The Boole Postgraduate Research Library at University College Cork in Ireland has received a “High Commendation” from the Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) in the Society’s 2010 Library Design Awards, announced earlier this month.

The citation reads, in part, “This… extraordinary environment work[s] well for its audience. The building is linked to its environment and to the rest of the campus through the clever use of materials. The atrium has a wonderful sense of light, making an impressive entrance to the building. There is a strong ...[more]

It’s official! Salem State University (Salem, MA) broke ground for its new library and learning commons on December 7. University president Patricia Maguire Meservey and Jacob Segal, chair of the university’s board of trustees, were joined by local political leaders and top state education officials in a ceremony on the university’s north campus.

The 124,000 square foot facility replaces the previous campus library, which was closed in late 2007 for concerns about its structural safety. The four-story library will include instructional labs, group study rooms, and a testing center, and ...[more]

Shepley Bulfinch is designing a home for Philadelphia University’s new College of Design, Engineering, and Commerce, which has just been announced.

The new academic building will house an ambitious program, defined by the university as a “revolutionary, transdisciplinary curriculum that retains the core learning of each discipline while forging new collaborations between the fields of design, engineering, and business.”

The new 40,000 s.f. building will be located near two other Shepley Bulfinch projects on the Philadelphia University campus: Gutman Library (1993) and Kanbar Campus Center (2006). The firm’s other recent cross-disciplinary learning environments in higher education ...[more]

A symbolic ‘topping off’ ceremony on November 4  marked the installation of the last piece of structural steel for the Anderson Student Center at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The 240,000 square foot project, which is scheduled to open in early 2012, will replace many of the services currently housed in the university’s Murray-Herrick Campus Center.

Shepley Bulfinch and Opus AE Group designed Anderson Student Center, which was completed in association with Opus Design Build. Shepley and Opus have worked together on the St. Thomas ...[more]

2010 PKAL Learning Space Collaboratory National Colloquium. Whew! That’s quite a mouthful. I was fortunate enough to attend, and it was a great weekend of very robust discussion (and some fun!).

Under the guidance of Jeannie Narum, Principal of the Collaboratory, nearly a hundred educators, higher ed administrators, architects, planners, landscape architects, librarians, scientists, and others came together to share their knowledge and questions about “What We Know About Planning Learning Spaces and What We Still Need to Know”.

A combination of presentations, interactive sessions, small group work, the Colloquium modeled the type of ...[more]

The McClay Library at Queen’s University Belfast, in Northern Ireland, has received the 2010 Sustainability Award from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), it was announced today.

The Library, which won the 2010 RICS Northern Ireland award earlier this year, was chosen over category winners from the other RICS geographic regions across the UK for this prestigious national award.

As one of the judges noted in the announcement, “The new Library is proving an invaluable resource for students at Queen’s University, Belfast. The building achieves excellence on two fronts: in terms of providing essential educational support and through ...[more]

Milwaukee, WI – Eckstein Hall, the new home of Marquette University Law School, was dedicated in a September 8 ceremony. US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia gave the keynote address to 1,500 assembled guests, including all seven members of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Other speakers included Wisconsin Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and Marquette President Fr. Robert Wild. In his remarks, Fr. Wild said, “The architecture is splendid; the facilities rise above even our most hopeful expectations, and most important, the many wonderful features of this building will ...[more]