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When ArchitectureWeek published the Stevie Eller Dance Theatre at the University of Arizona, designed by the same architecture firm, we described it as a building that captured the movement and sway of the art (and the artists) it housed. This new student center, which is the first public-use building on the campus to be built from scratch, takes a fresh approach to putting down roots in a harsh environment, doing it with the same style and grace as the dance theater.

Campus Place Making

The student union is located between two circulation spines that run east-west through the campus. As the campus grows, these spines will give structure to the pedestrian mall, through which students, faculty, and staff circulate. The placement of the student union as an anchor on this pedestrian mall assures that it will be constantly alive with student activities, lounging, and study.

The building is also strategically sited at the very heart of the campus, on axis with the main entry road. Appropriately enough, the building physically reaches out to the campus, making connections with the flat desert landscape dotted with the college's existing facilities, which have been transformed from their air base functions.

The building serves a variety of uses. There is a bookstore, student dining room, a lounge, a coffee shop, administrative offices, and flexible banquet and meeting facilities for 400 people. The one-story, 27,000-square-foot (2,500-square-meter) building distributes these spaces under a flat-roofed pavilion that stretches lengthwise east and west. Service areas, corridors, and support functions are arranged along the northern edge of the building.

To the south, opening to the sun, are the dining spaces, banquet room, and lounge. On the south edge the building's walls literally roll up — there are glass overhead garage doors that allow the inside spaces to meld with carefully landscaped and appointed outdoor rooms, bringing the inside outside, and vice versa.

The function of the banner-draped shading elements is multiple. They not only block the sun, making the outdoor rooms habitable for much of the year, they also lend the building a larger scale and measure of excitement than its relative modest size could never achieve on its own. The shading devices also make something else possible — the extensive use of glass walls in a hot climate.

Transparent Desert View

The choice of glass walls is a large part of the building's appeal. The architects wanted to create an oasis on this desert campus, a place where students and faculty could meet informally, relax, and prepare for class. Engaging passersby by communicating the hum of activity and the sense of a social center is best achieved by showing people occupying the spaces inside, going about their business.

This transparency also allows students to check out who is in the building without having to go in — an opportunity to survey the place as you move past it. Seeing a friend or a professor you've been meaning to talk to might pull you off the pedestrian path, and invite you inside.

The material choices of corrugated metal, steel pipes, steel sash, large expanses of glass, cables and turnbuckles, and metal bar-joist roof structure all lend the feel of an aircraft, or a raft floating on the desert, offering an cool spot to stop and rest and watch a slice of college life swirl around you.   >>>

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Michael J. Crosbie is editor-in-chief of Faith & Form, a senior associate with Steven Winter Associates, and a contributing editor to ArchitectureWeek.

SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE New student union at the Arizona State University's East Campus, by Gould Evans Associates. Photo: Mark Boisclair Extensive glazing is protected by sun screens. Photo: Matt Winquist Student union dining room. Photo: Mark Boisclair Site plan. Image: Gould Evans Site diagram. Image: Gould Evans Student union floor plan. Image: Gould Evans Bookstore patio. Photo: Matt Winquist Main walkway passes by the campus bookstore. Photo: Matt Winquist   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.