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Higher Education

Lafayette College, Acopian Engineering Center

Blackney Hayes Lafayette College Acopian Engineering Center Exterior View with Plaza

Modernized engineering spaces to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration

Location

Easton, PA

Size

4,000 sq. ft. Addition

Services

Architecture, Comprehensive Planning, Interior Design

Project Goal

Enhancing Interdisciplinary Engineering Spaces

Over the course of its 200-year history, Lafayette College has become known as a bastion of interdisciplinary thought. In its Engineering program, however, the collision of ideas between Lafayette’s different divisions – mechanical, electrical, chemical and civil – were few and far between.

In response, Lafayette’s Dean of Engineering, Scott Hummel, engaged Blackney Hayes to complete a building master plan, programming, design, and multi-phase construction at the Acopian Engineering Center (AEC).

Vision

Transforming Spaces for 21st Century Learning

Hummel wanted the project to deliver a set of 21st century learning spaces; to create a sense of consistency throughout a building that had been modified many times over the years; and to give the engineering division at Lafayette a stronger presence and identity.
Revitalized AEC Sparks Innovation

Four years later, Hummel’s vision successfully integrated new modern learning spaces within a pre-war engineering building. The AEC is awash in natural light and materials. The building’s existing lab and classroom spaces have all been updated. And the space now features myriad collaborative group spaces that allow for a regular collision of ideas and innovations — including a new, 4,000 sq. ft. fifth-floor overbuild with three high-tech classrooms and a series of collaboration spaces located at prominent intersections with custom-designed butcher block tables, writable walls and LED lighting.