The Secure Envelope

I recently toured the new business school on campus. Upon completion, it is looking to be a very public building with some of the resources going towards public interaction for whoever wants to use the space (a fire pit and café area will be open to the public, not just the students). While this raises many questions on who is paying for the building and the classes being took within the structure, that is not the point I am trying to make. There is, however, a very serious question of security.

The school is located in such close vicinity to Sikes Hall (the president of the university), Tillman Hall, and the Dean of the Business School, that security is going to be a larger concern than what the project managers were alluding to. As designers, it is always nice to say that the building will be entirely public, with social interaction happening at every level. Maybe at the university level, where money isn’t a problem but a resource, this isn’t such a large concern. Maybe it will be easy to install card readers in protected areas on campus, this will require very little architectural response from the building and the facade.