BAYLOR UNIVERSITY HURD WELCOME CENTER
The Hurd Welcome Center is the first impression that new and prospective students have when they visit the Baylor University campus. It also serves as a destination and workplace for alumni, faculty, and others in the Baylor community. The136,000-sf facility is designed to generate enthusiasm for Baylor’s culture and academic programs. The driver for the design was to create an emotional connection to Baylor when experiencing the space.
Agency
Practice Area
Client
Baylor University
Industry
The Challenge
The challenge for the experiential pillars at the Hurd Welcome Center was how to reflect the university’s exceptional academic offerings, rich culture and long-standing traditions in a way that connects to young prospective students in an exciting and relevant way. This had to be unique and stand out from other collegiate student welcome centers.
Project Vision
The vision for this project was to go beyond the typical exhibit experience and focus on immersive modes of storytelling to drive an emotional connection for all users of the space. These pillars incorporate the photo opportunities that young people expect, as well as dynamic media to keep each experience fresh. Focus on the user and their ability to immerse themselves in the Baylor experience supports this vision.
Matt Kocourek
Matt Kocourek
Design + Execution
The project was designed through a very collaborative process starting with visioning workshops with the client, charrettes between multi-disciplinary teams, and a significant amount of coordination between architects, interior designers, experiential designers, graphic designers, media developers, fabrication specialists, AV specialists, and many more. The high level concept design performed by Populous was followed by finding the right partners to help make the vision a concrete reality. Execution between the experiential and architectural needed to be seamless.
Matt Kocourek
Matt Kocourek
Matt Kocourek
Matt Kocourek
Matt Kocourek
Project Details
Design Team
Sherri Privitera (principal in charge)
Jeff Spear (lead architect)
Brooke Craig (project manager)
Shawn Sanem (lead experiential designer)
Nick Caprario (3D designer)
Populous (architecture)
Populous (landscape architecture)
Xibitz (physical fabrication)
Vaughn Construction (physical fabrication)
Richard Lewis Media Group (digital fabrication)
Collaborators
Electrosonic (av integration)
SNA Displays
Pixera
Smart Monkeys
Detailed Solutions
Photo Credits
Matt Kocourek
Open Date
August 2023