Category: Educational & Research Facilities

The Agriculture and Natural Resources Building is mission-critical to the Institute of Agriculture’s key functions: it supports discovery research across multiple departments. It houses offices for Extension specialists and outreach conducted by the Smith Center for International Sustainable Agriculture, and the building provides state-of-the-art facilities for teaching and learning. The 10,000-sf green roof, with Tennessee native plant colonies modeling four distinct ecological horticultures, provides outdoor learning spaces and research plots while managing stormwater within its soil matrix. Informal learning spaces distributed on all floors adjacent to classrooms, class laboratories, and research laboratories enhance interdisciplinary, peer-to-peer learning.

The rapidly growing Town of Braselton had outgrown its 7,420 sf public library. The library is situated one block from the primary intersection in the heart of the small historic downtown. The crossroads include the historic farmhouse of the town founder, John Oliver Braselton. The design of the existing one-story library is said to have been inspired by the historic home and its Colonial Revival style. Surrounding the historic farmhouse and neighboring the library site are numerous agricultural outbuildings.

The Braselton Library children’s wing and community room addition is a modern, gabled, two-story “outbuilding” that serves as a foil to the residential-inspired existing library. Responsive to the addition’s program, the simplistic pentagonal form is also reminiscent of a child’s interpretation of building form.

Biophilic design principles are employed through the integration of natural light, bold, nature-inspired color, and visual and physical connections to the outdoors. Vaulted two-story spaces allow natural light to spill deep into the library interior, while high-efficiency, low-iron-coated glass and shading devices on the south- and east-facing facades control it. The west wall of the building is swung open, revealing the contents inside through a north-facing curtain wall opening onto the new children’s garden and story walk. Storytime tiered seating extends from the building interior into the garden and is integrated into the staircase to the second-level community meeting room.

The new wing provides spaces that inspire education, exploration, and community activity through cohesive strategies that interconnect the building’s exterior design with its interior spaces.

John Lewis Student Center at Georgia Tech redefines the role of a student center by transforming a once-introverted building into the true experiential heart of campus. What were previously underperforming facilities are now an ensemble of four interconnected buildings sited along an energized pedestrian thoroughfare. Generous porches, shaded patios, and new landscaping dissolve the boundary between architecture and landscape, creating a seamless network of spaces that invite both movement and pause.

The design balances scale and intimacy. The new Exhibition Hall provides a premier venue for major events, offering a flexible ballroom, eleven meeting rooms, and expansive pre-function areas indoors and out. Adjacent pavilions introduce everyday amenities, including a café and a hands-on maker space—home to Paper & Clay, the university’s pottery and crafting program. The second phase transformed the original student center with a three-story addition, introducing theaters, dining and retail venues, student organization spaces, lounges, and a gaming area. These varied offerings are unified through intuitive wayfinding and interiors now suffused with natural light.

Equity and inclusivity are central to the project. Reflection rooms, multicultural lounges, and graduate student areas ensure that all voices are represented, while universal accessibility and adaptable layouts anticipate evolving needs over time. Environmental graphics pay homage to campus traditions and icons of the era.

Architecturally, the project emphasizes transparency, place, and resilience. Locally sourced and reused materials, along with new and efficient systems, balance durability with environmental stewardship. By day, light animates its interiors; by night, the occupancy sensors enable the buildings to glow outward as a beacon of welcome.

More than a collection of programs, this is a cultural catalyst—an enduring framework for community, legacy, and discovery.