MCCOMBS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ROBERT B. ROWLING HALL THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN | Austin, Texas, USA | 2018

Architects: Ennead Architects
Associate Architects: Jacbos
Client: The University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business
General Contractor: DPR
Photographers: Jeff Goldberg/Esto

A metaphorical geode, the building design juxtaposes an elegant limestone outer perimeter, which directly references the venerable buildings of the historic campus, with a faceted, glassy inner perimeter that maximizes transparency, accessibility and visibility in order to reinforce community.

A central, public entry plaza establishes the building as a destination, creating a dramatic sense of arrival and continuing the rich network of green space that characterizes the campus. Visitors cross this generous plaza to reach a breathtaking five-story arrival space that showcases business school activities and forms the building’s social center.

All levels link directly to this gathering space, while also connecting to a cascading array of outdoor terraces that enhance the visibility of the McCombs academic community while tethering the building even more strongly back to the campus.

The planning of the building is seamlessly aligned both with programmatic needs and with the “geode” concept.

Behind the limestone outer perimeter is a backbone of flexible and versatile active learning classrooms, planned and configured in exhaustive collaboration with faculty. In addition to four basic classroom types are several specialty classrooms including a design-thinking studio, a sound stage, and an experimental classroom designed to test new technologies and pedagogies.

The classrooms are supported by a sophisticated network of collaborative work space arranged behind the crystalline inner facade.

The faceted transparency animates this zone and creates an exhilarating environment of purposeful interaction, visible for all to see, that extends the otherwise cloistered pedagogy of the classroom into the far-flung reaches of the building.

Tendrils of public corridor and flanking study rooms give way to special program areas that anchor the ends of the hallways: Auditorium, Student Lounge, Executive Education, Business Incubator, Faculty Lounge, Special Events.

And just beyond the glass, punctuating the crystalline facade, are verdant and shaded roof terraces that allow the learning space to spill out into the Texas shade. A warm pecan wood finish provides a counterpoint to white walls and bright terrazzo floor.

The palette is distinctly Texan in its character, but rendered in friendly, optimistic tones to convey a sense that the school is friendly and inviting, untethered from the stodgy business school environments of the past.

Rowling Hall is dynamic—one feels the desire to move.

To climb the mountain of sunlit stair that anchors the atrium.

To stride down a corridor searching for study space.

To survey the floor below in search of a colleague.

The building slowly unfolds in front of you in cinematic frames. Its quirky geometry, its wiggling corridors, its ever-changing vantage points take time to fully understand, and give students and faculty the opportunity to come to know it—and each other —better with each passing day.