Page 47 - spaces4learning, Fall 2021

was part of the planning that began in 2016. He admires the sensitivity the architects showed by having the finished prod- uct wrap around the south-facing ridgeline with a multistory glass wall, yielding “a great south orientation toward the river and downtown, as well as north toward campus.”
A curved building was a first for Petterson.
“I’d never done one,” she said. “It’s difficult. You can visu- alize it, but it’s harder to get design and content in a way that makes sense to a contractor. It involves rectilinear ceiling tiles, for instance, and rectilinear cabinets, which are usually square. All of those things had to be thought about in a different way.”
Walking inside, the gentle curve of the floor plan means the end of the building is a little beyond what a visitor can see – perhaps mirroring the creative process students are invited to engage in.
While the building is large, McCandless sees it as made
up of “smaller, human-size pieces,” important for a communi- ty-minded school with slightly more than 5,000 undergraduates.
“It doesn’t overwhelm you,” he said—and, like Petterson, points to how the Bollier Center connects with the other three STEM-centered buildings. While there are enclosed glass sky- walks, “there’s also this interesting pedestrian street between them, kind of an enclosure like a European street, that fosters integration. It fosters see and be seen, advertises that STEM programs are alive and well.”
Dean Hoo echoed the connectivity angle.
“The Bollier Center connects and continues each floor of
the PACCAR (Applied Science and Engineering) building,
so they almost look like the same space,” she said. “Each building follows a separate curve of the little road that winds on the south end of the original campus space, but from above, the two buildings look like curved rotor blades connected
to a hub. These curves give the two buildings a distinctive, contemporary feel, while the blend of brick and glass lends to the gravitas of Gonzaga's legacy.” The university will mark its 135th year in 2022.
There’s also a new skywalk from Bollier to Hughes Hall (Biology, Chemistry, Inland Northwest Natural Research and Resource Center).
The Computer Science Department, whose offices have been sprinkled throughout the upper levels of the connected Herak Center (Engineering, Math and Physics), will be housed
entirely in Bollier. They will fill the lower level, the south side, where it connects with PACCAR.
“I fondly refer to their space as the ‘Computer Science Cor- ridor,’” Dean Hoo said. “Technicians are currently setting up this wing to handle the enormous bandwidth and computing power that our computer science program needs.”
Both Petterson and McCandless also point to the entrance from the south, to the lower portion of Bollier. Because it is cut into the hillside, it has three stories on the south and two on the north, the campus side.
“We really thought about that connection from the south, having two front doors, one on Cataldo Way and one on the lower space,” Petterson said. “How do you crease a sense of two front doors that pull people through from both upper campus and lower campus?”
“That provides access to Lake Arthur,” connected to the Spokane River, McCandless said. “There’s increasing interest in limnology, the study of inland aquatic ecosystems, with faculty incorporating it into coursework.”
Another feature highlighted by Dean Hoo is the Structures Lab, a two-story space that will be the largest structural and material testing site for a 75-mile radius.
“Our goal is to expand the construction and structural in- dustry's understanding of recycled and natural materials,” Hoo said. “In creating and testing eco-friendly materials, students and partnering organizations will be able to experiment with a wide variety of materials, including glass and cross-laminated timber.”
The pandemic hit just after construction on Bollier began, causing sporadic delays.
“We were really finished with design pre-pandemic,” said Petterson, who had high praise for SRG’s project partner in Spokane, Integrus Architecture. “We got a good start in the ground, drilled piles, laid foundations, then the pandemic hit.”
But now, Bollier is set for a grand opening and public ded- ication in the spring, when students and faculty will begin to put the potential, the promise, the purpose to work.
Tom Miller taught journalism at Gonzaga University for 31 years. He worked part time on the copy desk of the local daily, The Spokesman-Review, during that time to enhance his teaching.
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