UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH: SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION

client: UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

Location: Pittsburgh, pennsylvania

Completed: 2022

Firm: IKM Incorporated

Team Credits: JON LUSIN, SAMARA WHEATON, SYDNEY MCDONOUGH

With a floor fit-out on N Bellefield Avenue that offered a near blank slate of future faculty and student office space, the Pitt SCI department had a unique opportunity to execute a new vision for their program. The faculty seized that chance, and with the help of brainstorming and visioning sessions run by IKM, created goals for their new space: branding for the school, hosting events, photo opportunities, a sense of community, full collaboration, and flexibility for the unknown. The design team converted these goals into solutions of the built environment: Pitt blue accents, multiple presentation spaces, an open floor plan, furniture solutions for both private and collaborative work, and movable walls.

The jewel of the office, which serves not only faculty but graduate students as well, is the Makerspace. Behind glass walls and outfitted with rolling furniture and ceiling mounted power reels, the Makerspace is the first thing visitors see when entering the floor. It is an opportunity to display future work by students and faculty to visiting business partners looking to hire talent from the school.

The plan is driven by a gradient of public vs. private programmatic spaces. Openness is the theme for all areas near the entrance: a break area for gathering around food and coffee, a flexible pre-function room, the Makerspace, and two conference rooms which can be combined and even opened to the adjoining break room with movable partitions. From there the plan tightens to form an acoustic break for the spaces a short walk beyond: private meeting rooms, offices, unassigned focus rooms, and collaborative workstation areas.

An exposed ceiling offers an opportunity for adjusting power and data runs as required, and the open plan allows natural light to filter into every room. Small details make this small and simple project come to life: concealed LED tape lights at the break room shelves; alignment of acoustic baffles, linear lighting, and MEP devices; and a custom film pattern on the glass office fronts based on a computer science concept: the distributed minimum spanning tree.

With design and construction occurring during the peaks of the COVID-19 pandemic, many obstacles were overcome using the goals of the project - adaptability by using virtual meetings, planning for the unknown, and a collaborative spirit between all parties over the course of construction. I was proud to see this project from beginning to end and lead tours of excited faculty who were eager to move in.

IKM photos by Adam Warner