Business Instructional Facility
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Champaign, Illinois 61820
United States
| Gies College of Business Instructional Facility | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Interactive map of the Gies College of Business Instructional Facility area | |
| General information | |
| Type | Academics |
| Location | 515 E. Gregory Drive Champaign, Illinois 61820 United States |
| Coordinates | 40°6′13.33″N 88°13′51.34″W / 40.1037028°N 88.2309278°W |
| Construction started | 2006 |
| Completed | 2008 |
| Inaugurated | October 17, 2008 |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 4 |
| Floor area | 160,000 sq ft (15,000 m2) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects |
The Gies College of Business Instructional Facility (BIF) is a business facility designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects located on the Champaign campus at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign (UIUC).
The facility is home to numerous classrooms, career development and academic counseling centers, student program offices, a recruitment suite, a 300-seat auditorium, and a study area for students.[1]
Rafael Pelli, a partner of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects who was the project principal for the Business Instructional Facility, explained in an interview on October 17, 2008 (shortly after completion) that the purpose of this building is to serve as "a sense of place, a community, a center to the College of Business".[2]
The building is the first business facility at a public university in the world to achieve a platinum certification through Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a U.S. Green Building Council rating system used to measure the sustainability in construction, and is the first building on the UIUC campus to achieve a LEED certification.[3][4]
The noteworthy 'green' elements of the Business Instructional Facility include solar panels, a green roof, and an energy-efficient cooling and heating system.[4] The combined 'green' initiatives are expected to produce savings of $300,000 per year in comparison with traditional classroom buildings on the UIUC campus.[4] The cost of construction was approximately $60 million and covers 160,000 sq ft (15,000 m2)
On July 14, 2005, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees approved the Business Instructional Facility plans allowing the College of Business to begin requesting bids for site preparation and construction.[5] On April 28, 2006, the UIUC College of Business held a groundbreaking ceremony at the Business Instructional Facility construction site in Champaign, Illinois.[6] Construction of the Business Instructional Facility was completed in the summer of 2008 and the building opened for classes in August 2008.[4]
Description
The Business Instructional Facility (BIF) architecture has been described as "adding a sympathetic and fresh flavor to the campus's rich fabric of Georgian architecture while including sustainable features."[7] The geometry of BIF is defined by "three perimeter bar buildings" composed of native brick and natural stone forming a 'U' shape. The commons "provides grandness and warmth" to BIF.[3] Craig Copeland, a senior associate of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, characterized the daylight provided by BIF's glass curtain wall as "a part of the architectural expression".[2] Rafael Pelli described the commons as "the central space, not only physically central, but it's central to the functioning and the use of the space."[2] César Pelli, a renowned Argentinian architect and partner of Pelli Clark Pelli Architects, described BIF as "a family of its own character, its own quality."[2]
Wolff Landscape Architecture described the garden courtyard as an entity defined on three sides by the building and thus creates a "continuous indoor-outdoor space" between the commons and the courtyard.[8] The courtyard is arranged with linear pieces of pavement which elongates the building geometry. A raised trough serves as the base of the linear fountain that runs from one end of the courtyard to the other. A linear native prairie plant section and sedge meadow area, split by a path for surface drainage, provides stormwater retention and is adjacent to the fountain. The landscaping contributed to the LEED platinum rating through use of "native plants, on-site stormwater retention, green roofs, and no potable water use."[9][8] In 2009, the landscape architecture received recognition through the Illinois Chapter American Society of Landscape Architects Merit Award for their design of the garden courtyard at the Business Instructional Facility.[10] In 2020, Wolff Landscape Architecture became a part of Confluence, a Des Moines, Iowa-based landscape architecture, urban design and planning firm.[11]
Building layout
First floor
The commons area is the central space for students to study. This space also serves host to student events and corporate receptions. The auditorium provides a space for guest lectures, seminars, and conferences.[1] The Margolis Market Information Lab (MIL), located in the northwest corner of the first floor, serves as an informative platform for electronic sources of financial and investment data and analytical software[12] through multi-screen stations similar to those used in financial markets.[7] The first floor also features the Trading Lab, located adjacent to MIL, which provides "time-delayed" financial data from major media sources.[7] The Business Career Services, located in the northeast corner, assists students in their job search with resume critiques, mock interviews, and job search strategy.[13] The PricewaterhouseCoopers Accountancy Student Center offers students studying accounting advising for courses, independent study, jobs, and scholarships and financial aid.[14] Some of the other main features of the main floor include student lounges, the Business Office of Undergraduate Affairs, and a corporate recruitment center.[1]
Upper floors
The second and third floors include classrooms and break rooms. The Illinois MBA Program, located on the third floor, provides student classrooms, student services, and lounges. The third floor is also home to the Illinois Makerlab, the world's first business school 3D printing lab. Also, the fourth floor, located on the east side of BIF, has many meeting spaces and faculty offices.[1]
Green roof
According to Rob Kanter, the green roof on the Business Instructional Facility is composed of two different sections, a 1,200-square-foot (110 m2) section located on the fourth floor roof and a smaller area over the auditorium. The green roof contains low maintenance plants growing in a layer of substrate that captures water allowing much less stormwater runoff. Rob Kanter adds that green roofs "discharge cleaner water, thanks to the filtering effect of the substrate and the ... runoff doesn't pick up additional pollutants from the roof itself." Furthermore, the green roof provides better heat reflection in warm weather and insulation in cooler weather. Also, the Department of Civil Engineering at UIUC has placed monitoring equipment on both sections to study the water quality runoff and insulating capacity in comparison to conventional roofs.[15]
