Schine Student Center Renovation

The Schine Student Center redesign was all about transparency and inclusion. There are destinations that are important to access easily, to be seen, to celebrate.

The design team conceived the new central atrium as a “boomerang that pulls students from outside campus into campus. As it transitions from the quad proper to blocks that are more community spaces with lots of students and community businesses, it acts as a gateway to the campus. The center of the boomerang is the atrium, the hub of all the activity.

After receiving student input for months, designers found a few key themes emerge, such as nutrition and biophilic elements, as well as a concept that became known as “see and be seen”: a mix of individual spaces where you’re still connected visually to the ongoing happenings in the building, as well as public spaces where you’re prominently displayed.

Another key component of the new Schine Student Center is the Intercultural Collective, which houses not only the university’s offices of multicultural affairs and LGBTQ and disability services, but also some 8,600 square feet for related student organizations to meet. Having not previously interacted, the stakeholder engagement process involved conveying their goals to each other and working collaboratively, facilitated by Vaysen, to determine their common and unique needs. The organizations’ missions were realized in this renovation, providing a space to celebrate their individual identities and offerings while fostering interaction and collaboration across the organization.