UMSL’s Oldest Campus Building Receives New Life
Date Posted: March 5, 2019
Posted In: Projects,
From Lawrence Group: After 18 months of renovations and increasing expectations, students and faculty settled back into the restored Benton Hall at the University of Missouri St. Louis (UMSL). Home to the Departments of Biology, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physics, Astronomy and joint engineering program, the building sits at the heart of UMSL’s science complex. Originally constructed in 1964, Lawrence Group worked to bring the historic learning center into the 21st century.
I talked with Cole Hoffarth, project architect, to learn more about the different design pieces and inspirations behind this multi-million dollar project.
What was Lawrence Group’s role in the Benton Hall project? What was your specific role?
Lawrence Group was the Architect of Record. Services we provided included: programming, schematic design, design development, construction documents and construction administration. I was a Project Architect.
What was the main goal of this project?
Our main goal was to provide a full interior renovation of UMSL’s Benton Hall, an academic building dedicated to the study of sciences. The building is comprised of lecture rooms, classrooms, labs and faculty offices.
What was your personal favorite part of this project?
The cross-disciplinary working with our consultants to overcome building challenges was my favorite part of this project. Our biggest challenge of integrating a new mechanical system into the building despite a low structure height (8’-8”) made for a much more involved process that required high levels of teamwork across all areas.