The Judy Genshaft Honors College at USF is an 86,000 sq. ft., six-story facility. FleischmanGarciaMaslowski (FG+M) was the Prime Architect in collaboration with Morphosis, the Design Architect. This facility is an inspiring home for students, faculty, advisors, and administrators, fostering interdisciplinary creativity and conversation across various academic fields, including the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities.
Dedicated to merging students and faculty from diverse disciplines, the Honors College acts as a vessel for discovery and discussion through collaborative and interdisciplinary engagements. The design encourages pedestrian activity to facilitate communication within this community, promoting casual encounters and informal meetings vital for multidisciplinary discussions and work collaboration.
The design incorporates:
– An enclosed but transparent ground floor.
– A spacious area for communal gatherings to welcome the community.
– Event spaces and other significant programmed events.
An opaque mass containing various program elements is above the light, transparent ground floor. Communal areas are on the 2nd floor, with more Honors College-centric programs on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors. A centrally located atrium connects all users into a single spatial experience, lined with meeting spaces that make various forms of collaboration and interactions visible.
Important meeting and event spaces and collaborative and open workspaces are available for all students on the first and second floors. The ground floor event space is visible from Sessums Mall as students approach the building from the Central Campus. The interior café, enclosed with full-height glass for maximum views, extends to an adjacent outdoor space for additional seating. On the second floor, an exterior covered terrace above the event space, accessible inside and outside the building, serves as an outdoor meeting, relaxation, and studying area.
The Judy Genshaft Honors College aims for LEED Silver certification. The design seamlessly integrates site planning, building planning, engineering, sustainability, and architecture into a cohesive and expressive facility, aligning with the building’s academic mission. The building form itself reflects its environmental goals and showcases its sustainable features.
