Clemson University
Wilbur O. & Ann Powers College of Business
The College of Business features an expansive glass façade, high ceilings, and a grand connecting stairway illuminating an entrepreneurial focus. Elevating recognition, recruitment and rankings, the complex prepares students to enter today’s competitive marketplace as leaders. A mix of formal and informal spaces encourages hands-on participation through chance encounters, focused study, team collaboration, and group interactions. Generous amenities, including food service and lounge areas, encourage students to linger in the building, enhancing the sense of community.
A combination of tiered and flat, flexible classrooms is based on a common module to allow for pedagogical change over time; interaction spaces and landscaped outdoor terraces invite ongoing discussion beyond the classroom. Environments simulating real world experiences in sales and financial trading, along with a designated business incubator, strengthen the chance to join forces with the professional community and launch students’ careers.
Honoring the past and looking to the future, the building’s brick façade respects its larger historic context, while modern construction technology allows for maximizing both transparency and energy efficiency – emphasizing daylight, views, and the college’s forward focus.
LOCATION: Clemson, SC
SIZE: 176,000 SF
COMPLETED: 2020
ASSOCIATE ARCHITECT: LMN
Forward-Thinking Design
Good stewardship of this hallowed campus site was a foundational requirement, but the University wanted to accomplish several other important goals. As the first academic building in the new North Precinct of the campus, the building presented the opportunity to define a new campus gateway and strengthen the “town and gown” connection with the city. For the College, the project was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to envision a new home for its programs, one that would serve its students and faculty well into the future. The building needed to be flexible enough to accommodate changes in technology or pedagogy over time, provide spaces for a variety of teaching and learning modalities, and look forward to the future while honoring the past. Perhaps the Dean’s overarching goal was the most important in driving the design: to build a place that students wouldn’t want to leave.
Enjoying the Climb
The site had one more notable attribute: a steep 40’ grade between Bowman Field and the Douthit Hills student residence halls above. The hill became the project’s greatest challenge, and also its greatest asset. The design team capitalized on the dramatic topography and envisioned the hill climb as a defining project feature, akin to Rome’s beloved Spanish Steps. The buildings’ form – a larger volume canted to align with the hill connected to a linear bar via a below-stair passagway– frames the terraced exterior stair and plazas.
The design envisioned a student-centric think tank environment that provides a dynamic environment for student/faculty engagement, active learning, and student body socialization. The team worked tirelessly to integrate innovative product and system selections with quality construction, resulting in a beautiful and functional space.
Wendy L. York | Dean, Clemson University Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business
Reimagining the Hill
The materiality of the design mirrors the hill itself, with grounded concrete elements and earthy tiles forming a metaphorical retaining wall at ground level transitioning to light, airy, upward-reaching materials as the building rises. A veil of white vertical slats in the atrium draws the eye skyward. A monumental interior stair parallels the hill climb, inviting students into the building at various levels as they traverse the hill.
The form and detailing engage the datum set by the massing of the student residences above. The processional sequence leads students from the lower plaza through terraced informal gathering spaces to the Douthit Hills promenade at the top, knitting together residential, academic, and social spaces. The terraces weave in and out of the interior program areas as well to reinforce the physical connection to the topography, and the hill climb within the expansive central atrium echoes the external procession.
Reimagining the Hill
American Architecture Award | AIA South Carolina | AIA Greenville
