Donna E. Shalala Student Center

Overview

The University of Miami’s Student Activities Center serves as a meeting place for student socializing and student organizations. The facility houses a food court, indoor / outdoor dining, a lounge, galleries, study spaces, a multipurpose room, conference rooms, a media center and a 400-seat auditorium.

We provided structural design services to Arquitectonica for the facility, which was completed in 2006.

Highlights

• The three-story structure, positioned less than five miles off of the coast of Florida, is located within one of the most severe hurricane zones in the United States.
• By engineering the lateral system to efficiently transfer the wind forces through the concrete moment frame and into the foundation system, student safety and building performance will be provided to resist extreme wind forces.
• We utilized Autodesk Revit for the creation of construction documents to visually identify potential constructability concerns as well as facilitate in-depth project coordination.
• The building was designed to achieve LEED certification.