Collin College’s Next-Generation Campus

by Mark Robins | June 1, 2022 12:00 am

To accomplish this, Collin College built its Technical Center (CCTC) campus. Working in close collaboration with the school, Perkins&Will[1], Dallas, designed a multipurpose facility that houses classrooms, science labs, early college and high school programs, student services, learning commons, dining, collaboration zones, a conference center, and a wide array of trades and technical spaces. The result is a future-ready campus. “The design concept sought to develop a building that would operate as an educational village in service to an environment that fosters cross-disciplinary collaboration,” says Andrew Metter, FAIA, design principal at Perkins&Will.

The new state-of-the-art, four-building campus takes up a total of 340,000 square feet. The new facility is expected to serve up to 7,000 students and will be a model for trades and technical career instruction in the automotive, construction, health care, information technology and manufacturing fields. Upon completion, students will be licensed and accredited in their areas of study. “We just didn’t build it for today; we built it for tomorrow,” says Neil Matkin, Collin College’s district president.

TECHNICAL CAMPUS

Because the center’s purpose was to cultivate the next generation of skilled craftsmen, its design showed that this was a technical campus with an exposed structure throughout to be used as a learning tool for students.

“Emphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary exploration among students, the campus buildings are focused around a central spine,” Metter says. “Operating as a verdant conduit, the spine extrudes the existing northern forested area, down through the complex, emerging on the south end as an entry marker. This becomes the major artery of the campus.” The campus has both classroom and lab space with buildings known as trade bars perpendicular to the spine dedicated to major career concentration areas. With a modern aesthetic that complements many traditional four-year university campuses, the three trade bars connect to the academic center through walkways and glass-covered bridges. St. Louis-based McCarthy Building Cos. Inc.[2], was the campus’ general contractor.

“There was also the desire to give the campus a true college environment, which resulted in an underground parking garage, sidewalk connections to the mixed-used developments in the area, a complete academic center, and cantilevers on both ends of the building that provide a shaded place for students to study or relax,” says Vince Neault, business development manager, KSC Inc.[3], Dallas, the facility’s metal installer. “The overall design of the campus implements a low-site impact methodology where the design of the buildings fit around the contours of the existing 32-acre site and seamlessly integrates the college into the forested greenbelt area surrounding it.”

“The low-impact site development design sought to specifically address the surrounding context by employing a strategy of balanced cut-and-fill,” adds Tyler Murph, AIA, senior project designer at Perkins&Will. “Pursuing this strategy enabled the team to submerge the required parking structure and develop green berms, reducing its impact on the surrounding neighborhood. The campus plan and placement of the buildings maintained and enhanced the existing tree line and waterway at the north end of the site, utilizing the waterway as stormwater run-off management rather than connecting buildings to a storm sewer.”

For the well-being of its students, each building allows daylight to permeate the interior via floor-to-ceiling windows (from Auburn Hills, Mich.-based Guardian Glass[4]), with additional diffused daylighting techniques throughout. Also, “The design strategy wove together seemingly disparate educational goals—trades and academics—by creating an interconnected circulation system, linked through a series of pedestrian and landscape paths and courtyard,” Murph says. The courtyards support the social life of the college and create opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration.

“Careful balance of high-transparency glazing, ceramic-fritted glazing and self-shading building orientation reduces overall solar heat load on the building, reducing the required output for the mechanical systems,” Metter says. “Minimizing the use of interior finish materials wherever possible by leaving structure and systems exposed to express the tectonic of the project reduces cost and reduces total embodied energy of the project.”

REFLECT THE MODERN DAY

Neault says the center’s metal architecture supports the need for infrastructure buildings that reflect the modern day. Each building’s exterior, including the bookending cantilevers on either side, are all clad in CARAT Onyx fiber cement panels from Niederurnen, Switzerland-based Swisspearl[5]. Using over 15,000 square feet of 4-mm-thick, aluminum composite material (ACM) panels (from Chesapeake, Va.-based ALPOLIC Materials–Mitsubishi Chemical America) with a fire-resistant core, more than 3,400 panels were constructed and mounted onto the KSC 2100 series rainscreen system.

Renee Mullins, manager of marketing communications at ALPOLIC[6], says the ALPOLIC panels, “are versatile architectural materials, able to accommodate bold designs like the Collin College Tech Campus. This modern, sustainable material is lightweight, rigid and easy to fabricate, making it ideal for college campuses that want to inspire innovation.” Murph adds, “The architectural character of the ACM panels, communicated the notion of technology and precision, further reinforcing the educational mission of Collin College.”

KSC fabricated and installed the panels using its KSC 2100 ventilated rainscreen mounting system. Neault explains, “Their clean aesthetic, versatility and durability for this unique project and the ability provide a superior aesthetic with no exposed fasteners necessary for the desired appeal and performance for an institutional structure. KSC was an integral partner in creating what is considered to be one of the most striking campuses in the area. The overall design resulted in a stunning futuristic building with a modernistic façade system that will endure the test of time.”

Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/articles/collin-college-next-generation-campus/

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