Design Dream Comes True

College of Design student began taking advantage from the first day of classes of the new King Pavilion facilities.

It was always the dream of former College of Design Dean Emeritus Mark Engelbrecht that students from all design disciplines be integrated at the same location.

That dream had proved elusive as a number of students, including upper-level design students and first-year Core Design Program students had studio space not in the College of Design but rather just across campus at the Armory.

That "living arrangement " didn’t create the opportunity for interaction and collaboration that Engelbrecht and others in the College of Design sought.

"If you walk into the King Pavilion you can already see the energy that the facility is generating," said Dean Luis Rico-Gutierrez. "It has brought all of the imagination of the college together as our students have much more interaction with each other.

"Design is all about creativity and needs to be nurtured," he continued. "The new space provided by the King Pavilion is the right context at the right time for our students and faculty."

The King Pavilion was designed with that interaction in mind according to Mike Miller, College of Design manager of information technology. Miller served as the liaison for the college during the construction phase of the facility.

"We want our students to start thinking about interdisciplinary studies early in their careers," Miller said. "By housing them in the same place they share ideas with each other from day one."

The lower level of the King Pavilion will house Core Design Program and interior design students. These first-year classrooms are considered "hot board studios." Students will not have an assigned studio space but will rather occupy a desk just during their class time. There are 16 sections of 23 students each that will use that space during the fall. An additional three studios have been set aside on this level for upper-level students. A general critique area is also located on the lower level.

"There is no question that the King Pavilion will have a tremendous impact on the College of Design, including student learning, student and faculty recruitment as well as research and outreach activities," said Gregory L. Geoffroy, Iowa State president at the dedication ceremonies of the facility.

The upper level will feature "cold board studios" and will be assigned to upper-level students. Like the lower level, this part of the King Pavilion also features seven studios.

"The King Pavilion takes what was good about the Armory (the wide open spaces) and puts it into a facility that is climate controlled with much better lighting and closer proximity to the rest of the college," Miller said.

In addition to the new space the facility brings to the college, the King Pavilion is the first new "green" structure on the Iowa State campus. The building features exemplary energy-efficient and environmentally friendly techniques and was designed under the U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) guidelines.

"The most important thing about the pavilion is the sustainability design of the building itself," Rico-Gutierrez said. "The King Pavilion is an example to our faculty and students that the College of Design is walking the talk."

The $6.6 million King Pavilion was made possible because of more than $3.6 million in private support raised for the project during Campaign Iowa State: With Pride and Purpose. Of the just more than 2,000 individual donors, 1,673 are Iowa State alumni.

Alumni Steven and the late Barbara King provided the lead commitment of $1.5 million for the new facility. The Kings graduated from Iowa State in 1968 and later founded Landscape Structures, Inc., a children’s play equipment company that has continuously pioneered innovative products, processes and safety features.

The architectural firm RDG Planning designed the King Pavilion. The company has offices in Ames and Des Moines, Fort Meyers, Fla., and Omaha, Neb., and is led by several College of Design alumni.

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