LMN ARCHITECTS COMPLETES THE NEW EDWARD J. MINSKOFF PAVILION AT MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
THE PROJECT WAS DESIGNED AS A COLLABORATION WITH FTCH AND CLARK CONSTRUCTION
LMN Architects is pleased to celebrate the opening of the new Edward J. Minskoff Pavilion at Michigan State University on September 27th, 2019. The building combines state-of-the-art teaching facilities with social spaces and establishes a new front door for the Broad College of Business.
The Edward J. Minskoff Pavilion at Michigan State University transforms the Eli Broad College of Business into a unified complex at the forefront of business education. The three-story, 100,000-square-foot structure combines modern teaching facilities with contemporary social spaces, creating a socially active learning environment for students, faculty, corporate partners, and alumni to collaborate in forming future generations of business leaders. Technology integration, classrooms, and flexible spaces promote academic and professional excellence, uniquely suited to problem solving in today’s global marketplace.
Sanjay Gupta, Eli and Edythe L. Broad Dean, comments: “The Minskoff Pavilion is unlike any other project the university has seen and represents the next phase of higher education. We placed an intentional emphasis on the pavilion’s architecture and classroom designs to enhance the experience that each student will have and it has been a pleasure working with LMN Architects to accomplish this. Broad Spartans have a new building on campus to call home where they can unleash their creativity and benefit from a space that is focused on collaboration and teamwork.”
Rafael Viñoly-Menendez, Design Partner, comments: “From our first conversations on the project, Dean Gupta expressed a clear vision for the building: a place that would not only foster learning, collaboration, and engagement with alumni and the business community, but also a facility that would weave the existing spaces to create a more cohesive 'campus within a campus.' He was equally inspired by the opportunity to connect the interior spaces to nature as an essential element of the students’ well-being. And above all, the building needed to welcome all students, and not be perceived as exclusively a benefit to the business school.”
Located within the heart of the university along the Red Cedar River, the massing and geometry of the building complete the sequence of spaces in the college’s existing facilities while creating a new connection to the river walk. A riparian meadow is designed to both manage storm water and reestablish a natural habitat along the Red Cedar River.
Inspired by Broad College’s team-based community culture, the design weaves together classrooms, team rooms, and social spaces at a variety of scales. These program elements permeate all aspects of the academic experience, with an emphasis on collaborative environments supporting the college’s cutting-edge research curriculum.
Robert Smith, Principal, comments: “We worked with the college to complete the existing complex instead of just creating an addition. This meant clear circulation routes that tied all of their buildings together and providing lounge, food service, team work, and event spaces that were missing from the existing buildings. These amenities are already having a dramatic impact on the amount of time students spend in the building – which directly improves social performance and goal attainment.”
A central communal atrium is framed by two program “bars” that focus views through the building to the river and landscape beyond. Classrooms, student services and administrative spaces are dispersed through all levels and are arranged around this central social space. Skylights and clerestory windows along the length of the atrium fill the space with natural light and encourage continuous student use for independent study, group projects, and informal meetings.
Rafael Viñoly-Menendez, Design Partner, comments: “The atrium was designed to be the ‘heart’ of the Broad College of Business, the place where students can gather, as individuals and a community, to share experiences. At the campus level, it connects Shaw Lane and the College of Law visually to the river, reinforcing MSU’s foundational connection to nature as a Land Grant institution.”
The atrium celebrates a sense of arrival, providing a new hub for Broad College to host college-wide events, recruitment fairs, informal gatherings, and team collaboration. Circulation balconies overlooking the atrium lead to flat/flexible and tiered/case study classrooms for face-to-face discussions, technology-enabled active learning, and networking. A central feature of the atrium are generous amphitheater stairs, navigating a one-story descent from the main entry down to the ground floor, which houses the café, student lounge, team rooms, garden courtyard, and a terrace with seating steps, opening to the river.
The pavilion’s masonry, glass, and metal exterior express the contemporary functionality of its forward-looking programs while complementing the materials and sensibility of the surrounding campus architecture.
Rafael Viñoly-Menendez, Design Partner, comments: “Working within an Integrated Project Delivery framework, our team of LMN, FTCH, OLIN and Clark Construction collaborated with MSU’s Infrastructure Planning and Facilities staff to successfully deliver Dean Gupta’s vision for the new building. Fundamentally for us, the goal was to design a facility that fosters collaboration, connection and shared discoveries. The Minskoff Pavilion will hopefully play its part in the social experience of generations of future Spartans.”
LMN Architects is a leader in the design of higher education facilities across the United States. Other completed projects include the Bill & Melinda Gates Center for Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington; the Voxman Music Building at the University of Iowa in Iowa City; the Anteater Learning Pavilion at the University of California, Irvine; and the Huntsman School of Business Addition at Utah State University in Logan, Utah.
