The Evergreen State College, Purce Lecture Hall
Higher Education
ZGF designed the gut renovation and addition of the existing 25,000 SF lecture hall building situated prominently at the front door of the campus and adjacent to the central courtyard known as Red Square. Originally designed in the brutalist style of architecture, the renovation transforms the existing facility from an inwardly focused, steeply-tiered, fixed-seat lecture style classroom facility into a flexible, student-centered active learning space that supports a variety of pedagogies and acts as a hub for students, faculty, and visitors. The design retains the building’s largest lecture hall and three gently tiered lecture halls and adds two 80-seat flip classrooms, two 30-seat flat floor classrooms, and an active rotunda. In addition to ambitious goals for developing modern learning spaces that reflect the campus culture of innovation, the design provided equity through accessibility by eliminating the need for elevators and stairs to reach each instruction space. Designed to align with Evergreen’s commitment to environmental sustainability the project is LEED Gold® and uses sustainable strategies such as rooftop monitors to bring daylight throughout circulation spaces and is net-zero ready with the potential for rooftop photovoltaics.
Location
Olympia, WA
Square Feet
25,000
Completion date
2016