Project Description
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Art & Design Feasibility Study
Urbana, Illinois | 200,000 SF (Proposed Area)
TKB, together with subconsultant Ross Barney Architects, updated a master plan and provided a feasibility study for the expansion of the Art + Design Building to accommodate new academic programming and support community outreach initiatives. The project addressed the aspirations of multiple stakeholders: Art + Design, Krannert Art Museum, and Fab-Lab. Well-planned design charettes explored multiple planning solutions and ensured that all entities had a voice in the consensus-based approach.
The building will provide new graduate and undergraduate studio spaces, consolidating graduate programs from multiple locations surrounding and off campus into a single building. highly visible lecture and critique spaces enlarged galleries exhibiting student work, the public-facing Fab-Lab for hands-on community engagement will be combined with a new shared entrance linking Art + Design to the Krannert Art Museum.
The study recognized the crucial role the Art + Design Building plays as a link from the traditional academic campus to student housing and campus expansion to the southwest. The proposed expansion will engage pedestrians approaching from the campus and provide an appropriate visual anchor for the “art corridor” while welcoming visitors approaching from streets on the south or west.