The 33,000-square-foot Visitor Center and University Bookstore works closely with recently completed landscape improvements to create a new gateway and orientation point for the UT Dallas campus. The building’s iconic rotunda echoes a nearby large circular mound that is the landmark for the campus entry. The rotunda is an open, unconditioned space for informal gathering and acts as a welcoming gesture both for the campus and the building. The rotunda’s stack ventilation—controlled by curved glass containment, its concentric rings of sunshades constructed of structural steel and its huge fan—will help keep it temperate in the hot Texas climate. Finely detailed steel tension members keep it light and delicate like the best of traditional Texas porches.
Crisp, clean lines and strong geometries throughout the building give it a strong presence. White steel structural members and sunshades contrast sharply with dark grey modular panels made of cement fiberboard. A very distinctive, mottled, dark grey Texas Limestone cut to emphasize strong horizontal bands works with the strong Texas sun to create anchor piers at prominent corners … read more at pagethink.com
