Educational Facility Design

“Learning never exhausts the mind.” – Leonardo da Vinci

The Syska Hennessy team designs K-12 schools, colleges, and universities that support teaching and learning in an amenity-rich environment. Our projects have included academic buildings, laboratories, student common areas, libraries, athletic facilities and performing arts centers for educational institutions, such as Avenues World School, New York City School Construction Authority, UCLA, Cornell University, Tufts University, Yale University, MIT and Fordham University.

Enabling Collaboration and Connectivity
To support collaboration spaces in student commons and academic buildings, we design mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, vertical transportation and architectural lighting systems. We also provide information and communications system design. For instance, we designed low-voltage infrastructure as part of the renovation of five floors of academic space in the Fordham University Lincoln Center campus to deliver technology, audiovisual and Internet connectivity, which greatly improving the academic experience.

Investing Wisely
Because our clients make capital investments to upgrade facilities, they rely on Syska to provide system designs that support current demand with built-in scalability and flexibility to accommodate for future technologies. We establish campus-wide information and communication technology (ICT) standards to link existing building operations systems with smart building platforms. These platforms deliver improved building operational efficiency and performance, along with substantial cost savings.

Campus Buildings as Teaching Tools
Our academic clients who focus on sustainable and high-performance design, such as the award-winning Cooper Union project, use their new academic buildings as student teaching labs for innovative engineering system approaches, such as displacement air and chilled-beam cooling and water conservation measures.

Palomar Community College, Maintenance & Operations Complex is a net-zero project encompasses 28,000 square feet across two buildings and replaces eight separate campus buildings. This design-build LEED Platinum and Living Building Petal certified facility is the most “green” or sustainable building ever built by the District. The building was designed to operate in a hybrid, mixed mode fashion, using natural ventilation with operable windows and thermal chimneys and extensive daylighting for passive operation suitable for the local climate, and active mode operation with an energy efficient VRF system and all-LED lighting that are powered by an on-site PV solar system delivering an energy positive performance.