Completed Project: Texas A&M University Engineering Activities Building

Ranked #7 among public engineering schools in the 2021 U.S. News & World Report, Texas A&M University's Dwight Look College of Engineering continues to provide the best learning environment for its' students. With more than 20,000 students enrolled across 15 engineering departments, the College has more than 20 buildings currently servicing engineering students and faculty. Several buildings have been renovated in order to meet the needs of the thriving program and its' students over the years, including more recently, the Zachry Engineering Building and the Engineering Activities Building (EAB).

In 2014, GLS was selected to be the design firm for Texas A&M University's Engineering Activities Buildings. Located on Lamar Street, both buildings A and C consist of a head house with three former greenhouses connected to the back of each building and building B consists of a head house connected to two former greenhouses. Altogether, the three buildings contain approximately 30,000 total square feet with about one-third of the space in the head buildings, and two-thirds of the space in greenhouse structures. The University wanted to temporarily re-purpose the buildings as offices and classrooms during the Zachry Engineering Building upgrades. The proposed design concept was to preserve the head houses but replace the existing greenhouses with new buildings.

GLS performed the following professional services for the project:

- Topographic/Design Survey

- Site/Civil Engineering Design

- MEP Design

- Architectural Design

- Structural Engineering

- Construction Administration

The project was completed in 2 phases: Demolition and Renovation/Addition. During the demolition phase, the existing foundation, concrete "short" walls, shingled roof and cupolas were selected to remain. Each head house was completely redesigned at the interiors to include offices, storage and restroom facilities, work rooms and multiple conference rooms. All of the existing windows were replaced with new energy efficient storefront windows and all mechanical equipment was replaced with new high efficiency HVAC systems.

The greenhouses were renovated to create new classrooms with four of the eight designed to accommodate 100 students and two designed to accommodate 50 students. The remaining 2 greenhouses were designed to accommodate administrative office space. All of the existing windows were replaced with new energy efficient storefront windows and all of the mechanical equipment was replaced with new high efficiency HVAC systems. New pre-engineered metal buildings were designed to replace the outdated greenhouses. The finishes were composed of large ribbon styled windows, horizontal metal siding and a standing seam roof system. Upon completion, the renovated Engineering Activities Buildings were intended to present an industrial image.

"Our engineering team has completed multiple projects for Texas A&M over the years. For the architectural team, the redesign of the EAB buildings was the first, large scale project, for our team to tackle that was located on the main campus. Having graduated from A&M, this presented an opportunity to give back to the University. The end result of the EAB project is an architectural impression that leaves a simple, but permanent expression of my teams design work for which they can be proud of." - Billy Ballow, Architect, Project Manager