 hot BIM/VDC topics for 2013
If you like to geek out on building information modeling and virtual design and construction, you should enjoy this overview of the top BIM/VDC topics.
| Oct 18, 2013
Researchers discover tension-fusing properties of metal
When a group of MIT researchers recently discovered that stress can cause metal alloy to fuse rather than break apart, they assumed it must be a mistake. It wasn't. The surprising finding could lead to self-healing materials that repair early damage before it has a chance to spread.
| Oct 8, 2013
Toronto Maple Leafs arena converted to university recreation facility
Using steel reinforcement and massive box trusses, a Building Team methodically inserts four new floors in the landmark arena while preserving and restoring its historic exterior.
| Oct 7, 2013
10 award-winning metal building projects
The FDNY Fireboat Firehouse in New York and the Cirrus Logic Building in Austin, Texas, are among nine projects named winners of the 2013 Chairman’s Award by the Metal Construction Association for outstanding design and construction.
| Oct 1, 2013
13 structural steel buildings that dazzle
The Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn and the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C., are among projects named 2013 IDEAS2 winners by the American Institute of Steel Construction.
| Sep 24, 2013
8 grand green roofs (and walls)
A dramatic interior green wall at Drexel University and a massive, 4.4-acre vegetated roof at the Kauffman Performing Arts Center in Kansas City are among the projects honored in the 2013 Green Roof and Wall Awards of Excellence.
| Sep 19, 2013
What we can learn from the world’s greenest buildings
Renowned green building author, Jerry Yudelson, offers five valuable lessons for designers, contractors, and building owners, based on a study of 55 high-performance projects from around the world.
