The Yards at Old State

Dogfish Head Miami

Intertek-PSI

L.A. Fuess Partners

Bogner Corporation

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The College of Wooster's student center is undergoing a major renovation and transformation to create a space that better reflects Wooster’s values and truly supports the campus community. The Lowry Center, serving as the heart of the campus for over fifty years, is where students, faculty, and visitors come to eat, work, connect, and socialize. Knowing that growth and engagement are equally important in and out of the classroom, the transformation aspires to strengthen the student center's role in supporting community, accessibility, and inclusivity for its diverse population. 
So how does a school decide on the design direction for this kind of undertaking? They bring on a partner with like-minded cultural values, who methodically considers the school's needs, the students, and every stakeholder in a collaborative process before presenting their fully-informed design recommendations.
Bergmeyer's approach always begins with client and stakeholder engagement, including feedback from the population that will use the space the most – in this case, the students. Through workshops, meetings, forums, and passive engagement, we collaborated with stakeholders to establish a list of goals for the project, including:
<ul><li>Creating inclusive, welcoming shared spaces where students, faculty, and staff will feel at home</li><li>Enabling easy access and visibility to frequently used student services and student activities</li><li>Balancing open/inviting circulation with coziness of spaces</li><li>Making it feel uniquely “Wooster”</li><li>Creating flexible workspaces and gathering spaces to facilitate community-building</li><li>Refreshing and energizing the existing building with more natural light and visibility to what’s happening inside</li></ul>With a clear understanding of their needs, our team collaborated with The College of Wooster on a design comprised of the following:
<ul><li> A 77,900 SF renovation and 14,300 SF addition, done in phases to work around a dining program that will remain open throughout the construction. </li><li>A new double-height entrance lobby will provide more natural light and visibility into the building. </li><li>Interior renovations will occur on all three levels of the existing building. </li><li>The main level will house the relocated central dining hall, increasing its size, accessibility, and overall efficiency. </li><li>The campus store, post office, coffee bar, and convenience store will be relocated to the ground floor, offering quick-serve dining options and student amenities. </li><li>The upper level will be a new, centralized home for the Center for Diversity and Inclusion offices, Dean of Students, Residence Life, and Student Activities – centered around a welcoming student Commons and flexible workspaces.</li></ul>Our design team nearly doubled the square footage available for student use through a thoughtful planning process – with only a modest addition equal to 18% of the existing building square footage. The dining hall is designed so the surrounding seating areas can remain open for students to gather and study even after the servery is closed for the night. On the upper level, the meeting rooms have doors that open into the office suites to facilitate staff use by day and doors that open into the Commons for students to use by night. The overlapping of uses allowed our team to keep the building’s footprint compact. This strategy is both budget and energy-efficient and ensures that all building areas are bustling with activity throughout the day and night.
The College of Wooster’s reinvented student center will be constructed in two phases and is slated for completion in early 2023. The design, infused with the school’s values, mission, and brand, will breathe new life into the heart of the campus and honor the needs of its vibrant community.

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College of Wooster Student Center