The University of Texas at Tyler Soules College of Business

The University of Texas at Tyler had a vision to become more of a nationally recognized institution as a destination for business students. The University wanted to create a valuable experience by creating spaces that could house research center offices and labs. Ultimately, the goal would be to have the 140,000 GSF, $53 million building create a new presence and become a gateway for the campus through its new architectural vernacular.

The design of the building has no specific “front” or “back” but varied façades appropriate to their surroundings. Along University Drive a large C-shaped bracket encloses as an angled curtain wall that marks the entrance. The building is U-shaped in plan and to the north forms an open courtyard that seems to beckon the campus beyond.

With the campus’s location in the piney woods of East Texas, SmithGroup sought to “bring the outside in” with multiple tree-like columns and one large column that opens to a V-shape to support an oculus above. The courtyard also creates a ‘clearing’ in the forest surrounded by a double volume glass lobby that activates it by creating a student precinct. A round auditorium structure, to be used by the SCOB and other divisions of the University, occupies the farthest northern point of the building.

Throughout the building, flexibility and student-centered amenities carry the day. The lobby contains furniture that can be moved at will for spontaneous study and relaxing. It can also be used as an event space hosting visiting industry or business groups. Part of the design includes a mock New York Stock Exchange space that allows students to follow the markets at any time. The technology departments have their own customized labs capable of accommodating robotics lab, industrial lab, executive MBA classrooms, cyber security and data mining lab, metals/nonmetals lab and the computer manufacturing lab.

In addition to being a new presence for the school and a gateway to the university, the SCOB building is one whose architecture and interior are commensurate with the ambitious goals the university has laid out. It is an investment in the future of a growing educational institution.