Rutgers Business School / TEN Arquitectos - Enrique Norten

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Text description provided by the architects. The 150,000 square foot Rutgers Business School is the gateway to Rutgers University’s Livingston Campus in Piscataway, New Jersey as envisioned by the campus master plan.  The L-shaped form of the building spans 60 feet above Rockafeller Road becoming the physical gate through which most campus traffic passes.  The building is part of a push, in keeping with the goals of the master plan towards a high density campus development complete with urban facilities, shared amenities, and a walkable campus.  Similarly this building reflects the ongoing shift in higher education away from a focus on classroom-oriented organization and towards a focus on collaboration spaces.  This shift is especially present in contemporary business where the cross collaboration of ideas, cultures, and concepts is necessary to create, evaluate, and market the next big idea. 

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The building organizes itself as three bands: classroom, office, public connected vertically by an atrium and horizontally stitched by a variety of scales of communal spaces ranging from the personal nook, to the collaboration zone, to the collective space.   Circulation spaces engage, rather than separate the different building programs and to this end we celebrate the level of interaction of spaces within the building.  Professors are located at the heart of the school within reach of their students becoming both resources and collaborators for the dynamic evolution of ideas happening within the school.

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The Business School, like every new construction at Rutgers University, is LEED Silver equivalent.  The building is powered by solar panels and the neighboring geothermal borefield built below the quad.  All storm water is managed through bioswales and retention ponds on site.  The atrium provides high levels of day-lighting into the building and the mechanical system is optimized for lower energy usage.  Low VOC materials and specialized carpet tiles enhance the air quality, as well.

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