FSU Student Life Center

The Student Life Building, completed in 2000, contains approximately 52,500 square feet of usable space in a brick and concrete block skin. It houses several student organizations, a 450-seat movie theatre, a technology center, general student meeting facilities, student housing administrative offices, counseling services, food service and lounge areas. It provides state of the art facilities for a film theatre, a technology center with video conferencing capability, satellite down lines, and a computer lab. The development of the facility was based on the concept of combining many student services in one primary location while creating a cornerstone for future development in the area.

Consistent with general guidelines set forth by the University for the future quadrangle, EMI established hard “urban” edges along the north, south, and west faces of the site. An easterly extension of the northwestern wing of the building defines the north edge of an open exterior courtyard. This resulting space is intended to “inform” future development regarding the continuation of the desired spatial theme and the completion of the urban “piazza.” It also provides a more structured and organized urban space.

While the Student Life Building obviously incorporates elements characteristic of the Collegiate Gothic style, the architect deemed it important that the facility not mimic older buildings. The overall massing of the building reflects the general proportions of existing campus architecture, but it is clearly a contemporary product. It has a sharp-edged, finely detailed quality appropriate to the period that produced it. It is at this level that the building succeeds admirably. It combines the massing and detailing of an earlier time with a contemporary crispness and vitality that responds to its steeply sloping site and is complimentary to the overall environment.