Arizona State University Memorial Union Phase I

Project Details

Project Description

The Memorial Union (MU) is the epicenter for student and academic life on the campus. Approximately 30,000 people a day use the 350,000 sf facility which includes extensive food, retail and other student life amenities, gathering areas, a conference center, and administrative offices for the university and student organizations. Renovating the conference center provided the opportunity to address significant programmatic and operational shortfalls in the existing facility. A new plan was developed that provided additional large meeting rooms and storage facilities along with new corridors and public areas featuring new seating and display niches. In November of 2007, a fire caused extensive smoke damage to the Memorial Union, requiring the entire facility to be closed. The first floor-food and retail areas of the building were quickly brought back on line while 95,000 sf second floor conference center and 10,000 sf administrative office area were completely modernized. The original building was built in 1954 with further additions in 1972 and 1984. Concurrent with the building renovations, Studio Ma redesigned the entry plaza to better serve the campus.