,Create a place where students don’t want to leave Clemson University
A focus on the future and collaboration at the personal, organizational and global levels is at the heart of every business school.
So Clemson University decided that Wilbur College, or Ann Powers School of Business,
would reflect a new model of learning that includes pioneering spaces for the evolving future.
The site faces the historic Bowman Field, an anchor for the campus and the venue for the university’s first sporting event in 1896,
the prerequisite for this site being to be a good host.
Design Features
The new school will be the first academic building in the area in more than a century,
and needs to mark the entry point for a new campus while strengthening the “city and dress” connection between the university and the city.
This unique opportunity will create a new opportunity for business programs,
and the program needs to accommodate diverse learning styles while respecting the past and the future.
Create a place where students don’t want to leave Clemson University
Dean’s overarching goal will be the project’s thesis: to build a place student will not want to leave.
Design shape
The 40-foot hill between Bowman Field and the student residences above,
has become the site’s most significant and important challenge.
The project also took advantage of this dramatic terrain,
creating a hill climb resembling the Spanish Steps.
The form of the building, consisting of a larger volume to align the hill, is connected by a linear rod,
Outer stair defining the terraces and courtyards.
The physical significance of the project takes its cues from the hill,
and the ground concrete elements and earth tones form a figurative retaining wall on the ground.
It then moves on to light and delicate materials that melt toward the sky as the building rises.
The vertical slats in the lobby, the greater focus towards the sky, create a huge interior buzz running parallel to the hill.
The building also maps contextual relationships, as student residence data shares the look and details of the new business school.
Projects lead students professionally from the lower courtyard through the tiered informal gathering spaces and finally to the park at the top.
Create a place where students don’t want to leave Clemson University
The courtyard is the hub for communicating, visual, auditory, spatial and architectural within the building,
accommodating a variety of programs with gathering areas, flexible furniture and landing spaces.
Since its inception, the project has also significantly raised the profile of the college,
with the MBA program now named one of the 30 best programs in the Princeton Review.
The latest donation of $60 million was the largest in the university’s history.
This donation will be used to support grants and programs for colleges,
and the project will create a new anchor for a thriving center of activity for the campus.
The facility also doubled the college’s presence and reinforced existing programs in five separate buildings.
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