Gibraltar Presents CS with Award for Lawson Building
07-23-2008
Congratulations to the Gibraltar Design architectural firm for their award winning design of the Richard and Patricia Lawson Computer Science Building located on the Purdue University campus, West Lafayette. The designers of the 107,000 square foot Lawson building were recognized for educational design excellence by the American School and University (AS&U) magazine. College of Science Dean Jeffrey Vitter stated, "It's a beautiful building, and this is a nice way to recognize the efforts of everyone involved."
Gibraltar architect Bill Cotterman presented the 2007 Outstanding Design Excellence Award plaque to Purdue on July 17, 2008. At the event Cotterman stated, "I would like to present this plaque to the Computer Science Department and the University Architect's Office in recognition of [their] leadership and guidance which was truly the foundation for this building project." He also thanked the two areas for "this creative opportunity and for [their] partnership in this very successful design." CS will display the plaque in the Lawson building.
Gibraltar designed Lawson to showcase the technology within CS and the interactive nature of the field as stated on SchoolDesigns.com. In the center of the building a glassed data center is juxtaposed with a two-story commons meeting place. The collaborative theme continues with casual interaction areas throughout the building, and labs equipped with interactive technologies.
Lawson accommodates 45 faculty, 55 teaching assistants, and 70 research assistants. Faculty and students enjoy four classrooms, five instructional laboratories including a team project laboratory equipped with four smartboards, as well as four research laboratories with meeting rooms. Among the research laboratories is the state-of-the-art Visualization Laboratory, which is designed to accommodate the ever changing field. Lawson also has a large meeting room and commons area meant to foster collaboration among students and house conferences to open collaboration among other organizations and universities.
