Ursinus College

Innovation and Discovery Center

Collegeville, Pennsylvania

Size
42,000 gsf

Services
Programming
Lab Planning
Architecture

Awards
Montgomery Award: Excellence in Planning and Design

Since its founding in 1869, Ursinus College has recognized science as an integral part of a liberal arts education, and central to its mission as an institution. The Innovation and Discovery Center—a new building that expands and advances the science facilities of the College—represents a new era in interdisciplinary education and undergraduate research at Ursinus.

The Innovation and Discovery Center (IDC) serves as a link between two existing science buildings—Pfahler Hall and Thomas Hall—forming an integrated learning and research complex. The IDC incorporates advanced functionality for teaching, laboratory work, observations, creative brainstorming, and student-faculty research. To support the College’s highly interdisciplinary approach to learning and research, the building also houses the U-Imagine Center for Integrative and Entrepreneurial Studies and the Parlee Center for Science and the Common Good, two academic centers that promote the integration of science with ethics, economics, philosophy, culture, and entrepreneurship.

Program components include a student learning commons; maker space; active learning classrooms; rooftop terrace teaching space; flexible laboratories and classrooms for Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Studies, Math and Computer Science, Neuroscience, Physics and Astronomy, Psychology, and Anatomy and Physiology; lab support facilities; a vivarium; offices; and a variety of meeting and social spaces.

All learning spaces feature completely flexible layouts with advanced technology to support team-based learning.

The central learning commons at the main entry, along with two active learning spaces and the maker space, encourage use by the entire campus.

The building features a significant expansion of research space to promote the involvement of undergraduates in active research projects as an important part of the undergraduate experience. Research labs are all flexible, with movable benches served by an overhead service grid.

Designed to foster collaboration and interaction, the IDC is a showcase for science in action. Openness and transparency are the hallmarks of the teaching, research, and social spaces. The exterior design reflects the contemporary mission of the science conducted within, yet is sympathetic in materials and massing to Pfahler and Thomas Halls and the surrounding campus.

The Innovation and Discovery Center is leading the way in how a new generation of liberal arts undergraduates pursue scientific knowledge. The IDC recognizes that we must teach to careers that haven’t been invented yet, which is why it will infuse policy, entrepreneurship and science with a new approach. This ambitious, once-in-a-generation facility fosters creative and innovative thinking, which has always been a hallmark of the Ursinus experience.

Brock Blomberg, President

Ursinus College