Project Description
The new Pulichino Tong Business Center (PTBC) is designed and organized to foster interdisciplinary and intra-departmental communications. The building is comprised of two wings, a two-story wing connecting to Lydon Library and a four-story wing overlooking University Avenue.
A four-story atrium, offering informal work settings and flexible seating overlooking the grand space, views into the first-floor trading room, and up-to-the-minute updates from Wall Street on the suspended loop ticker, serves as the center of activity for the PTBC. A grand central stairway connects all four levels of the Business Center and activates the lobby with a spirited, warm accent color. With its high-tech trading room, constantly-updating ticker, and the vibrant communicating stair, the atrium gives passers-by a glimpse of the energy inside, enhancing the PTBC’s active and vital role in anchoring this new North Campus gateway edge.
The interior and exterior spaces of the new PTBC are open and inviting, designed to invite collaboration and a sense of community. Students and faculty can gather on the new Grande Tomaney Plaza, an outdoor space that will also be used for major events, the interior public spaces surrounding the atrium, or they can schedule a private conference room for more formal meetings. Flexible seating and tables, with moveable power connections and magnetic white boards, offer a variety of configurations for students to hold group work sessions and club meetings or find secluded areas for independent study.
A technology-enhanced finance lab/trading room incorporates the latest business information systems and occupies a prominent location at the heart of the building with high visibility to the new plaza. This state-of-the-art trading room features Bloomberg terminals that will allow students and faculty to monitor and analyze real-time financial market data and place trades on the electronic trading platform. The PTBC also includes ten technology-enhanced classrooms on the first and second floors and faculty offices on the second, third, and fourth floors.
Connecting to the existing Lydon Library at the first floor, the PTBC serves as an important link connecting UMass Lowell’s Innovation District and drawing students into the new business center, where they can use the spaces and learn more about the academic departments housed inside. Together, the Francis College of Engineering, the Kennedy College of Sciences, and the Manning School of Business work to foster research, innovation, and entrepreneurship through technology-rich, flexible learning and research environments for the campus community and its industry partners.
Designed for LEED Silver-plus certification, features of the Pulichino Tong Business Center include water-efficient approaches to the site components and building fixtures, strategic daylighting and high-efficiency artificial lighting, high-performance building envelope features, and a solar enthalpy wall for tempering extreme temperature air intake.