For campuses of all sizes, student centers pose unique challenges and opportunities. They serve as hubs of activity and connection for a diverse range of student groups, each with their own unique needs and expectations. How do we cater to diverse tribes of students, administration personnel, and parents touring the campus all in the same building? Our Agile Design approach shines in developing these projects, creating flexible, inclusive, and engaging spaces. Let’s examine the mindsets and needs unique to student centers and uncover valuable lessons learned from past projects.
August 16, 2024 — Comments are off for this post.
Agile Design for Student Centers: Creating Spaces for Connection and Community
September 22, 2022 — Comments are off for this post.
Florida Ballpark is the first of its kind to receive 3 Green Globe certifications
The Condron Family Ballpark (previously known as the Florida Ballpark) has been awarded 3 Green Globes! It is the first premier collegiate stadium in the United States to receive this certification.
Walker Architects is proud to have achieved a JUST label! For us, this label signifies our ongoing commitment as a company that embraces integrity, quality, empathy, passion, collaboration, and passion in all we do.
We were excited to attend NeoCon!
What is NeoCon, you ask? One of our interior designers, Taylor, describes it as “an expo for interior manufacturers of furniture, materials, and finishes. Basically, the fashion week for interior designers.”
Most people spend up to ninety percent of their lives indoors. With that in mind, we believe that design to promote human wellness is critical.
A building designed for occupant wellness can include features like biophilic elements, ergonomic work areas, healthy building materials, and acoustically sensitive and agile spaces that support healthy choices by the end-user. All of these design elements work together to make us healthier and happier.
We believe in designing people-centered spaces by asking the right questions:
- How can the design encourage a healthy lifestyle?
- How can the space provide for greater occupant comfort and well-being?
- How can the space feel welcoming and inclusive for all?
- How can design connect people with place and nature?
- What materials can support a healthy environment?
We are a firm who actively listens — and what we’ve heard from our clients is that outdated collegiate spaces are getting in the way of progress. Hundreds of higher education projects over the last decade have taught us that spaces are constantly challenged with evolving needs. The architecture that supported innovation in the classroom of yesterday might stand in the way of progress today. While we can’t anticipate every trend, we can design spaces to be ready to support organizations as they adapt and grow.
What does ending homelessness in Alachua County look like?
GRACE provides services that make a difference. Since 2014, they’ve reduced homelessness in Alachua County by 47% by moving more than 1,700 people into permanent housing. They reached out to us with a simple need: to serve more people with the only resource that can actually end homelessness: housing.
As environmental concern continues to grow both nationally and globally amid the current climate crisis, Walker Architects understands the critical importance of designing for a sustainable future.
Part two of our series on the Agile Workplace looks side to side and back in time to contextualize the ideas behind the Agile Workplace.
The site, the aesthetic fabric of the environment, the visibility and symbolism… each inform the placement of building elements, arrangement of communicating spaces, alignment of interior functions, and the use of light to affect the development of the three-dimensional massing.