Pulaski Technical College Fine and Performing Arts and Humanities Center
Pulaski Technical College challenged our team with undertaking the single largest project on campus. The university wanted a space for their drama students, taking them out of an old engine repair building and into a place they could thrive and reach their full potential.
Our team focused on creating a welcoming and comfortable academic facility offering unique choices for students, faculty, administration, and the community. It offers a variety of spaces for student gatherings, while providing a flexible and multi-use, 500-seat performance theater. The building will also provide state-of-the-art academic space for the College of Humanities.
The design takes its exterior direction from the existing contemporary architectural vernacular found on campus of brick, metal, and glass. Enhanced by the creation of an open, green courtyard, we accomplished the design goal of an aesthetically appealing building offering exciting inside and outside spaces.
Dr. Margaret Ellibee, College President
The sustainable design offers innovative strategies of an abundance of natural daylighting, energy efficient engineering systems, and water conservation.
The building layout provides a future growth opportunity for an academic wing to the south, framing the courtyard.
We needed to figure out the most cost-efficient way of building on a site with a sloping hill and shallow rock. We decided to reorient the building so that the large theater would slope with the direction of the ground’s natural decline. This lessened the site excavation needed to create the theatre’s slope, reduced the need to blast rock, and it created convenient ground-level access.
