From Old School to New School

UNLV Expands its Student Services Center

By Tony Illia

Featuring an award-winning design, the project will add much-needed space to the existing three-story Student Services building.

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas has grown its Student Services Center with a $10 million, two-building addition set to open later this month. It will consolidate admissions, enrollment, recruitment and the registrar’s office into a state-of-the-art complex.

The interior features 60-ft-long skylights stretching over the registration counters for maximum daylighting. (Photo by Tony Illia)

Richardson Construction of Las Vegas is the general contractor on a $6.5 million contract to expand the size of the existing three-story, 14-year-old Donald R. Reynolds Student Services Center by 34.7%.

The 51-year-old university’s 337-acre, 73-building main campus is located along Maryland Parkway between Flamingo Road and Tropicana Avenue. UNLV’s 28,000 students must often trek long distances to get where they are headed under a sweltering Las Vegas sun.

But the dual-building expansion will bring all the folks that have a similar function together under one roof, says David Tonelli, UNLV’s public affairs director. “Those groups have been in different parts of the campus. It makes sense to have people with a similar focus all together in one location so they can collaborate better.”

The building’s design, by Las Vegas-based assemblageSTUDIO, calls for two parallel buildings totaling 15,960 sq ft on three acres located directly east of the Cox Pavilion between the Student Recreation Center and the Carol C. Harter Classroom complex. Its design won an award from American Institute of Architects, Las Vegas chapter, before being completed.

The twin structures are tied together by a shaded outdoor plaza. The concrete courtyard, unlike its neighbors, faces the parking lot and will become a distinctive entryway for the southwest edge of campus.

“We wanted to make it a gateway. It’s the first thing students will see,” says Eric Strain, president of assemblageSTUDIO. “We wanted a strong icon that students coming to campus can identify. They didn’t know where to go before.”

The plaza has a 20-ft-tall, 4,099-sq-ft canopy with a perforated sheet metal roof and 10-in-deep I-beams that support three, 12-ft-diameter ceiling fans. The structure is held in place by tubular steel columns and 6-in.-diameter chevron struts that are painted red. (UNLV Running Rebel colors are red and gray).

The variable-setting fans can move up to 120 cu ft of air per minute, resulting in an up to 30° Fahrenheit ambient temperature drop. The vented canopy enables fans to more efficiently draw and circulate air at an operating cost of 5 cents a day.

advertisement

“The canopied courtyard lets us greatly reduce the building’s mechanical load,” Strain says.

The oasis-like area features concrete planters and benches as well as drought-tolerant landscaping, including mesquite trees, desert willows, ocotillo and bamboo. There is a sunken plaza portion as well. Gradient handicap ramps give the courtyard varied elevations. And it’s wired for sound and lights. The courtyard will serve as a student registration overflow area.

The registration building, meanwhile, located along the canopy’s north edge, has two recessed exterior walls with glass panels that pay tribute to Maude Frazier, a state assemblywoman, who was a driving force behind UNLV’s inception. The school originally began as a University of Nevada, Reno southern satellite. It opened on Sept. 10, 1957, with the first classes being held in a 13,000-sq-ft building later named for Frazier. But the structure, the oldest on campus, is now slated for demolition.

“We thought this was a great way to pay tribute to Maude Frazier’s pioneering spirit and contribution to the university,” says Drew Gregory, assemblageSTUDIO’s project architect.

The glass panels, which each measure 25-ft-by-12-ft, will feature a laser etched portrait of Frazier and the construction of the original Frazier hall. The single-level, 5,960-sq-ft split-face block building has five glass encased administrative offices plus registration counters and 10 self-registration computers.

The footprint measures 50 ft wide by 100 ft long. The interior has a 3-ft-wide, 60-ft-long skylight that stretches over registration counters.

“The skylight allows natural light to filter in, while the trusses create some interesting play with shadows,” Gregory says. “We tried to use as much daylight as possible inside the buildings, but none of it is direct sunlight.”

The project uses a total of 3,075 sq ft of glass. The larger student recruitment and retention building features two narrow, floor-to-ceiling windows that use polyurethane instead of glass to diffuse direct sunlight. The 20-ft clear-height lobby opens into a small conference room with a 10-ft-high, 18-ft-wide operable wall that can swing open to create a contiguous space.

The building skin consists of exposed block, stucco and Galvalume metal panels. (Photo by Tony Illia)

The two-story, 10,000-sq-ft building has seven administration offices on the first floor and more offices and common work areas above. The structure has a 20-ft-long, 20-ft-high stairway at the northeast corner that doubles as a landing for outdoor breaks. It jets out from the building to create a bridge over the campus walkway below.

The building skin consists of exposed block and stucco at the ground level, while the second level, which cantilevers 18-in., is wrapped in Galvalume - a 55% aluminum-zinc-alloy-coated sheet steel-panel product manufactured by Vancouver, Wash.-based BIEC International Inc.

“The building will have 68 full-time employees and 20-to-25 student workers,” says Jim Revis, UNLV’s assistant vice president for student affairs facilities and operations. “The estimate for traffic into the new spaces is 12,000 people over a 12-month period.”

Key Players :
Owner: University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Nevada State Public Works Board
Architect: assemblageSTUDIO
General Contractor: Richardson Construction
Civil Engineer: Civil Works Inc.
Structural Engineer: Mendenhall Smith
MEP Engineers: T J Krob Consulting Engineers; Petty & Associates

Shooting for the Stars >>

Spirit of the Centennial >>

Click here for next Feature Story >>