Western University, Ronald D. Schmeichel Building for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
The new Ronald D. Schmeichel Building for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (SEIB) offers flexibility for sharing ideas to invent, make, and grow in addition to hosting maker spaces, multi-purpose offices, co-working spaces, and food services. An articulated building mass with multiple entrances gathers students together around a verdant plaza and indoor meeting space. Two discrete wings converge at a central two-story lobby providing multi-purpose space for students indoors and outdoors concurrently.
A rigorous vertical rhythm in the façade is disrupted and highlights gathering spaces in the plan, acting as a metaphor for the culture of innovation at Western University. Advanced sustainability combines Living Design principles with a Net-Zero vision for a holistic approach. A high-performance envelope, renewable energy, and efficient M&E and geothermal systems create a durable, regenerative, and healthy design. In turn, the SEIB ‘s first Life Cycle Assessment for LEED Gold shows a 20% embodied carbon reduction.
The building flexibly accommodates a unique dual-purpose program: an “innovation agora” and a central event and conferencing hub.
SEIB is targeting Net Zero Carbon and LEED Gold. Strategies include load reduction through a high-performance envelope, electrification of all heating and cooling and renewable energy through rooftop PVs, and an extensive geothermal field in the fore court and laneway. Naturalized, drought resistant landscaping and a storm water bio swale inform the design of the forecourt which echoes the riparian landscape of the nearby Thames River.
Alan Shepard, president, Western University
The building contains two discreet uses with distinct identities and user profiles: The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Centre and a campus wide event and conferencing center. A plan with two discrete wings converging at a central two-story lobby allows each use to have a discrete entry and architectural aspect to the campus public realm while supporting program synergies and a uniform architectural language. The “boomerang” shaped plan frames a naturalized forecourt, sheltering it from prevailing winds and the busy campus arterial.
Western University is known for its collection of collegiate gothic buildings from the 1930s and 40s. Although the campus has many later additions including significant brutalist elements, the campus architect and planning department encouraged architects to address and interpret the collegiate gothic context. The façade composition for SEIB begins with an abstraction and replication of the beveled, cut stone window surrounds of the adjacent law faculty building. The resulting vertical stone louvres provide a sun shading strategy for the west facing principal façade. A rigorous vertical rhythm is then disrupted through the subtraction of frame elements, creating a syncopation that both highlights gathering spaces in the plan and acts as a metaphor for the culture of innovation at Western.
The SEIB draws multiple threads of pedestrian movement together to create campus wide convergence around a new culture of entrepreneurship and innovation. An articulated building mass with multiple entrances gathers students together around a verdant plaza and indoor meeting space at a prominent infill site along Western Road.
Andrew Frontini, principal and design director
Project Team
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