Scope
Business + Entrepreneurial Center
Completion
2011
Size
47,000 sf
Stark State College’s mission is to “provide a current, relevant and quality-driven technical education to those seeking to pursue or expand careers in business-related fields.” With this in mind, SSC found it necessary to expand their educational offerings. This brought about the concept for a new Business and Entrepreneurial Studies Division that offers associate degrees and one-year certificate programs that meet the demands of today’s rapidly changing workplace. All this needed a new home, the Business and Entrepreneurial Center.
The design was about finishing the corner of campus with a building that pushed the limits of the campus design aesthetic while featuring an atrium space for the community and entrepreneurs.
Burt Marzley, Project Architect
SSC promotes environmentally-sound development and management practices campus-wide, and incorporates sustainability across the curriculum. The project team focused on incorporating design concepts that would demonstrate these goals to the people within by using the college building itself as a teaching tool. Designed to meet LEED Silver certification, this facility was only one point away from achieving LEED Gold.
Sustainable strategies include:
The three story educational building houses faculty offices on the third floor with classroom and lecture spaces on the first and second floors. A large atrium and lecture area was featured on the corner to anchor the campus with a flexible space that can be used by the college or the community. Multi-level student collaboration spaces connect back into the campus creating spaces for students to work together.
While the site and location made sense for the college program, it challenged the design team to creativity think of solutions to control the sun from the southern and western exposures. As a result, SHD designed a custom sun shade, fritting, a solar hot water system and angled windows to reduce the amount of solar heat gain.
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