Large expanses of glass connect the interior spaces with the sustainable landscaping outside. Photo credit: Nora Lewis
Light streams through the walls of glass and into the enormous expanses of open space in the new 190,000-square-foot, six-story Fascitelli Center for Advanced Engineering, which officially opened on Monday, Oct. 7.
All of that open, light-filled space is the centerpiece of the building’s design, which University leaders saw as a way to enhance collaboration among faculty and students across all engineering disciplines.
The celebration marked a momentous day in URI history and a way to thank Rhode Islanders for their support of bond issues totaling $150 million to construct the Fascitelli Center and to expand and renovate Bliss Hall, the historic home of engineering at the University.
Michael D. Fascitelli, a 1978 graduate of the College of Engineering and a 2008 honorary degree recipient, and Elizabeth C. Fascitelli, made a $10 million gift in July to benefit the engineering college. Fascitelli credits Dean Raymond Wright’s vision of bringing the College’s departments together as the driving force behind the building design.
“Science as a whole has become so much more interactive and the world is changing at such a rapid pace,” said Fascitelli. “You really need that cooperation between disciplines.”
The Fascitelli Center and the improved and expanded Bliss Hall, which first opened in 1928, will strengthen the College of Engineering’s leadership in the areas of clean energy, nanotechnology to robotics, cybersecurity, water for the world, biomedical technology, smart cities, and sensors and instrumentation.
“With the opening of The Fascitelli Center and Bliss Hall, students can be educated differently, and researchers can collaborate more easily across disciplines,” Dean Wright said. “This building is designed not just to advocate for, but to stimulate interdisciplinary connections and discovery.”
The 190,000-square-foot facility was designed by architects, Ballinger of Philadelphia.
The labs on the fourth floor look through an expanse of glass out over the northern tip of the Kingston campus.
Good design works well from any perspective.
In the new building, research is organized by themes: biomedical technology, robotics, clean water for the world, sensors and instrumentation, alternative energy, nanotechnology, advanced materials and structures, and cybersecurity.
A $10 million gift from Michael D. Fascitelli ’78 H’08 and Elizabeth C. Fascitelli will significantly advance facilities and programs at the College.
The building’s distinctive metal truss support system eliminates the need for interior support columns and allows for uninterrupted, open interiors.
Gold colored panels diffuse the light in the interior corridors.
The elegant geometry of the spiral staircase breaks up the long straight lines shapes of the adjacent corridors.
“On any afternoon I’m going to walk into the quad level and see several hundred students working on projects, sitting and talking in small groups. I’ll hear people laughing, people working and discussing. You’ll see undergrads working alongside grad students, working on some of the most extraordinary things you can imagine. What we’ll have here will be as good or better than what you’d find in any university. People are going to be proud of this place and everything that’s going on here.”
Dean Raymond Wright
An alternate view of the spiral staircase
A staircase leads down to a bright open seating space on the ground floor.
The smooth concrete hallway reflects passersby and the lights above.
“This building is designed not just to advocate for, but to stimulate interdisciplinary discovery, so that the students can be educated differently, and researchers can collaborate across disciplines.”
Terry Steelman, architect.
A staircase from the ground level is accented by vivid yellow.
A distinctive oculus adds natural light, casting changing compositions of shadows.
