Studio Gang has completed the Gray Design Building, the new home of the University of Kentucky’s College of Design. In partnership with K. Norman Berry Associates Architects, Studio Gang has turned a former tobacco warehouse into a contemporary facility for interdisciplinary learning and collaboration.
“Extending the lifespan of existing buildings is one of the most significant ways we can limit our impact on the environment and broaden the creative potential of architecture,” Jeanne Gang, founding partner of Studio Gang, said in a statement. “Our goal was to bridge the building’s past and future by preserving its distinct character while renewing it as a place where creativity can thrive through collaboration.”
Combining the building’s historic qualities with modern features, the project transformed the industrial structure from a single-use setting into a multipurpose space for education and collaboration.
The 132,000-sf, three-story repurposed building offers flexible indoor and outdoor spaces for learning and making. Upon entry, visitors encounter a new central staircase. On the ground floor, gathering spaces include a flexible classroom, gallery for student and faculty work, and double-height lecture hall. On the upper levels, the open-floor plans use the original timber columns as well as mobile walls and furniture to define each studio space.
A new outdoor fabrication dock connects with an interior workshop, providing an indoor-outdoor area for large-scale making and for displaying work. A structural canopy over the fabrication dock allows students to work outside comfortably.
By retaining the structural components, the reuse project reduces the building’s embodied carbon. The Gray Design Building uses several efficient features, such as a new geothermal well system, that will lower its energy use by an expected 70% to 80% compared to a conventional higher education building. Along with the structural canopy, new trees will decrease heat gain and contribute to passive cooling.
The Gray Design Building was formerly the Reynolds Building. Built in 1917, the Reynolds Building operated as a tobacco warehouse for over four decades before the University of Kentucky acquired it in 1959.
Now, for the first time in its history, the College of Design will house its four programs in one building. Located on an underused edge of the campus, the Gray Design Building also strengthens the university’s connection to downtown Lexington.
On the building team:
Owner: University of Kentucky
Design architect: Studio Gang, Chicago
Architect of record: K. Norman Berry Associates Architects
Structural engineer: Brown + Kubican
MEP/FP engineer: CMTA
Construction manager: Turner Construction
Related Stories
Sponsored | | Jul 7, 2014
Channel glass illuminates science at the University of San Francisco
The University of San Francisco’s new John Lo Schiavo Center for Science and Innovation brings science to the forefront of academic life. Its glossy, three-story exterior invites students into the facility, and then flows sleekly down into the hillside where below-grade laboratories and classrooms make efficient use of space on the landlocked campus.
| Jul 3, 2014
Clark Institute to open newly-renovated campus designed by Tadao Ando, Selldorf Architects
Combining the talents of four noted architects, the project unites the new Clark Center, designed by Tadao Ando, with the renovated Museum Building and Manton Research Center, designed by Selldorf Architects.
| Jul 2, 2014
Emerging trends in commercial flooring
Rectangular tiles, digital graphic applications, the resurgence of terrazzo, and product transparency headline today’s commercial flooring trends.
| Jun 30, 2014
Research finds continued growth of design-build throughout United States
New research findings indicate that for the first time more than half of projects above $10 million are being completed through design-build project delivery.
| Jun 20, 2014
First look: Hive-like 'Learning Hub' to be built in Singapore
In a competition to design a "Learning Hub" for students at Nanyang University in Singapore, London-based firm Heatherwick studio has won with a rounded, hive-like design.
| Jun 18, 2014
Arup uses 3D printing to fabricate one-of-a-kind structural steel components
The firm's research shows that 3D printing has the potential to reduce costs, cut waste, and slash the carbon footprint of the construction sector.
| Jun 16, 2014
6 U.S. cities at the forefront of innovation districts
A new Brookings Institution study records the emergence of “competitive places that are also cool spaces.”
| Jun 12, 2014
Zaha Hadid's 'gravity defying' Issam Fares Institute opens in Beirut
The design builds upon the institute’s mission as a catalyst and connector between AUB, researchers and the global community.
| Jun 12, 2014
Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects' design selected for new UCSC facility
The planned site is a natural landscape among redwood trees with views over Monterey Bay, a site that the architects have called “one of the most beautiful they have ever worked on.”
| Jun 12, 2014
Austrian university develops 'inflatable' concrete dome method
Constructing a concrete dome is a costly process, but this may change soon. A team from the Vienna University of Technology has developed a method that allows concrete domes to form with the use of air and steel cables instead of expensive, timber supporting structures.
