Envisioned as a ‘campus’ of learning and social environments within a single building, the new 60,740-SF academic center is inspired by the powerful rural landscape of the site and designed as a learning garden. The central learning commons is an extension of the sloping landscape, which is achieved by creating multi-tiered social learning spaces beneath a green roof garden. Visually and physically connected to the land, these spaces make the center inextricably tied to its location. The building wings, of office and classroom spaces, act as landforms growing out of the earth, defining the learning commons on both sides.