• Location

  Hammond, Louisiana

• Owner

  Southeastern Louisiana University

• Completion Date

  July 2017

• Awards

• AIA Baton Rouge Rose Award

It is the designer’s belief that it is a requirement today to develop educational places that address 21^st Century needs in an academic community-based environment. Such an environment should completely support and allow work, play & study within a learning community.

With the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, came a diaspora of faculty from various institutions in New Orleans, many of which landed at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana, one of the first stops north out of New Orleans. The Southeastern Industrial Technology Department was the beneficiary of many of these faculty. With the vision of the University, the conceptualization of a new facility was developed to address the needs of the 21^st Century. The department’s mission is to “Support the economic development of the region by providing a premier, industry-relevant, undergraduate education, rich in real-world-ready experiences, undergraduate research, and a mixture of theoretical and hands-on coursework.”.

The University has in the past prided itself in the student career placement of individuals within the industry as ready to work. Recently they have joined a consortium of higher educational institutions that will supply work ready individuals to the 2nd largest economic development announcement made in 2017, nationally. DXC Technology, Inc., one of the largest digital transformation companies in today’s world, has committed to the region the development of a center for digital transformation that will produce 2,000 jobs by 2025. This building and its products will feed this need.

The building designers collaborated with the users of the building and developed specific approaches to address the building purpose. The building itself was used as a teaching tool, where the building systems were exposed so that participants can experience and use these systems as examples. Laboratories spaces are transparent to exhibit to students work efforts and students can see the educational energy that is on-going. Finally, the building addresses the 21^st century need of providing informal social spaces where students and faculty can collaborate in a community atmosphere for discussion and idea making.

In addition to the specifics of the internal working of this cutting-edge building, the placement of this facility located on the extreme south east edge of the campus, anchors the edge of the campus and offers an image of progress, while relating back to the historic core of the campus in a contemporary fashion.

The building consists of high bay laboratory spaces on the first floor. Smaller labs, classrooms, and computer labs on the second floor. Faculty offices, research labs, and the department suite are on the third floor. Many sustainable strategies have been integrated into the site design. Built in controls for building operations has reduced energy consumption and cost.

Additionally, an apparatus was installed at the west facade of the building that serves a dual purpose.It is a west facing shading scrim and veils a research focused roof deck at the third floor. The grid framework of the scrim allows for the attachment of instruments such as wind turbines, solar photo voltaic panels, and various types of robotics-based research equipment all for experimentation purposes.