Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA), in collaboration with BWBR Architects and McGough Construction, has designed the Schoenecker Center for STEAM at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota—one of the first purpose-built centers of its kind in the country.
The LEED Gold (v4) building is a leader among a new generation of higher-education facilities dedicated to interdisciplinary exchange. The 130,000 sq-ft building is designed to foster collaboration, innovation, and creativity among various departments belonging to the university’s School of Engineering and the College of Arts & Sciences. Across five levels, the Schoenecker Center houses an array of spaces for arts, media, sciences, engineering, and innovation.
“Educators increasingly understand that exposure to new ideas or disciplines is conducive to creativity and innovation,” says Melissa DelVecchio, Partner, RAMSA. “As a result, many universities and colleges are looking to move beyond the traditional, siloed departmental model in favor of one that values and encourages convergence. The University of St. Thomas is at the forefront of this shift with the Schoenecker Center.”
Designed for interdisciplinary education & collaboration
Fostering collaboration makes for a complex architectural and programmatic design. Instead of accommodating the needs of a single department or school, the Schoenecker Center responds to the unique needs of departments that rarely overlap in more traditional academic settings. The building houses a range of classrooms, art and media studios, performance spaces, science labs, computer labs, and engineering labs, among others.
The Schoenecker Center’s ground-level includes a large shared atrium and a central wood-paneled staircase. Various departmental spaces pinwheel around the atrium. These include an art gallery, a 150-person double-height choral performance space, a music rehearsal space, media recording studios, a café, and a 5,000-sq-ft high bay. The high bay, fitted with a 20-ft bridge crane and concrete strong wall, is a working laboratory for engineering students to conduct research and learn through hands-on experiments and demonstrations.
The building’s second story houses the Emerging Media department. The upper levels are primarily dedicated to engineering and lab spaces for subjects like robotics, sustainability, physics, and energy. (RAMSA led the design of the building’s massing and exterior character, along with public, arts, music, and media spaces. BWBR led the design of technical engineering and lab spaces.)
“The Schoenecker Center is technically complex due to how it weaves different departments together,” says DelVecchio. “Engineers smashing things beside a performance hall or a recording studio requires careful design and engineering to ensure that one department’s needs do not impede on another’s experience of the building. It’s a complex design puzzle motivated by the belief that all these disciplines can—and should—inform one another.”
The Schoenecker Center has proved to be an appropriate home for several of the University of St. Thomas’s most unique classes that explore the intersection of different fields. For example, “Musical Acoustics” investigates how physics shapes music. The university has also hosted workshops that grow art inside petri dishes.
A transparent & flexible interior
To promote collaboration and interaction, the Schoenecker Center puts learning on display. Extensive interior glazing promotes visibility, allowing students to watch other disciplines in action. The double-height high bay can be observed through a series of windows on the building’s second level near the Emerging Media Department. Similarly, performance and rehearsal spaces are visible from inside and around the building’s main atrium. Pedestrians can even observe rehearsal spaces through windows located along Summit Avenue.
Housing multiple departments, the Schoenecker Center was designed for flexibility. The building’s multi-use spaces can fulfill different functions according to the user and need. The building’s musical performance space, for example, houses retractable seating. This enables it to transform into a classroom setting or a venue for fairs, networking events, or other gatherings that require increased floorspace.
Team:
Architect: Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA)
Design Architect: Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA)
Associate Architect: BWBR
Builder: McGough Construction
Photo credits: Brandon Stengel
