Midwestern State University unveils 23,000-SF McCoy School of Engineering facility in Wichita Falls, Texas
SHW Group served as the project’s architect, redesigning the interior, exterior and adding a new sustainable landscape design to an original MWSU building
WICHITA FALLS, Texa
s, July 16, 2009 - Midwestern State University’s (MWSU) McCoy School of Engineering at Fowler Hall in Wichita Falls, Texas – a renovated $6.2 million, 23,000-square-foot multipurpose academic building – has been completed and is an adaptive reuse of one of MWSU’s original buildings. Designed by Dallas-based SHW Group, one of the world’s largest educational architecture and design firms, the new McCoy School of Engineering building includes a complete renovation of the interior and exterior, in addition to a new landscape design.
The interior renovation incorporated advancing the engineering facilities, including three high bay laboratories for robotics, invention and senior design. Other renovated laboratories include physics, fluid mechanics and heat transfer, machine dynamics, measurement and instrumentation, fluid power and materials science. In addition, state-of-the-art classrooms, department and faculty offices, and collaboration areas were created. Additionally, new “study pods” — which overhang into the labs — provide a fully interactive and collaborative work environment for the students and staff. The surfaces of the pods become moving walls of information as projection and writing surfaces alter the façades throughout time.
The renovation also included a translucent glass box that cuts through the exterior of the building creating a vessel of light and a bold expression of function and spirit. The lantern’s modern detailing provides a sharp contrast to the traditional expression of the original building. The box creates a glowing top-lite volume which showcases three major labs and a design studio in the center of the building causing the building’s center to be filled with light.
“The design concept for the engineering building was constructed around the idea of a ‘light box,’ so the architecture represents a beacon at night,” said Eric Miller, project designer for SHW Group. “Both the exterior and interior designs of the building are also representative of the engineering program itself – ‘a living learning lab’ – since the school’s engineering program analyzes stress materials. The terra cotta blocks, masonry unit, natural light, etc., express the raw nature of material relative to the engineering program.”
The exterior renovation responded to the provision of high bay spaces, as well as to ensure the integrity of the original Fowler Hall. For example, the new landscape plan was driven by the existing pattern of student movements throughout campus and the development of student gathering spaces as an extension of the interior learning environment. The use of indigenous plant species, custom fabricated seating and new walking surfaces were also employed to introduce a new language of landscape onto the campus, thus reinvigorating the importance of landscape fabric to the university.
“The architectural expression inside and out will highlight the work of the students in the laboratories, especially their designs and creations,” said Jeff Sharpe, principal of SHW Group’s higher ed studio. “For instance, we decided to leave the construction markings on the materials to convey the process of design through assembly. With these unique touches, the building echoes the university’s commitment to the engineering program while allowing the students’ programmatic requirements and needs to be met in an inexpensive manner.”
In addition to SHW Group as the lead architect, Jose I. Guerra Associates served as the civil, structural and MEP engineer, while Imperial Construction, Ltd. served as the project’s general contractor. For more information, please visit www.shwgroup.com or www.mwsu.edu.
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Media Contact: Claire Bloxom
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