Page 12 - spaces4learning, January/February 2020

spaces4learning HIGHER ED FEATURE
CONSTRUCTING COMMUNITY
The largest mass timber building in America, Adohi Hall at the University of Arkansas, exemplifies a new generation of wood-framed and light-filled residence halls designed to foster connections.
By Brian Libby
TODAY, COLLEGE STUDENTS EXPECT MORE THAN THE UTILITARIAN CONCRETE- block dorms of yesteryear. While technology may allow them to learn and study anywhere, communal spaces that provide a variety of inviting places to study, hang out and make friends are essential — all the better if they are crafted from natural materials for an ecologically conscious generation — such as the Uni- versity of Arkansas’s new residential facility, Adohi Hall. “This is the way we think about residence halls
today,” says Andrea Leers,
a principal at Boston’s Leers Weinzapfel Associates, which co-designed the project with Fayetteville’s Mo- dus Studio and St. Louis firm Mackey Mitchell. “Today they’re becoming their own complete communities.”
Mass Timber, Mass Appeal
The $79-million project also represents what is perhaps the building industry’s biggest nationwide trend: the proliferation of mass timber buildings as a more sustainable and desirable alternative to steel and concrete structures. Though Adohi Hall is a large, 202,000-square-foot, five-story residence hall hous- ing more than 700 students, its timber framing and interior cladding make the building inherently green. Currently the nation’s largest CLT (cross-laminated timber) structure, the project also represents an oppor- tunity to connect with and potentially revive its largely forest-covered state’s timber industry. “The university
12 JAN/FEB 2020