E. J. Ourso School of Business

Project Details

Project Description

Program:24 interactive tiered classrooms, 18 collaborative team rooms, 300 seat Auditorium, Graduate computer lab, Mock trading room, Business Commons, Cafe, Executive Dining Room, Career Services, Faculty and Administrative offices.

The Louisiana State University College of Business is a glass and steel “academical village” for business education. The major program elements of classrooms, auditorium, offices and commons each take on one of the prevalent campus forms of sloped gable-roof pavilions, rotundas and arches. The pavilion, rotunda and arches are made with modern materials of ceramic fritted translucent glass and bronze screening, resulting in an assemblage of forms that are ephemeral apparitions of the original campus – and give a unique and distinctive appearance to the College of Business.

To create an illusion of warm stucco walls of the historic campus in glass, the design team researched glass technologies and developed a cream-colored, ceramic fritted insulating glass unit with mirror glass back panel in the substrate thus creating a moiré pattern over the surface of the pavilions, resulting in a three-dimensional, ghostly quality. The south and west sides of the rotunda are surrounded by a bronze screen, suspended from the transparent glass surface. The screen’s arched pattern recalls the university’s treasured arcades. Both the ceramic glass and bronze screen serve to remind the observer of the university’s heritage as well as reduce solar gain by shielding the harsh sunlight – one of a number of sustainable design elements used on this project.

The classroom pavilions and rotunda are interconnected by an arcade and surround a landscaped courtyard. Internally, a multistory business commons opens up visually and physically to the courtyard.