One of the most successful aspects of the project is the placement of the building with the permeated access towards the courtyard that it has, creating this sensation of openness.
— Michel Rojkind
Location Richardson
Client The University of Texas at Dallas
Architect SmithGroup
Design Team Mark Kranz, FAIA; Randall Daniel, AIA; Jay Rambo, AIA; Kenda Draper; Victor Cardona, AIA; Eric Kirkland; Rick Jones; Reinhardt Swart
Contractor The Beck Group
Structural Engineer/Vibration/EMI JQ Infrastructure
Civil Engineer Pacheco Koch
Acoustics/Audiovisual/IT/Security DataCom Design Group
Commissioning Engineered Air Balance
To accommodate the rapid growth of the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science at UT Dallas, SmithGroup designed a large-scale take on the traditional Texas courtyard building to house a fusion of instructional and research environments. Various specialized labs support specialty research areas — energy, robotics, and nano-biotechnology — while instructional lab spaces and classrooms facilitate undergraduate courses. The massive structure creates strong urban edges while maintaining proportions that provide extensive daylighting and views. The building’s calibrated envelope strategically exposes innovative teaching spaces to the campus, while color-coded building systems capitalize on the building as a machine in itself.