Plemmons Student Union Addition

Architect: Perkins+Will (visit website)

Location: Boone, NC

100 Word Description: The Director’s vision was to combine all student services that were currently scattered about the campus into one building. The design challenge was to accommodate the desired program into the limited site available. The design solution collected all the student services around an atrium that that sits on a major artery of campus circulation to encourage interaction.  From the small footprint the area of each floor grows ending in the large multi-purpose space cantilevered over the entrance.  The required campus-standard brick wraps around and protects the programmed areas inside. The entry, multipurpose area atrium are celebrated with large glass openings with views to the campus beyond.

Architect’s StatementThe Plemmons Student Union addition contains student service offices and meeting spaces as well as additional classrooms and a large multi-purpose space. The plan is organized into a simple servant and served configuration bisected by the atrium circulation.  The servant towers separate the mass of the addition from the smaller scale existing two story student center and are designed to provide student access to a future green roof.  To accommodate the requirement of perimeter offices around the square floor plates, the offices were designed tall and transparent to allow daylight into the central spaces.  With careful material selection and many other sustainable strategies the Plemmons student union is currently tracking LEED Gold.

Type of Construction: The concrete structure of the student union is exposed and celebrated throughout the building.  To avoid the complexity of smoke exhaust in a four story atrium horizontal fire shutters separate the building in two.  The required campus standard brick is wrapped around the structure and expressed authentically as a thin veneer.

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