Student Success District, University of Arizona

This project was selected as a winner in AIA's 2023 Interior Architecture Awards.

According to research from the University of Arizona, student retention and graduation rates tend to be higher for attendees who take advantage of support services like academic advisement, mental-health counseling, and campus libraries. And yet, the locations of those programs on the university’s Tuscon campus—where services were strewn throughout two disconnected libraries and an office building—hindered access to them.

Seeking a more streamlined approach, administrators turned to The Miller Hull Partnership and Poster Mirto McDonald for design help. Enter the Student Success District, a new, 9-acre hub for campus services that incorporates the school’s existing buildings as well as the freshly constructed Bartlett Academic Success Center. Using architecture to make the services housed in the new and old structures more visible to the student body, the design team focused on physical connections between the buildings, wayfinding, and improved interior plans. Previous piecemeal solutions had resulted in labyrinth-like offices and libraries with little natural light. Now, clear paths cut through all, both internally and through glass-enclosed pedestrian bridges.

PROJECT CREDITS
Project: Student Success District, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.
Architects: The Miller Hull Partnership and Poster Mirto McDonald
Contractor: Sundt Construction
Owner/Client: University of Arizona
Landscape Architect: Ten Eyck Landscape Architects
Civil Engineer: Cypress Civil Development
Structural Engineer: Martin White Griffis Structural Engineers
M/E/PEngineer: Affiliated Engineers, Inc.
Lighting Consultant: Affiliated Engineers, Inc.
Graphics and Wayfinding Consultant: Mayer Reed
Libraries FFE: The Miller Hull Partnership, LLP
Bear Down & Bartlett Center for Academic Success FFE: Andie Zelno

This article first appeared in the May/June 2023 issue of ARCHITECT.