Rochester Institute of Technology
The Student Hall for Exploration and Development
Project
The Student Hall for Exploration and Development
Client
Rochester Institute of Technology
Location
Rochester, NY
Completion
2023
Size
260,000 GSF
Category
Campus Innovations, The Arts, Renovations + Additions
Partner Firm
MRB Group (AOR)
The Student Hall for Exploration and Development (The SHED), together with the renovated Wallace Library, creates a unique learning ecosystem – a creative hub with a focus on hands-on learning. Located along the “quarter mile” at the center of RIT's campus, the SHED and Wallace Library create an active destination for students and faculty from all disciplines at an important campus gateway and crossroads. The SHED spotlights RIT students’ creative collaboration, revealing maker and project team spaces on three floors, dance studios, rehearsal rooms, a glass-box theater, and numerous spaces for informal group study.
"A SUPERCOLLIDER OF IDEAS"
The SHED is conceptually a building constructed around a central hub of activity. The "hole" created at the center of the complex connects the parts of the hub that foster creativity, teamwork, and transparency.
On the ground floor a large interior maker space spills out into a collective work zone that is visible from every angle of the surrounding building.
Two bridges connect the second story that encircles the "hole" from above, creating a connection from the music spaces on the east to the technology and engineering spaces on the west. Beneath the bridges a major thoroughfare runs from southernmost edge of the campus to the heart of the university just north of the SHED.
PROJECT AXONS
LEVEL 01: Fabrication shop, engineering team studio, and music practice rooms
LEVEL 02: Glass maker theater, dance studio, 3D print studio, Maker Showcase, and new library entry
LEVEL 03: Music studio, large active classroom, print and textile studios
LEVEL 04: Large active classrooms
LEVEL 05: Large active classrooms
The SHED in Use
The SHED celebrates its Open House
An aerial performance is put on in the SHED's glass box maker theater
The 3D Print Studio opens its garage doors to students
Students work in one of the SHED's five large active classrooms
Dance students prepare for their lesson in the dance studio
Students complete lab work together in one of the SHED's five active classrooms
Wallace Library Renovation
Seamlessly connected to the maker activity of the SHED on each floor, the renovated Wallace Library reimagines the academic library as a place for engaged learning, content creation, and interdisciplinary collaboration. With the repositioning of the Circulation Desk (and its associated back of house spaces), the ground level opens up to an “interior street” connecting library front door to café, tech center, Knowledge Market, the center of the SHED, and across the bridge to Monroe Hall (Student Union).
Special library resources (Archives and Cary Collection) are repositioned to be visible and accessible from the SHED, with the library’s historic printing presses becoming its own maker space expanding the SHED’s range of maker resources.
Consultants
Structural Engineer | LeMessurier Consultants, Inc.
Mechanical / Electrical Engineer | M/E Engineering
Civil Engineer | BME Associates
Landscape Architect | Bayer Landscape Architecture
Lighting Consultant | Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Design
Theater Consultant | Theatre Projects Consultants, Inc.
AV Consultant | Theatre Projects Consultants, Inc.
Acoustical Engineer | Threshold Acoustics
Cost Estimator | Trophy Point
Photographer | Robert Benson