Design team tells State Designer Selection Board their campus center plan prioritizes program integration, mass timber and B3 energy goals

The State Designer Selection Board on Monday interviewed the Alliance/Workshop design team on a predesign for a combined student center and library at the University of Minnesota's Saint Paul campus, hearing details about program integration, site constraints and sustainability goals.

Ken Sheehan, the project's principal in charge, told the board the design team brings continuity from four years of predesign work and extensive campus experience, saying, “We bring tremendous expertise to the project, and we bring the continuity of having a depth of experience, obviously, with the predesign and feasibility study.” He listed the project team and consultants and said that continuity would let the team move into refinement rather than redoing prior decisions.

The nut graf: The team argued the project's value lies in co-locating student life, retail and library functions to create a social hub for the Saint Paul campus while managing complex site conditions (26 feet of existing grade change, extensive subsurface utilities and contaminated soils). They also described an approach to meet Minnesota's B3 energy goals and the use of mass timber to reduce structural weight and improve the building's character.

In the presentation, the team outlined schedule and…