Last summer I photographed the Texas A&M University San Antonio project, designed by WestEast Design Group. Interior walls were installed by Millard Drywall.
TAMU-SA is a relatively new campus. Library and business schools are programmed in separate wings of the building and tied together by a lobby at each forms’ intersection. Traditional Texas vernaclar mixes with contemporary construction and is clad with stone outside.
The joint lobby with grand atrium contains an elevator and stair core.
The floorplates of the library and business school intersect and tie to this orthogonal atrium, topped by a skylight that allows natural daylight to flood below.
Stock market tickertape whizzes along the wood paneling of the elevator core. Interior walls divide library programming from the atrium and generous fenestration allows penetrating views deep inside, allowing the eye to perceive infinity forward and above.
Instead of a rectangular footprint, the grand staircase pinches in from the lobby to exterior windows on the opposite landing.
As opposed to the library, the stair landing emerges and spills out onto an open floorplate that transitions to the business school programming. At the top landing, material and interior fenestration allows natural light to bridge this transitional space.
The library staircase appears more connected to the joint building lobby as opposed to it’s own entry and therefore commands how the eye orients inside. This is the ground floor with open computer lab. Each run of stair is structurally supported and tied into each floor and therefore appears open below.
Decisions like this make a huge difference. Because the stairwell remains open air, utilitarian use can be strung along both sides of the opening with making it seem closed off or overly-crowded.
The “quiet room” can be seen across the open atrium, leading to outside views, framed by brick arch that’s articulated on the exterior.
From the top floor, one can see the clerestory allowing light above, study rooms and open areas on each side, and computer lab below. Directly ahead are the windows that border the building’s atrium.
The business school corridors have wall-coverings and graphics that populate each floor.
WestEast also performed the landscape architecture, with poured concrete benches and brick pavers.
