Classroom Building | RENOVATIONS

The Classroom Building at the University of Wyoming is a 57,000 SF cast-in-place concrete structure which since 1969 has housed the University’s general classrooms. Long due for a major renovation to bring the entire facility up to today’s standards for teaching and learning, the building has been redesigned by Malone Belton Abel and its team of specialists in classrooms, acoustics, lighting, IT, and HVAC.

The building’s distinctive “standing rib” design is considered a University icon which, along with its four colorful internal murals, needed to remain intact in the remodeling. Working within these strict parameters, the design team assessed the most cost-effective way to achieve the required new classrooms, arriving at an innovative basement addition to the west of the existing building that provides a ground-level exterior plaza available to students and faculty. The basement addition and a modest expansion of the ground floor add another 16,000 SF to the building, for a total size of 73,000 SF.

Because the building is completely symmetrical, way-finding had been a problem since the building first opened. Our solution was to create a new main entry and student lounge on the east side; and two distinctive high-tech classrooms and another student lounge on the west side.

• Completed: 2007