William R. Hough Hall, Graduate School of Business University of Florida
Client: University of Florida
Location: University of Florida campus, Gainesville, FL
Site: A parcel located at the historic, main entrance of campus and within a National Register Historical District. Originally the site of a parking lot and a strip of green space populated with mature live oak trees.
Program Challenge: To create a home for the Warrington College of Business graduate programs complete with classrooms, large seminar rooms, meeting areas, and spaces for events and impromptu collaboration, as well as administrative and support offices. The 69,518 square foot building also needed to fit in aesthetically with its historic neighbors while still standing out as a bold new landmark for the UF campus.
Solution: For formal instruction, a 100-seat classroom/auditorium along with four 75-seat classrooms and a host of other smaller class spaces and breakout rooms were provided. The building’s third floor is home the school’s MBA program and in addition to classroom space, the design incorporates multi-purpose interview rooms, a corporate recruitment suite, collaboration space, a 25-seat executive board room, lounges, and locker rooms. All of these instructional and study spaces were designed to support the technologies at use by students, professors, and presenters. This tech-friendly approach was also used in the Financial Markets Laboratory on the second floor. There the students gain hands-on experience with Bloomberg terminals, electronic stock boards, and other real-life tools.
Rowe Architects, in association with Sasaki Associates, packaged this progressive, state-of-the-art learning environment in a configuration consistent with the iconography of the campus’ historic buildings, utilizing a main gabled structure and familiar materials such as Gainesville range red brick masonry, cast stone, and red, clay tile roofing. By incorporating these hallmarks, RAI was able to embrace a modern aesthetic without creating visual discord with nearby buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places, or moreover, alienating the Collegiate-Gothic elements that define the campus.