Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Railing Enhances Openness of Student Center

  • 07/01/18
Trex Commercial Products

Trex Commercial Products’ Track Rail helped create overlooks that enhanced the open-concept plan of the new Jim and Martie Bultman Center’s lobby at Hope College.

Hope College in Holland, MI, is a private liberal-arts college known for providing research-based education to a diverse body of students. In 2017, the college was in the midst of planning its first new student center in over 35 years. This new facility—The 42,000-square-foot Jim and Martie Bultman Center—would be designed to have a large multipurpose room, a lounge, student study areas, and a coffee shop.

In designing the Bultman Student Center, architects placed an emphasis on “openness.” The college wanted a building that made students feel welcome, and promoted inclusion amongst all members of the campus community. With this in mind, the plan and design of the new space focused on a building layout that promoted lightness and a freedom of movement among the various floors and rooms. A visual connection between spaces was important.

As the design process progressed, architects realized they would need a sturdy railing to accompany the open-concept lobby of the facility. After researching various options, they recommended, and Hope chose, Trex Commercial Products’ (TCP) Track Rail. The minimalist rail would help create safe overlook areas so students could see into the lobby of the center from different floors, creating an overall feeling of connectedness and inclusiveness. The railing would be coupled with tempered glass and attached to the wall.

Over 341 linear feet of Track Rail were used in the new facility. The new rails fit in perfectly with the warm architectural accents of the building. These warm accents and open areas help make the new facility stand out as a central part of the campus community that all students, faculty, and staff can be a part of. With a quick installation time, TCP’s Track Rails were in place and ready when the Bultman Student Center opened at the start of the 2017-2018 academic year.

www.trex.com

This article originally appeared in the College Planning & Management July/August 2018 issue of Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Building Beyond Simulation: Creating Immersive Ecosystems for Healthcare Education

    Health sciences education is one of the fastest-growing facility types in colleges and universities. The demand for medical, nursing, and allied health professionals is driving the creation and renovation of medical simulation training facilities that provide students with real-world experience through advanced simulation-based learning.

  • Tennessee Middle School Completes Health, Life Safety Renovations

    The Giles County Board of Education in Pulaski, Tenn., recently announced that a series of renovation projects has been completed at Bridgeforth Middle School, according to a news release. The district partnered with Wold Architects & Engineers and Brindley Construction to modernize building systems at one of the district’s oldest schools.

  • Amazon Expands Lockers to More Than 500 College, University Campuses

    Amazon recently announced that its Locker Network now totals more than 750 locations at more than 500 college and university campuses around the United States, according to a company news release.

  • University of Pennsylvania Releases Design of Future Physical Sciences Building

    The University of Pennsylvania (Penn) in Philadelphia, Penn., recently released renderings of an upcoming 350,000-square-foot Physical Sciences Building, according to news release. The facility was designed by CO Architects and will unite the university’s departments of Physics and Astronomy, Mathematics, and Earth and Environmental Science.