The Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC) based in central Paris is the largest scientific and medical complex in the country. When leaders decided to reorganize its five university libraries into one, it brought in experts to make sure they could achieve their goals to create a coworking space fostering collaboration without losing the deep-focus spaces expected in a library setting. These two factors needed to work together in harmony all while supporting the increasing use of technology for research and project development.

Before the renovation, the space functioned, but it wasn’t a desired destination for students. Together, the Steelcase Education design team along with the university decided to offer students a variety of workspaces. Educators wanted students to have places for group meetings, training, individual work and areas to simply rest and rejuvenate. These spaces needed to be productive as well as inspirational by providing a way to book rooms, easily reach technology and produce creative group work.

As you can see in the photos taken after the renovation, the UPMC library is now a vibrant coworking space promoting success by offering students choice and control over how and where they work.

Read more about this project on steelcase.com >

Ryerson’s ServiceHub, which replaces a dingy Brutalist cafeteria, consolidates all the university’s administrative functions in a bright, airy and organized core.

When local firm Gow Hastings Architects was asked to update an underused cafeteria inside a building on Toronto’s Ryerson University campus, they knew they had to begin with a clean slate. The 1,210-square-metre space, like the 1970s Brutalist it occupied, was dark, heavy, and dated-looking – not to mention ill-equipped to handle the needs of the university’s ever-growing student body.

Today, the space is unrecognizable. The new ServiceHub combines all the administrative needs of student registration and financial services into a single “one-stop shopping” location, which is also the students’ first point of contact with the university. And while the function of the space has been transformed, so has the look: gone is the oppressive grey concrete, replaced with an airy, dynamic and welcoming space more on-brand with Ryerson’s position as a leading Canadian institution.

Read more about this project on azuremagazine.com >

Medill, the journalism school at Northwestern, officially opened its new downtown Chicago location on March 29 at 303 E. Wacker, the first step in a multi-project expansion initiative that also includes a new space in San Francisco to open in early fall and a renovated Fisk Hall in 2019. 

“It’s unusual to take on so many projects at the same time, but our academic buildings need significant work,” said Dean Brad Hamm. “Plus, Northwestern is significantly upgrading the main Evanston campus and wants the teaching and research spaces to be top quality, reflective of a world-class university.”

Read the article on medill.northwestern.edu >