The 108,000-square-foot, three-story plus lower-level facility boasts a brick and glass exterior with sloped roofs. Designed to complement the existing structures on the campus, the owner sought an open feel and natural light within the building, which resulted in a design solution that included an atrium and stepped, floating floors.

Previously housed within a facility that was somewhat traditional in terms of planning, the university hoped to create an experience that encouraged interaction between students and faculty, as well as provided orientation within the facility and a view of the campus from major public spaces. Although the accessible conference rooms and laboratories were semi-private, they were naturally lit and still visible to the entire department.

Structural steel was the favored framing system because of the engineering considerations, specifically the extensive spans necessary to hang floors in the atrium. The suspended floors not only provide additional space – such as a graduate research room that is hung from the third floor – but they also add architectural interest.

Although the structure was designed with a conventional-braced frame, the steel plate shear wall was necessary because the diagonal bracing would have interfered with the layout of the laboratory on the basement level. SMBH opted to use the steel plate shear wall to allow for accessible space on each side of the frame.

Components: 35 research labs (wet and dry), computer lab, classrooms, clinic, vivarium, office suite, conference rooms, and lecture hall.

Awards:
1996 Columbus Honor Award - AIA

The mission of the Richard T. Farmer School of Business is to be a premier business program committed to providing students with a lifelong ability to seek and acquire knowledge and translate it into responsible action in a competitive global environment. Primarily focusing on undergraduate programs, the school does offer three graduate programs.

The architectural style of the structure matches the buildings on Miami University’s campus because it mirrors the red-brick Georgian Revival style. Variations in roof line and architectural elements create an exterior that is visually interesting and harmonious. The interior space reflects a shift toward small group work, seminar instruction, and experimental learning. The new building has 12 case classrooms, a student commons, café, eight cluster rooms, three standard rooms, three seminar rooms, one trading room, a small and large auditorium, four teaching labs and 136 faculty offices. The building has received LEED Silver Certification.

As a signature building for the campus, the structure had complicated interior and exterior architecture. There are a number of very unique steel framing solutions utilized within the structure. The floor of the large auditorium is sloped and is constructed on sloped steel beams and composite deck. Since the floor slope is radial, the slopes of the beams vary and the composite metal deck was warped to follow the varying floor slope. The balcony layout of the risers in the auditorium balcony is also radial so each riser is supported on a pair of curved steel beams with the composite floor deck supported on the top flange of one beam and the bottom flange of the adjacent beam as the riser steps up the balcony.