Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Tidewater Community College: Portsmouth Student Center

  • 12/01/14
Tidewater Community College

PHOTOS © PATRICK ROSS

On Tidewater Community College’s (TCC) Portsmouth, VA, campus, a new student center offers a diverse array of venues within a vibrant, open space. Designed by Stantec Architecture, the three-story, 57,500-squarefoot-building opened in January 2014, delivering on TCC’s mission to provide a student center on each of its four campuses.

“The design reflects extensive stakeholder input,” explains Stantec Principal John Knickmeyer. “The students were very clear about how this building could best meet their needs. In addition to gathering and study spaces and food venues, recreation and fitness topped their wish lists.” Now they can relax between classes in gaming, movie theater and lounge areas, or let off steam at the fitness center or on the regulation-size basketball court. The center also features a versatile event space that can be subdivided by vertically folding partitions, a bookstore, and a childcare facility with a separate, secured entrance.

Jasmin McDuffie, Stantec’s project manager, explains that the dominant open atrium and curved central staircase were designed to foster a sense of openness and community. The plan also promotes visibility and enhances the security in the building. To add interest and energy, a soothing water wall tower centers the ground floor living room atrium, highlighted by custom hanging light fixtures and circular skylights.

As the designer of the campuses’ four other buildings, Stantec incorporated the existing exterior material palette, while adopting a more fluid and playful approach to the building massing and window compositions to reflect the center’s unique role on campus. The front entrance is highlighted with a dramatic massing/material interplay between brick and metal panels grounded by a black ironspot brick base. The south-facing back side features an extensive S-curved glass wall accentuated with a metal panel frame and screening devices that manages the natural daylighting throughout the interior.

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

Featured

  • FGCU Breaks Ground on New Health Sciences Building

    Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) has launched construction on a major new academic facility that leaders say will reshape healthcare education in Southwest Florida for decades to come, according to university news.

  • Utah Valley University Opens New Engineering Building

    Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, recently held a grand-opening ceremony for the new Scott M. Smith Engineering Building, according to a news release. The facility is one of the largest engineering buildings in the state at almost 200,000 square feet, and it plays home to the university’s Smith College of Engineering and Technology (SCET).

  • Construction Begins on New University Research Vessel

    Boat-building company All American Marine recently announced that it has begun construction on a new catamaran research vessel for the University of Texas Marine Science Institute (UTMSI) in Port Aransas, Texas, according to a news release.

  • UTampa Breaks Ground on STEM Academic Facility

    The University of Tampa in Tampa, Fla., recently broke ground on one of its largest academic facilities ever, according to a news release. The Dickey Science Innovation Center will measure 153,000 square feet and has a scheduled completion date of fall 2028.