Part of South Dakota State University’s five-year master plan, the Lohr Architecture, Math and Engineering Building was planned to serve as a gateway to campus and expand the institution’s capacity for “quality research, scholarship and creative activities” in the STEM fields.
RATIO led the design effort for this 64,000 sq. ft. cutting-edge facility that fosters collaboration among the disciplines noted as well as construction engineering.
The first floor is the collaborative heart of the building and features a high-bay fabrication area for large-scale interdisciplinary projects. This space is directly adjacent to an exterior work yard with a loading dock that facilitates the easy movement of oversized materials in and out of the fabrication shop.
Supporting the high-bay space are more specialized labs such as an Engineering Capstone Lab, a design studio, an engines lab, wood shop, metals shops and tool crib.