FLCC - Victor Campus Center
Victor, New York
DiFelice Development - Finger Lakes Community College
Finger Lakes Community College (FLCC), enjoying significant
increases in enrollment, and charged with a strategic initiative to
expand its education facilities to satellite locations proximate to
high-tech businesses, sought to create a campus in Victor, New
York. The 'FLCC Victor Campus Center', designed to focus upon
Architecture, Engineering, Computer Science, as well as core
Liberal Arts curricula, opened for its inaugural semester in
January 2010.
The prime design challenges were to create a single building
that had the atmosphere of a 'campus' of buildings, and to provide
a facility that was easily adaptable for a future academic wing.
The result was achieved through intensive design collaboration
between the Consultant Design Team and a Design Committee
consisting of a consortium of academic and building
professionals.
The building's circulation is straight forward. The academic
wing is a simple double-loaded corridor flanked by labs, classrooms
and faculty support spaces. Transparent glazing in the corridor
walls allows for borrowed natural light through the building and
for visibility of the student projects. The commons, a two-story
light-filled gathering space for students and staff, is the heart
of the building. It serves as the campus reception, as well as a
place for informal interaction. Per the master plan, it is
strategically located at the building's north terminus, so that
upon completion of Phase II, it will be the central hub of both
academic wings.
The careful use of massing, materials and proportion provide the
feeling of separate buildings that are unique yet cohesive to one
another. The intent is to present a high-tech, yet conservative
aesthetic that is both contemporary and respectful of the local
buildings of similar typology. Great importance was placed upon
vistas out to the wetlands and trails, visibility and transparency
within the building, and the permeability of natural light.