With the anticipated completion of new campus structures such as the Student Activities Center and the Neuroscience Building, architecture may be next on the list.
The School of Architecture has begun a fundraising campaign with the hopes of erecting a new Design Build Studio.
Lamar Noriega, director of development for the school, believes the new studio will provide an open space for students to gain hands-on experience and learn how to collaborate.
“Creativity seems higher when architecture students are able to design in an open space together,” she said. “The new building will ideally house two studios with 60 students per studio.”
The project is currently planned to cost between $6 million and $7 million.
“We hope to raise at least $3 million,” Noriega said.
The plans for the design studio are in the hands of Bernardo Fort-Brescia at Arquitectonica, the firm also responsible for the SAC.
The tentatively planned location for the new Design Build studio is adjacent to the Perez Architecture Center on Dickinson Drive, where student apartments once stood.
Although the Design Studio is the currently the main focus of the campaign, a new library might also be in the school’s future, housing all of UM’s architecture collections. They are currently housed between the Richter Library and the Paul Buisson Architecture Library.
With the current architecture library being limited in both resources and space, the idea of a new building is exciting to current students.
Graduate student Carlo Zepeda rarely uses the current library opting instead to study at home or in Richter.
“A new library should make students feel like they belong, like they really are architecture students,” he said.
For more information on contributing to the School of Architecture, contact Lamar Noriega at 305-284-1563 or lnoriega@miami.edu.