Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Arizona State University Student Union Revamped

  • 12/11/17

The hub of campus activity at Arizona State University’s (ASU) Tempe campus, the student center Memorial Union has been reimagined and revitalized with a 119,000-square-foot new redesign led by architecture firm Studio Ma.

Serving some 30,000 students per day, Memorial Union now offers unique collaborative workspaces for students, a cutting-edge media center for video production training, and new spiritual zones including a meditation room for all faiths with an ablution space for those of the Muslim faith. Outdoors, an area prone to flooding has been reinvented as an absorbent bioswale, or rain garden. The first phase added ballrooms, multi-use event spaces, classrooms and a large auditorium.

ASU Student Union

Studio Ma developed a collegiate design aesthetic with sustainable materials from the Southwest region, such as rough-cut sandstone walls, Douglas fir wood ceilings, and mesquite flooring and paneling.

The renovations were shaped by extensive student surveys led by Studio Ma, which identified the need for more collaborative workspaces, new meeting areas and recreation amenities. In response, Studio Ma designed new seating niches and added more soft, lounge-type seating along the facility’s corridors. In addition to these desired “third spaces” bridging between dorm life and academic centers, the research showed students wanted “new quiet areas to gather and engage in spiritual and meditative practices,” says Christiana Moss, AIA, principal and design leader.

The new Memorial Union’s Student Media Center is the first campus place where students can take advantage of video production training and high-tech conference rooms with Skype-enabled screens and cameras.

The innovative new facilities are the second phase of extensive fast-track renovations conceived by Arizona State leadership including university architect Ed Soltero and executed by Studio Ma and construction firm CORE Construction. Tracking LEED Gold, the successful project reflects Studio Ma’s close partnership with ASU’s Educational Outreach and Student Services, as well as Memorial Union’s Executive Director, Michele Grab.

Featured

  • University of Oklahoma Announces New Campus Master Plan

    The University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., recently announced that it will soon launch a new, comprehensive Campus Master Plan to guide the campus’ physical development during the next decade, according to a news release.

  • Chartwells Launches Campus Dining Evaluation Framework

    Contract food-service management provider Chartwells Higher Education recently announced the launch of BLUEPRINT, according to a news release. The evaluation framework was designed to provide a data-driven and customizable roadmap towards optimizing campus dining services and, by extension, the student experience.

  • Architectural Power for the Modern Campus Landscape

    For generations, an outdoor classroom only required a textbook and a patch of grass. Today, not only has the laptop replaced the printed pages, the rise of agile learning has turned campuses into study halls with students listening to lectures and researching topics from quads, gardens, and plazas. The challenge for architects and facility managers is to provide connectivity without cluttering the landscape with visual eyesores or creating safety hazards with extension cords.

  • Photo credit - Chuck Coates

    Florida District Modernizes Central Energy Plants at Two High Schools

    Flagler Schools, a public school district in Flagler County, Fla., recently partnered with Matern Professional Engineering to modernize the central energy plants at two of its high schools, according to a news release. The project is part of a larger, district-wide effort to reduce energy costs and operational expenses.