College Of The Ozarks – The Ernie & Carolyn Watson Student Center

The new student center was a renovation and expansion to an existing 1940s masonry building. The existing building did not have the sufficient space to accommodate the necessary program so the solution was to add a large addition to the south and east sides of the building. The primary design challenge for this project was to wrap the existing historic stone structure in a way that showcased the craftsmanship of the original building’s envelope. To accomplish this, we chose to connect to the existing building with large expanses of glass so that visitors can see the original masonry extend from outside to the inside. Pedestrian connectivity was a major problem with the existing site so several new sidewalks and plaza spaces were created to link different parts of campus. Lastly, we wanted to focus views from our addition to Lake Honor, one of the main points of interest on campus.