 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
Summary
- William McDonough
Partners - Contributing
to our Community
Goals
Summary
Serving as a physical and virtual symbol of the school's tradition of global service and innovative initiatives, the new SIS Building will provide a vibrant center for teaching, research, and public dialogue. It will enhance the school's distinctive identity as a cross-national scholar, practitioner, and student community dedicated to improving policy and practice world-wide. The very process of constructing the building, with careful attention to environmental challenges, will itself serve as a learning model.
School of International Service, American
University
William McDonough + Partners, Architecture and Community Design | Quinn
Evans Architects | EDAW
DS 99.4 Revised Design - Longitudinal (S-N) Section, 9 February 2006
Click image for largrer view.
The new SIS Building should capture the school's distinctive excellence
in international affairs education, professional training, and international
exchange and should provide the physical structure to take the school
to an even higher level of international service leadership.
This can be done by creating classrooms, offices, and common areas that can better enable the school to do what it already does so well and by incorporating architectural and engineering design principles that demonstrate how buildings themselves can incorporate answers to world problems.
The twenty-first century world faces three distinct challenges
to which the school has long been committed: global poverty, violent conflict,
and environmental degradation. Each SIS program focuses on at least one
of these issues and has made significant contributions to understanding
them and to equipping students with tools to confront them. The new SIS
Building can illustrate this commitment in its structural and aesthetic
character.
Today's architects are creating buildings that reduce energy use, utilize
construction materials that support sustainable development, boost productivity,
and enhance overall public health. They do so with interiors that incorporate
natural lighting and non-toxic materials; climate controls that enhance
indoor air quality; and techniques which productively use rain water.
Contemporary architects can use ingenuity and technology to harmonize
a building with, rather than impose it upon, the environment.
Such structures build on the connections among international development,
conflict resolution, and environmental protection. They demonstrate that
genuine efforts can be made to enhance each of these world order goals.
As a leader in global education and scholarship, SIS has a responsibility
to highlight such efforts and can use them as pedagogical tools. A state-of-the-art,
environmentally-friendly university building that supports sustainable
development and peace in the nation's capital would attract much attention
and enthusiasm and would inspire SIS students, faculty, and alumni to
further advance the school's international service mission.
William McDonough + Partners have been selected as the architects to design a new building for SIS. As internationally recognized architects, planners, and leaders in sustainable design, William McDonough + Partners crafts designs for buildings and communities that embody new and enduring standards of economic, ecological, and social responsibility. Through the creative designs of McDonough + Partners, the new SIS Building is expected to meet the needs of the expanding school, community, and the local environment as well as serve as a model for environmentally sustainable design. To learn more about McDonough + Partners, click here.
In response to this need, SIS has established numerous
ways to make this global center for teaching, research, and public dialogue
a reality. Naming opportunities for the new building include an atrium,
academic centers, classrooms, seminar rooms, offices, and gifts for a
"new" Davenport Lounge. Gifts of any size will help the school
reach its overall goal.
School of International Service,
American University
William McDonough + Partners, Architecture and Community Design | Quinn
Evans
Architects | EDAW
DS 99.1 Revised Design - First Floor Plan
9 February 2006
Click image for largrer view.
Overall Goal I: Sustain and Reinforce the School’s Mission and Excellence
Background
- Most innovative academic programs of any US international affairs school
- Most applied to international affairs school in the US (2,000 students to graduate programs and 1,500 to undergraduate programs)
- Largest school of international affairs in the US
- Second largest college at AU (22% of the student body)
- SIS freshman have the highest GPA, class rank, and SAT scores at AU
- Eight core academic fields
- Strong focus on cross-cultural communication and diversity
- Commitment to public dialogue and outreach
- Distinctive emphasis on service, justice, poverty alleviation, conflict resolution, and environmental issues
Performance Characteristics
- Set example of design excellence
- Be timeless by incorporating traditional and modern design elements
- Create inviting entries to and from the quadrangle and Nebraska Avenue
- Integrate international and regional architectural motifs and art work
- Provide space for programs (Centers for Peace, Study of the Global South, and for Sustainable Development), specialized functions, and group spaces so that they are more visible
- Inspire alumni pride in the school
Goal II: Strengthen School Community
Background
- Faculty offices are scattered across the campus in nine buildings
- Classes are held in 13 different buildings on campus
- Faculty express the lack of easy opportunities for collegiality due to scattered offices
- Students are encouraged to take initiative and play a role in the school, but there is a lack of space for club offices and for group meetings
- Staff are hampered by over-crowding, lack of equipment, and secure storage
- The perception of the quality of a school’s physical environment influences the selection of a school by a student as well as positive regard by alumni and the public
- Students and faculty tend to spend more time in a facility if it meets their needs
- Lack of handicapped access severely hampers sense of community
Performance Characteristics
- Provide all faculty and staff members with offices in the building
- Locate faculty and staff in clusters of offices that are easily accessible by students
- Provide student organizations with office and meeting space
- Enable people to see and meet each other as they circulate through the building
- Provide informal places where people can meet such as the Davenport Lounge and a central atrium
- Create a central communal focus
- Have adequate space in the copy and mail rooms so that informal conversations can take place where people carry out routine tasks
- Insure that all areas are accessible to all people
- Co-locate staff with relevant faculty
- Create a dramatic space that can serve both as a room for special events and serve as an area with high visibility to enhance everyday, interior aesthetics
- Building infrastructure to include:* Daylight in all spaces
* Adequate lighting without glare
* Windows that open
* New, quiet HVAC systems- Provide places where people can be creative
- Improve the Davenport Lounge, so that it can convert to seating for dining service or receptions and locate it on the ground floor facing south
- Have a meeting space similar to the current SIS Lounge which encourages community
- Rescue features from existing buildings (such as Davenport windows) and install them in the new building
- Create a Korean landscape with sitting space surrounding the building
School of
International Service,
American University
William McDonough + Partners, Architecture and Community Design | Quinn
Evans
Architects | EDAW
DS 99.0 Revised Design - Terrace Floor Plan, 9 February 2006
Click image for largrer view.
Goal III: Adequately House Faculty, Staff, and Students
Background
- Full-time faculty – 60
- Adjunct faculty – 20-30 each semester
- PhD student – 50 total
- Visiting and research scholars – 10-20
- Professional staff – 40
- Student organizations – 8
- Current staff offices are seriously over-crowded, faculty offices are inadequate, and student club space is non-existent
Performance Characteristics
- Private offices for all full-time faculty
- Shared workstations for adjunct faculty to house work
- Partitioned work stations for PhD students to house work
- Clubhouse arrangements for visiting and research scholars in which each scholar has a desk, computer, two file drawers, telephone, data port, electrical outlets, and shared printer
- Provide adequate space for staff to perform tasks including meeting with students and faculty
- Establish appropriate levels of privacy and confidentiality, especially in the advising and development/alumni affairs areas
- Create common space for nine student organizations
- Lounge area for graduate students
- Provide up-to-date technology
- Establish separate areas for undergraduate and graduate advisors
- Graduate Admissions suite to have waiting area, student resource space, receptionist, work area, and private office for manager, two advisors and academic coordinator. Locate away from classrooms and student lounge
- Undergraduate Advising suite should have work area, waiting area, file space, private office for manager and four advisors
- Faculty Services suite-work stations for two assistants, mail room, copy room, storage rooms, and archive
- Staff lounge with kitchenette unit and table with chairs
- Provide sufficient storage space
- Dean’s suite, development staff, and administrative offices
Goal IV: Create Fitting and Sufficient Instructional/Learning Spaces
Background
- School student population to remain relatively constant with a possible increase in the undergraduate and decrease in the master’s programs (current ~1,500 undergraduates, ~1,000 master’s students)
- University controls classrooms on campus
- Classes are scattered across campus
- SIS classrooms and seminar rooms are poorly configured, over-crowded, and have poor building systems
Performance Characteristics
- SIS needs the capability to conduct major conferences and to draw on expertise of leaders located throughout the world
- Many courses employ breakout sessions, role playing, case study, and other small group interaction methods that require special settings
- International studies require students to understand geography and extensively use current and historical cartographic materials
- Provide model classrooms, presentation platform, and state-of-the-art communication hardware including satellite hook-ups
- Incorporate distance learning technologies in several different classroom configurations
- Have a number of seminar rooms in which 25 student can sit in a circle with sufficient space for in-room break out sessions and access to break out rooms
- Provide several classrooms to seat 15-30 students in which furniture can be arranged in a variety of ways to facility case study, seminar, presentations, and other forms of instructional delivery
Goal V: Establish an Executive Education Facility
Background
- AU/SIS can capitalize on its Washington, DC, location and reputation
- SIS has a growing interest in professional training through its executive programs
- SIS holds more than 100 seminars and conferences a year
Performance Characteristics
- Seating for 150-200 people in the SIS Lounge
- Accommodate 50 students in 2 or 3 classrooms
- Include break-out rooms and dining facilities
- Keep separate from undergraduate and other students
- Create high level corporate image
