Parker University
In 2019, a tornado tore through half the buildings on campus at Parker University, Texas’s most renowned school of chiropractic health. University leadership turned the devastation into an opportunity to expedite plans for modernization and sought out our firm to reimagine the campus.
Our work was multifaceted, including major site redevelopment, the creation of new, cutting-edge classrooms and labs, and the transformation of a storage warehouse into ParkerFIT, a state-of-the-art performance facility. The new master plan emphasizes well-being with a redesigned landscape that includes a campus mall and wellness trail.
Anchoring the new plan is the Parker South Building, a key administration building reimagined as a central student hub. The project created a new front door to campus, offering all a bright, modern welcome.
The South Building is a new vision of modern architecture for Parker University. Daylight reaches all spaces and the central library is visible from outside, appearing to float within the bright, two-story atrium. We organized our design around the concept of blurring lines between interior and exterior, connecting the learning environment to the beautiful and mature landscaped campus—and in turn, students to nature and to each other.
Parker South is an innovative, customizable learning environment. The new building houses a wide variety of state-of-the-art resources for students and faculty: active learning classrooms and hybrid classrooms for online and in-person study, AR/VR simulation suites, recording studios, high-tech health science research labs, and open collaboration spaces, to name a few. The facility bustles with activity, also hosting student dining and event space, plus administrative offices.
Our team converted an existing warehouse into a state-of-the-art fitness center that helps attract and retain top-tier students. With amenities like a Health and Human Performance Lab just off the main fitness floor, indoor sprinting lanes, Olympic lifting stations, a large yoga studio, and areas for hosting competitions, ParkerFIT reflects the university’s commitment to health and positive change.
We studied Olympic and top-of-the-line CrossFit facilities to craft a design that evokes feelings of teamwork, community, and energy. Working with principles of contrast and scale, focusing on fluidity of motion through color and tone, we created an immersive, upbeat space that inspires activity.
Nurturing university pride and embodying the future of health science education and research, the South Building is an epicenter of belonging for the Parker student body.
