Project Completed: 2023
Location: Stillwater, Oklahoma
Project Type: Education & Government
THE TRANSFORMATION OF AN OSU LANDMARK
The historic “Engineering South” Oklahoma State’s historic Engineering South has met its future with energized interiors and an auditorium addition. The goal was honoring the building’s distinguished past and launching it well into the future.
Today, it speaks to current and future students, faculty and staff as one of the finest schools of engineering and architecture anywhere.
THEN: 1940s
NOW: 2023
CEAT alumnus Rand Elliott, FAIA and his firm, Rand Elliott Architects, renovated the 1938 building’s interior and built a two-story Auditorium. Included is a two-story glass connection between the two. The effect says “innovation,” even before entering to encounter the Zink Center.
With a swagger, the new Zink Center for Competitive Innovation greets the world at the CEAT building’s bright, newly energized Lobby.
The historic “bones” of CEAT’s original building are honored with visibility and light, while its modern edge speaks to the future. The orange chair adds a note of ‘Poke pride.
Each of four floors serves a different curriculum; the 2nd Floor is Electrical Engineering, where a fresh intersection of historic inlaid terrazzo and stairway rails meets lighting and glass that feel like the future.
“In pre-renovated Engineering South, there wasn’t much to get excited about. There were a lot of dark hallways and closed doors. Once we opened the doors to the new version ... they’re saying, ‘I want to be here.’”
THEN
NOW
3rd Floor Mechanical/Aerospace Engineering: A modern classroom that uplifts the spirit, an allusion to flight. Compared to the pre-renovated facility, it all but soars.
The 4th floor — exposing the 1938 structural steel framing, which was painted Robberson Steel’s corporate orange. Today it’s a match for OSU and one that underscores the discoveries to be made refurbishing aging buildings. Now a grand studio and event space, it celebrates Engineering and Architecture, with growing room for the future.
A glass passage connects the historic building and the new addition.
The CEAT addition’s dynamic, 300-seat auditorium gains drama from volume, bold forms and natural light.
Built in 1938, OSU’s prodigious CEAT (College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology) had seen only minor renovations across more than eight decades. As enrollment grew, CEAT classrooms were moved into several other campus buildings.
In 2019, CEAT Hall of Famer Rand Elliott (1973 BArch) and Rand Elliott Architects, was hired to breathe new life into the old building and build an addition that connects to – and complements – the original “Engineering South.”
It’s the same team (of largely OSU grads) that built OSU’s much-loved adjacent Spears School of Business, as well as OSU’s Postal Plaza Gallery, classrooms for the College of Veterinary Medicine and the School of Architecture Gallery (McElroy Hall Classroom Addition).
With its prominent campus location on Legacy Walk adjacent to the Spears School of Business, (LINK TO REA Spears) the plan for CEAT was to restore the exterior and renovate the interior structure. The original four-story had become outdated and ill-suited to today’s needs.
Discussion and input from faculty, students, grads and campus leaders produced ideas around imagination, innovation, transformation. Providing collaborative and creative spaces were a priority.
JUXTAPOSING THEN + NOW
Elliott’s resulting concept weaves historic building elements with modern additions that bring natural light deep into interior spaces. Each floor is dedicated to a specific curriculum and greets the world with a high-energy lobby and an invitation to explore ongoing projects in a safe and secure environment.
The linear, light-filled ground-floor Gallery Hall is a favorite feature. Lined with black chairs and one in OSU orange, it often registers a smile. Overhead and throughout are exposed structural elements and reminders of the building’s long history.
The building addition — a 300-seat auditorium — seamlessly ties with the original (materials, height, roofing profile) and adds 12,000 SF. It features a Lobby, eight new classrooms, conference rooms and lecture halls, three studio/lab spaces, a 5,000 SF maker space and collaborative spaces.
It opened in September 2023 with an Inaugural celebration in the new 4th Floor hall. University officials welcomed attendees and Rand Elliott delivered an Inaugural address about the project.
CEAT’S newly expansive presence fits gracefully with the adjacent Rand Elliott-designed School of Business.
Client: OSU’s College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology
Scope:
Services: Architectural Design, Interiors
Completion: 2023
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