The 270,000-square-foot building will be located in the central academic district in proximity to the Engineering Building and the STEM Teaching and Learning Facility.
“The new Engineering and Digital Innovation Center will respond to student demand, support economic development in Michigan, and provide research infrastructure for growth at MSU,” said Chris Martin, Principal and Market Sector Leader of HGA’s Science + Technology practice. “Together with IDS, we will design a building that will support the emergence of a strong and transformative ecosystem focused on the convergence of digital and physical technologies and research.”
Programming features include active learning classrooms, teaching laboratories, research and instructional project studios, and an esports competition space. The building will also include experimental and computational research laboratories and flexible modular research units, as well as community spaces for gathering and collaboration.
“The building will create an energized, innovative, and entrepreneurial community,” said Samir Srouji, HGA’s Design Principal on the Engineering and Digital Innovation Center at MSU. “The design aims to extend the bucolic character of the core campus north of the Red Cedar River to the south and integrate into the campus fabric physically and academically.”
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Design professionals from HGA’s Science + Technology Practice and researchers in the Design Insight Group explored how colleges and universities are establishing best practices and success criteria for computational and data science facilities. The findings strongly indicate that data and computer science will continue to transform every academic discipline and sector in society, making transdisciplinary collaboration and the spaces that support it, paramount.
“HGA and IDS were selected for this transformational project based on their research, expertise, and cutting-edge academic thinking,” said Michigan State University Interim President Teresa K. Woodruff, Ph.D. “Their design process will change how business is completed and will generate a new way of thinking, conducting research, and teaching within our university.”
With inter- and transdisciplinary convergence anticipated across six colleges at MSU, guided by the Office of the Provost and the Office of Research and Innovation, many stakeholders are engaged to help ensure this project’s success.
“Stakeholder engagement is central to HGA and IDS’s programming and design process,” said Carli Cole, Principal at HGA. “Building consensus around the design solution ensures an equitable, diverse, and inclusive process in which positive design outcomes prevail.”
