Southern New Hampshire University | Green Center For Student Success

Southern New Hampshire University was founded in 1932 and is a private institution with 3,000 on-campus students and 80,000 online students. The university has a 300-acre campus as well as regional centers in Manchester, NH, and Brunswick, ME.

Southern New Hampshire University embarked upon several new building projects to accommodate its growing student population. Those projects included building a new library, dorm, and parking garage as well as renovating the former library space into a new student center. The university also sought to add additional green spaces.

Challenge

Analogue Studio was hired to transform the decommissioned library space into a new, vibrant 25,000 SF student center with offices, conference rooms, and lounge areas. Analogue Studio conducted interviews to understand what SNHU wanted to achieve with the space and what would be most important.  Based on those interviews, Analogue would be looking for opportunities to integrate sustainable practices to minimize the building’s environmental impact while sticking to a budget.

Analogue approached Creative Materials with a design concept in mind. The Student Center was to have a green, central lounge at the heart of the space, where members from all corners of the SNHU community would feel welcome to gather. It would also include a shared event space, which would serve to anchor the new campus quad. The school’s New England setting would weave throughout the design, with a palette of interior wall panels evoking fall foliage, and a new entrance canopy wrapped in rich wood tones. Analogue had found a stone-look, minimalistic tile to complement the wall panels, but the collection they had originally specified in design development was subsequently discontinued before construction began. The firm was running into difficulty finding an aesthetic match that still achieved the monolithic effect they desired. Analogue also needed a vibrant, maiolica wall tile to pull the design together.  Keeping sustainability in mind, Analogue knew tile would minimize waste of natural resources, be low in Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), and offer low life-cycle costs.

Solution

Rather than searching through countless manufacturer websites, or combing through the library at random, Analogue reached out to Creative Materials to source a match in the right size at the right price point. Creative Materials serves as a single point of contact accessing 50+ tile manufacturers across the globe and knows the world of tile inside and out. What was quick work for the Creative Materials’ design and sourcing department would have been hours and/or days of distracting work for Analogue. Putting the tile in Creative Materials’ hands freed up the designer to focus on other aspects of the design.

Having access to so much tile allowed Creative Materials to offer several options for both the stone-look and the maiolica. Analogue selected Basalt and Intrigue.

Result

The new William S. and Joan Green Center for Student Success at Southern New Hampshire University is now open to students, faculty, and staff. The Center was named to honor the legacy of the late William S. Green, who was a longtime resident of New Hampshire, prominent attorney, and devoted civic leader.

The Center is home to the Deborah L. Coffin Women’s Center, Center for Community Engaged Learning, Disability Services, DeColfmacker Veteran’s Lounge and ROTC, International Student Services, Diversity Initiatives, Academic Advising, Enrollment Operations, Residence Life, an Audio-Visual studio and other student support services. The Center also has conference rooms and meeting spaces for students to utilize throughout the year.

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