EAE Building 72 Remodel

MASTERPLAN AND CONSEQUENT PHASED BUILD OUT

CLIENT: UNIVERSITY OF UTAH

Utah Games at the University of Utah, formerly is the #7 ranked game school in the United States. In 2019, Studio Long Playing was selected to master plan the entire building (+/-39,000 sf). The program includes computer labs, informal student gathering spaces, recording labs, Esports training facilities, a multi purpose space that can easily change from an auditorium to a large open space, informal team rooms, a formal conference room, a break room for game playing, a family game observation room, cafe, and gender neutral restrooms. Built in 1982, Building 72 was the library for the law department. It is a long and skinny building with a skylight running the length of the building. Large openings in the floor allow for daylight from one level to the next, part of our strategy to gain usable space is too infill the openings. Glass flooring has been used in areas to borrow daylight from the skylight above.

The entire project was estimated at $9 million at it’s completion, studies done during the masterplan included appropriate phasing to allow them time to fund raise/ finance their projects.

A thorough visioning session was conducted where several goals and missions were solidified. The client sought a space of seamless team working, a place of inclusivity and diversity. Utah Games cohorts are young, alternative and individual, they are proud supporters of their department and the University of Utah. The new space is designed to be functional, professional and bold. An inviting and exciting space, the revamped building will be accessible to all bodies, genders, cultures and minds. Faculty and students are risk takers, boundary pushers, highly engaged in their craft and feel that their community is strong.

Utah Games is unique in that students learn by working in groups: each team has at least a producer, illustrator, programmer. With this collaboration in mind the new space satisfies the creative and collaborative nature of their discipline by providing endless amounts of whiteboard paint for consistent drawing/ brain storming, tack-able surfaces that act as sound absorbers and a place for story boarding and other displays. Because the walls and glass railings, and any surface available, including the locker faces is ever changing art, the team agreed that a neutral background was the best palette to consider, red is used to acknowledge their love for the University of Utah. The students often wear there red sweatshirts and their coordinated clothing with the finishes further emphasizes the symbiotic relationship of function, space, and human.

Students rearrange their team spaces consistently throughout the year and not just while developing their projects, twice yearly the students participate in a celebration where they reveal their games to the general community, industry, press and their peers.

Three construction phases have been completed to date: faculty offices, large teaching spaces, and new circulation. An important thing of note, the department has been amongst the top two nationally for numerous years, and has won several awards internationally, despite their accolades they are a tight knit community and the faculty and staff are very close helping students not only with their academic affairs, but with life experiences as well.

OUTCOME: The project has a 6 phase plan in place, of which two have been completed, and one is under way. The Esport training center, an update to a lower level open lab space including a stair that encapsulated their ideas of inclusivity/ diversity, additional faculty offices and team rooms.

Photography: Araceli Haslam