Rendering: Bjarke Ingels Group
The Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst currently looks like any old university complex, but it won’t be long before that changes. Bjarke Ingels Group has signed on to complete a major addition to the top-ranked business school, and once it’s finished the site promises to be one of the campus’ most interesting areas.
Copenhagen- and New York-based Bjarke Ingels Group is working on the $62-million project with Boston architecture firm Goody Clancy. It’s the first major update to the Isenberg School of Management since 2002, and the aim is to give it “an exciting new visual identity.”
Rendering: Bjarke Ingels Group
Based on the renderings released so far, we think the architects are on track to achieve that goal. Their plan is for a new building to extend an existing Isenberg School of Management building to the north and east. The new building will offer access to the old building in two different spots, and will add 70,000 square feet of classrooms, labs and student-facing spaces to the complex.
The new building’s donut-like shape will also leave space for a 5,000-square-foot central courtyard that will serve as a cultural hub and event center. What’s more, its flexible design means that executive in-residence and experiential learnings programs could easily be added in the future.
Rendering: Bjarke Ingels Group
Rendering: Bjarke Ingels Group
In addition to its practical features, the new building will have a visually striking facade. Covered with incrementally sloping panels, it will have an exterior unlike any other building on the UMass Amherst campus. For Bjarke Ingels Group, its form will be part of what launches the Isenberg School of Management “into the next phase of growth and success.”
Construction of the new Isenberg School of Management building is already underway, and is expected to be complete in 2018. Updates will be released by the school as the project moves along.
Rendering: Bjarke Ingels Group
Rendering: Bjarke Ingels Group
