Architecture as an Outgrowth of Curriculum
Before a line was ever drawn on the drafting table, architects of the Lillis Business Complex considered the flow and patterns of interaction needed to facilitate the cutting-edge curriculum of the Lundquist College of Business.
Planning began with needs assessments, focus groups, and interviews from faculty and student groups. SRG Partnership, the Portland-based architecture firm selected to design the building, soon realized that the challenge before them was to create a building that advanced the educational mission of the Lundquist College of Business and leveraged the collegeial interactions between and among faculty and students.
The design that emerged from this process was a direct outgrowth of the college's educational philosophy--an entrepreneurial, hands-on curriculum that brings technology, team projects, and real-world business experience together inside and outside the classroom.
Study Spaces and Suites
Spaces that business students regularly seek out are located directly off the atrium, forming the building's nucleus. The Career Services suite, including professional interview offices, is the focal point on the second floor. On the third and fourth floors, suites for our centers of excellence are strategically located to promote cross-discipline learning and communication. Each of the center suites has a resource room or library and a small-group study room. These shared spaces, called "huddle zones" in the corporate world, cluster student resources, study areas and faculty offices together around particular disciplines.
Classroom, Lecture Halls, Caserooms
Tiered caserooms enhance and accommodate experiential learning with small-group breakout capabilities. Each caseroom mirror the college's emphasis on teamwork and collaborative casework by allowing teams to form efficiently within the lecture space. The building's caserooms and classrooms were designed and fine tuned by conducting actual courses in mock-ups of the spaces before they were ever built. The final designs incorporated the feedback of students and faculty members.
Advanced Technologies
To support cutting-edge technology, wireless Internet access is available throughout the building. In addition the facility provides students and faculty with state-of-the-art multimedia presentation equipment and a distance-learning classroom with teleconferencing capabilities.
Taken altogehter, the creative architectural design of the building provides our students with a facility that impacts and enhances their education, reflecting our commitment to empowering our students for success and increasing our ability to attract and retain some of the nation's best faculty and students.