Page 19 - spaces4learning, Spring 2021

minimal impact on completing the building on time. Some of the factories that provide furniture and fixtures were unable to produce because they shut down, and social distancing require- ments meant that fewer workers were allowed on site. In the end, these hiccups delayed the building’s opening by only two weeks—“which I thought was an amazing job by our construc- tion group,” Braun said.
Following a dedication ceremony that was livestreamed on YouTube on Sept. 11, 2020, students, faculty and staff have settled into the building as much as social distancing will allow. Classrooms, collaboration spaces, and conference rooms all have COVID capacities; for example, classrooms built to hold 60 students currently hold only 20-22. Plexiglass panels for faculty have been installed. The technology built into classrooms allows hybrid classes—
where part of the class is there in person
and the rest are participating remote-
ly—to run smoothly.
Connell said that the building’s variety of workspaces and open design made it easy to adjust the building’s use to cam- pus COVID regulations. “There’s a lot of enclosed spaces, open spaces, nooks, crannies, back sides, front sides, light, dark,” he said. “That variety and those choices that the students have re- ally let them find a space that they’re comfortable in... Because there was so much choice, people could find spaces that they’re comfortable in here. People come and they linger with other business students, or not, because they’re comfortable here.”
When Old and New Collide
One more crucial feature of the Maurer Center is that, even though it’s a brand-new building, it’s not a freestanding struc- ture. It was built as a 50,000-square-foot addition to Hanna
That said, Dean Braun noted that
the building is almost always full to its
COVID-reduced capacities. The shiny
new facility draws students from all over
campus, not just the business school,
to come see what all the fuss is about.
Bryan Schabel, design principal with
Perkins&Will, described visiting the
building during its first few weeks of op-
eration. “I went right when they opened
it up for students, it was the first couple
was interesting because people were sort of just like, ‘What’s the new thing? What is this place?’”
He laughed. “And it was interesting to see people engaged because really, the students weren’t using it day-to-day yet, but you could see a lot of visitors going into it. Particularly, there’s a great—there’s a terrace on the north end that has a great view of the new quad and the traditions quad. And it was interesting to see non-school-of-business students finding it and utilizing that.”
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY AND FLEXIBLE LEARNING SPACES REPRESENT
A SHIFT IN PEDAGOGY.
Hall, one of the old, traditional, original buildings on campus. One of the interior walls of the atrium is the former exte- rior of Hanna Hall, a deliberate design choice meant to celebrate the university’s past and to merge its past and its future. Hanna also serves as the business school’s administrative center, containing faculty and administration offices—as well as the dean’s suite.
“We really wanted to create a heart,” said Schabel. “And early on, we decided we wanted something that was not only open for the collaboration to happen within the
building...but also invite people into the building and then in- crease the collaboration beyond just the School of Business. And that was important to them...how to make the balance between the old and the new.”
The new building’s construction also included a near-top- to-bottom renovation of Hanna Hall, originally completed in 1921. “We pretty much took it down to the slabs on every wall we could take out,” Schabel said. “In fact, we took out a wall that we probably shouldn’t have, but we did that on purpose.”
weeks of class, which
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